RAGE & OTHER CAGES

LaBrie’s collection of misanthropic short stories offers meditations on death, dying, grief, and organ donation.

These stories contemplate and analyze the human condition from a somewhat depressive perspective. The author speaks to a variety of contemporary topics, from the perils of dating and loneliness (as in “The Double Negative Boyfriend,” “I Know What You Want to Do,” and “Advice to the Love Loin”) to melancholic interpretations of topics such as motherhood (“Feral”) and body image (“Pygmalion, Before and After: A Weight Loss Journey”), to contemporary human-pet relationships (“Feral,” “Animal Shelter,” and “How to get rid of an elderly dog”). Each story is deliciously heartbreaking and rich in lonesome imagery; most captivating is a too-brief series of seemingly related, though never explicitly linked, tales exploring the experiences of nurses, grieving families, and transplant coordinators. The first in the sequence is “What We Learned,” which details a list of more granular tasks expected of nurses (“how to start a catheter, how to handle hypothermia to avoid amputation, how to stay alert with handsy doctors, how to buy work shoes that won’t raise blisters on your heels, how to nap while standing”). This list evolves and overflows into “Rage,” in which a nurse at an eating disorder clinic must cope with the stress of working with profoundly ill patients, and rein in her tendency toward anger and gallows humor. The end describes an altercation between the protagonist and an unstable man on a subway car; the book seamlessly transitions into “The Eyes Stay,” a story told from the perspective of a grieving mother whose son has just passed from traumatic brain injury. The focus effectively shifts to the transplant coordinator and her compatriots in the following two stories. Though brief, this segment of the book shines as a compelling glimpse into medical care, mortality, and the grieving process: It’s cathartic while maintaining LaBrie’s characteristic wit and irony.

Exemplary storytelling that grapples with important themes.