Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money

A really good movie leaves you with "emotional thought hangover." After you read short stories in Twenty Grand by Rebecca Curtis, you will have "readers emotional thought hangover." Her stories will have your mind twisted and your stomach empty and your lungs breathless-I am not kidding! She takes you for the best ride ever. And that after thought will last.

These are some of the strangest and bravest stories I have read. They completely broke my heart. There is so much honesty, anger, and compassion here. The characters are very compelling and Curtis brings them to such dangerous places, I could not stop reading--in that way, the book felt more like a novel than stories. And the writing is fantastic--funny, surprising, sad. Clearly a writer of exceptional talent.

It's been some time since I've been this excited by a contemporary fiction writer. I found myself reading my favorite parts out loud to my wife, then reading them over myself. Years ago, there used to be an expression about Raymond Carver's fiction--"Carver Country." Curtis's characters are pickled in the same wonderfully bleak atmosphere (wonderful for the reader, that is, who doesn't have to be the one tortured by two blonde twins, or hit on by a coke-sniffing chef, or stalked by a would-be one night stand). Whether it's the heartbreaking ending of "Hungry Self" or the completely unexpected turn that "The Alpine Slide" takes, this is the kind of fiction that keeps you up reading at 1.a.m. I think Curtis is the best short story writer in America today, and hopefully this collection will give her the attention she deserves.

Some of these characters are heartbreaking. The Sno Kone Kart protagonist and the stepfather in The Witches did a number on me.

Just get it. You will laugh. Maybe you will cry (if you do that sort of thing). Definitely you will be touched. And you will enjoy reading this fabulous collection. My faves: Wolf At the Door, The Witches, The Sno-Kone Cart. But you can pick your own - so get it and read and escape for a day.