Games and rituals : stories /

Heiny's (Early Morning Risers, 2021) distinctive story collection portrays varied characters navigating shifts in their lives and relationships, from the disquiet of unrequited love to the shock of infidelity. In "CobRa," William's wife, Rachel, becomes fixated on the business of tidying up their house. As Rachel moves through different phases of the process, William is at first amused, then increasingly uneasy as his wife's new obsession exposes long-held assumptions. In the title tale, a young couple's relationship is tested against the grittiness of New York City, where the two have landed after graduating college. In other tales, characters are faced with uncomfortable realities or consequences of their actions. The timely "Pandemic Behavior" follows Daphne during the height of the pandemic lockdown. Plagued with migraines, she starts an unconventional Zoom relationship with her neurologist while trying to make ends meet after losing her job. When Marlee wears an old bridesmaid's dress to work as a joke in "Bridesmaid, Revisited," she finds herself unexpectedly confronting a troubling moment from her past. Poignant and searching, Heiney's collection strikes emotions and realizations head on.

Heiny's funny and touching collection (after Early Morning Riser) finds drama and disruption in the everyday. "Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented" follows a DMV driving examiner who crushes on a coworker, then makes a shocking choice after she's rejected. In "Turn Back, Turn Back," a woman's delicate balancing of her career, motherhood, and her marriage is undone by a strange charge on her credit card. The clever title story, broken down into vignettes, centers on a young woman who makes up games to play with her friends and boyfriend. One, "The Relationship Game," involves people-watching on the subway and speculating about the lives of strangers. "CobRa," an unsettling riff on the Marie Kondo craze, portrays a man's growing anxiety during his wife's enthusiastic decluttering, which prompts him to fear he no longer makes her happy and "she would give him to Goodwill." The sharp "Bridesmaid, Revisited" examines the reasons behind a woman's choice to wear an outrageous bridesmaid dress to work. There are a few misses, such as "Sky Bar," which runs on contrivances involving two women whose flights are delayed during a snowstorm and the men who pick them up. For the most part, Heiny's keen observations put a shine on these everyday comedies. Agent: Kimberly Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (Apr.)

Eleven stories exploring love, relationships, and occasionally regrettable behavior. After having written two novels focusing on lovably quirky young women--Standard Deviation (2017) and Early Morning Riser (2021)--Heiny returns to the short story format in which she distinguished herself with her debut, Single, Carefree, Mellow (2015). Here again, Heiny approaches her disarmingly charming characters with tenderness, empathy, and humor, even (perhaps, especially) when they meander outside the bounds of good behavior. Lighthearted and amusing yet deeply resonant, these stories offer sly insights about human connection and can, in the space of a single sentence, take your breath away. In "Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented," which captures the curiosities of office culture, driving examiner Colette falls for a handsome co-worker. "Damascus" tells the story of Mia and her teenage son, Gordey, whom she suspects of drug use despite his "kind and gentle nature," exploring the complicated terrain of motherhood and maturity. "Twist and Shout" begins with Ericka's cranky elderly father confusing "his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew" and eating it--"He's not even supposed to be eating cashews! He has high blood pressure!" she laments--and ends with a breathtaking twist. And "CobRa" tracks the response of William, a middle-aged stockbroker, to Rachel, his wife, as, on the brink of empty-nesthood, she single-mindedly declutters their family home--à la tidiness maven Marie Kondo--in pursuit of life-changing magic. "This was not the beginning of William's realizing he no longer sparked joy," Heiny writes, "but a continuation." For anyone who has similarly fallen under Kondo's spell and spent weeks shedding possessions and folding T-shirts into adorable little packets, this story will spark immediate recognition. And for Heiny fans and those just discovering her naughty, generous-spirited fiction, this collection is bound to spark considerable joy. It's a keeper. With this irresistibly amusing, bighearted collection, Heiny again proves she is a master of the short story form. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.