Instant Love

by: Jami Attenberg

Published by: Shaye Areheart Books

By Kathy Perschmann, Chanhassen (MN) Librarian

Jami Attenberg is a journalist who has published short stories.

Instant Love, a collection of love stories, and "ending of" love stories, is cleverly interconnected. The principal characters are Maggie and her sister Holly, and Melanie and Sarah Lee; and their assorted boyfriends, conquests, one-night stands, and husbands. Maggie and Holly's father, a famous author, is in one of the stories.

The stories jump from character to character, many not repeated; and are told from various points of view. They drift though relationships, marriages, and friendships, trying to connect with other human beings, and most often failing.

Incredibly real vignettes of life--like putting on makeup at age 17 and making out for the first time on a leather couch; working as a waitress in a country club with obnoxious customers; and a woman who visits a friend who has left her husband, and coming home to an empty house because her husband has left her.

Sad without being maudlin or pathetic; dark without being despairing or oppressive, Attenberg reflects the disjointed attempts at communicating and connecting in this age of Internet dating and first dates in noisy bars.

Attenberg has been compared to Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood; she is definitely a writer to watch. This might make an interesting book club choice; it would be intriguing to see how readers of different ages react to the book.

Armchair Interviews says: So-real stories that anyone can relate to.