THE ANIMAL ROOM

Linked short stories define a web of connections among neighbors, family members, and animals in suburban Connecticut.

Acampora explores humankind’s impact on the natural world in this collection of linked short stories. The cast is wide: There’s a belligerent hunter and former cop, a rescue-dog owner struggling with her mental health, an oil baron with a penchant for exotic animals, and a medical researcher considering the ethics of animal testing, just to name a few. The lesbian animal activists in “Proxy” debate the power dynamics of their marriage as they settle into middle age. In “Tank,” a young mother finds solace in building a basement aquarium while her troubled 6-year-old son exhibits unusual incidents of red-pilled violence. And in “Pack,” the collection’s recurring avatar of toxic masculinity loses control of his trained German shepherd during a security incident at an outdoor concert. Throughout each of the 13 stories, characters disregard or misinterpret the facts of their lives in favor of the stories they believe to be true—one of the most human qualities there is. While stories like “Proxy” and “Tank” are unsettling, strange, and provocative, Acampora is not working at her best here. Perhaps the collection never reaches an incisive level of satire because it’s difficult to write from political and social positions one disdains. The point of view tends to flatten characters rather than illuminate inner lives that are rich and three-dimensional. Then again, at a time when major media outlets regularly publish stylish profiles of “alt-right” figureheads, one of Acampora’s points may be that it’s dangerous to imbue shallow or even hateful politics with too much credibility. Either way, the social commentary of this collection doesn’t land as successfully as in her older work, which navigates the political and the uncanny with more nuance and depth.

An uneven collection with the occasional gem.