Show Don't Tell

Susan Midalia's Review 

I’m a big fan of American author Curtis Sittenfeld’s novels. My favourites include American Wife, centred on Laura Bush, wife of President George Bush Junior; and Rodham, which imagines the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton had she decided to not marry Bill. What makes both novels such a pleasure to read is Sittenfeld’s sympathetic understanding of complex female characters, as well as her lucid prose, a gift for pathos and her lively sense of humour. These same qualities inform her new book Show Don’t Tell; and as someone with a passion for the short story form, I was delighted by each of the twelve stories in Sittenfeld’s second collection. 

The title of Sittenfeld’s new book is the advice typically given to aspiring writers: respect the readers’ intelligence by suggesting your meanings instead of telling readers what to think. While this advice should never become a universal rule – after all, ‘telling’ can offer readers valuable insights – it’s also the case that using subtlety and suggestion allows readers the freedom to work out possible meanings for themselves. This is one of the great strengths of Sittenfeld’s stories: their refusal to be reduced to a simple, easily digestible ‘message’ by revealing instead the messiness and mystery of other people, as well as of ourselves. 

The opening titular story is a case in point. ‘Show Don’t Tell’ charts the anxieties of a young woman enrolled in the prestigious (and real) Iowa Writers’ Workshop, who is also embroiled in ongoing hostilities with a neighbour. Two pivotal moments – and short stories typically remind us of the crucial importance in our lives of moments – offer occasions for reflection rather than telling us what to think. The first is the neighbour’s disclosure of a painful experience from her past: a poignant reminder, perhaps, of how quickly we make uninformed judgements about other people. The second moment, featured in a flashforward twenty years later, acts as a meditation of the nature of ambition, fame and the passing of time. The story ‘White Women LOL’ is similarly suggestive, gradually and subtly revealing as it does the thoughtlessly racist assumptions of a privileged white woman. 

My favourite story in the collection is ‘The Marriage Clock,’ for its combination of sly humour and a probing exploration of what makes for an enduring marriage. Is the advice to not “engage in any form of self-grooming in front of your spouse that you wouldn’t perform in the boarding gate of an airport” enough to save a faltering marriage? Is the advice to husbands to “not practice self-gratification more than once a week” and to wives to “not decline physical passion more than once a week” enough to maintain a healthy sex life? The story cunningly combines a satire of self-help manuals with serious reflection on the possibility of fidelity and trust in a relationship.

With one exception, Show Don’t Tell centres on middle-aged female characters and/or narrators often caught up in questioning their lives and identity. Combining sardonic humour and empathy, these character-driven stories about both high-flying and ‘ordinary’ women also raise provocative questions about race, class and gender while scrupulously avoiding ‘lecturing’ the reader about the factors that make up who we are or who we might become. A thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking collection, now available in the Lane Bookshop.

Publisher's Review 

Dazzling new story collection from the prize-nominated Sunday Times bestselling author of Romantic Comedy, American Wife and You Think It, I'll Say It.

YOUR NEXT READ FROM THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of ROMANTIC COMEDY, PREP and AMERICAN WIFE

'Messy and delicious' - New York Times

'Sittenfeld is in a league of her own' - Guardian

'One of my favourite authors' - Kate Atkinson

'Anything Sittenfeld writes, we'll read' - People

'No-one else writes with such precision and amusement' - Red Magazine

Razor-sharp, glittering tales exploring marriage, fame and female friendship, from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of Romantic Comedy and American Wife.

In this compulsive collection of twelve witty stories, Sittenfeld shows why she's as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels, as she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends.

In 'The Patron Saints of Middle Age,' a woman visits two friends she hasn't seen since her divorce. In 'A for Alone,' a married artist embarks on a project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can't spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in 'Lost but Not Forgotten,' Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a new window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an awkward school reunion.

Witty, confronting and full of tenderness, Sittenfeld peels back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.

READERS CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CURTIS SITTENFELD

'Small windows into modern life and as such highly entertaining. Curtis, you're a star!'

'Sittenfeld understands women so well, it's like having someone look straight into your soul'

'Devoured! You'll recognise yourself and others in these pages'