Single, Carefree, Mellow: Stories

In these stories, the characters are not moral. They don’t even ponder the choices they make to have adulterous affairs as much as Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw did. They want what they want and proceed, damn the consequences. In contrast to the title of these stories, the characters are often not single or carefree, let alone mellow. Heiny’s characters are narcissistic at best and a little sociopathic at times. They seek out sensation for its own sake with little worry about their partners or their lover’s partners. Through this device, the reader is left to worry about them. In The Rhett Butlers, the reader will inordinately worry about the seventeen-year-old girl having an affair with Mr. Eagleton, her teacher. Mr. Eagleton is such a user that he demotes her grade to a B so that no one will suspect his favoritism. In the title story, when Maya’s dog is dying she lusts after the veterinarian even though she has been with Rhodes for five years. These are not admirable characters, but they are, in fact, interesting and well written. This is a perfect beach book.