GIRLS OF A CERTAIN AGE

Young women eye their futures with the practiced skepticism of people who have already seen far too much.

The stories in Adelmann’s debut collection feature women and girls adrift in the world. From broken homes, broken relationships, broken senses of their own identities, the narrators of these stories explore worlds marked by a bleak sense of anonymity—in these largely urban tales, all faces seem to be faces in the crowd. Many of the stories capture their narrators' inner monologues in a way that is both believable and illuminating. In “Pets Are for Rich Kids,” Ashley’s friendship with the gratingly precocious Willa is marked by the inequalities of their social situations. Willa is the pampered daughter of wealthy parents who buy her pets to teach her lessons about responsibility and, inevitably, power while Ashley is the child of a struggling newly single mother who can't understand why no one else sees “how dumb it [is] that the things you [are] supposed to love are always running away or dying.” Willa tries to teach Ashley not to be so “callous” by giving her the unasked-for responsibility of a guinea pig, and the resulting conflict between the girls focuses on the dynamics of real rage and performative kindness. Similarly, “Middlemen,” another standout piece, explores the narrator’s relationship with her roommate, Grace, the pampered daughter of emotionally abusive parents, who instigates a sexual aspect to their friendship—but only when someone else is looking. Many of the narrators are in the middle of what seem likely to be their lives’ defining crises. There is a young wife who has run over her abusive husband’s dog (“The Replacements”); a young wife whose husband is leaving to go to war (“How To Wait”); and a lonely 20-something, set adrift by trauma, looking for solace in too much alcohol and too many women (“Human Bonding”). The similarity among the subjects can sometimes overwhelm the experience of reading the individual pieces. But when read independently, the stories linger, clearly illuminated by their artistry, honesty, and pervasive courage.

A strong debut from a writer who probes the inner lives of her female subjects with both purpose and humor.