To fill a plane ride or the half hour between classes when you can't bear to look at one more homework assignment open "The Book of Other People" edited by Zadie Smith. Indulging in one story might lead to two or three, especially if you are lying prostrate on the Quad in between the still-wintry breezes.
The collection of short stories is written by the cutting edge of the literary scene including Jonathan Safran Foer, George Saunders, David Mitchell, Nick Hornby, and ZZ Packer. It is an astute variety of strange, lovely, and evocative stories.
The impetus for the collection was to benefit 826 New York, an organization founded to encourage the creative development of writers ages six to 18. The only criteria for the authors were to invent someone and to use him, her, or it as the title.
The result is an odd bunch. Some are forlorn, some are endearing, some are delusional, and a few are creatures. The stories are quick peeks into a reality that lasts only a few pages.
The wide variety keeps the reader anticipating the next writer's contortions and is a reminder of the smorgasbord of life that is available to be sampled.
Jonathan Letham's "Perkus Tooth" is a study of contentment through coffee, Jackson Hole burgers, and obscure films. Perkus is a bizarre character who it is easy to believe exists. The prospect is both thrilling and a little scary. It is hard to decide if you want his odd life or if he is so weird don't want him to even be.
My favorite is the wonderfully plausible and somewhat romantic story by Miranda July. The narrator meets "Ron Spivey," which is the alias of a celebrity who "is a Hollywood heart-throb who is married to a starlet." On a cross-country flight, the two strike up an uncommon bond and though she sees him only in 2-D from then on, a secret of their aerial friendship remains a sustaining force in her life.
There are comics, monsters, and puppies that jump off these pages. In some, the sadness of human connection is unbearable; in others the tenderness with which the misunderstandings are rendered inspire a new love for the foibles of humanity.
The authors in this collection play with different voices in these stories, which are not anchored by the prospect of a full collection or the pressure of becoming a novel. The abbreviated format allows for experimentation and brings forth a pleasurable contrast to the work that precedes the stories or is yet to come.
Whether this is a first introduction to these writers' talent or a faithful tracking of their careers, the stories in "The Book of Other People" are sure to be a pleasure.