The Safety of Objects

In a series of skillfully constructed short stories, A. M. Homes has unveiled with great élan the frightening underside of suburbia. The characters run the gamut from a disappointed pedophile to a lascivious obese girl, from a responsible mother gone wild on a weekend away from her children to a teen boy who becomes strangely attracted to his sister's Barbie. However, revealing any more about these stories would be unseemly, as the degenerate twists are part of their seductive powers. Despite the shocking premises, the basic situations and feelings evoked are often universal - making this book a somewhat uneasy read. The reader does not want to identify with these characters, but Homes, with laser-like precision, forces the reader to just such apperception. Reading "Safety of Objects" left me alternately paralyzed with laughter and oddly nauseous - a true mark of genius! This book is the first I've read by Homes, but I'm already eagerly anticipating the next.

A.M. Home's Safety of Objects, is disturbing, and yet has you begging for more. These short stories are like not like any others you've read. Bravo to Ms. Homes and her imagination. You will not be able to put this one down, and will hate when the you come to the last page. It's a wonderfully different book with a number of subjects and stories sure to have you in histerics or on the edge of your seat.

Beautiful and arresting, the stories in this collection look at the world sideways and from that vantage point show us much that we try to repress. Ms. Homes has an original way of expressing the ineffable disatisfaction many of us can smell in the suburbs but have a hard time expressing. These stories are a triumph of contemporary North American literature.

Tight, well-written short stories about contemporary life. A unique, compelling new voice in fiction.