Come Up and See Me Sometime: Stories

In Krouse's able hands, each of these agile stories manages to cull universal truth from idiosyncratic experience and delirious humor out of deepest pathos. "The Fast" is about a woman who seeks power, independence and immunity from heartbreak through a brief flirtation with a latte diet. "Drugs and You" is the story of an innocent woman who hits a heroin addict with her car and falls blindly in love. In "My Weddings," a woman nearing thirty relates a lifetime of attending nuptials, none of them her own.

Mae West, pop culture's original Liberated Woman, is the ingenious guiding spirit of the collection. Her famous quips — "Peel me a grape," "Come up and see me sometime," "I used to be Snow White but I drifted" — stand as both complement and telling counterpoint to the lives of Krouse's diverse characters. These are smart, searching, quick-witted women who may strive for the unflappable sass and self-sufficiency of a Mae West, but more often fall prey to their own anxieties.

Erika Krouse's perfect comic timing and dead-on one-liners lend levity to each story, and ultimately these seemingly everyday experiences become sly riffs on common fears of loneliness andisolation. "Come Up and See Me Sometime" is a delightful, thought-provoking and consistently surprising read.