You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld (Netgalley Review)

You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House (April 24, 2018)
Description from the publisher:

Throughout the ten stories in You Think It, I’ll Say It, Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. In “The World Has Many Butterflies,” married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences. In “Vox Clamantis in Deserto,” a shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate’s seemingly enviable life. In “A Regular Couple,” a high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. And in “The Prairie Wife,” a suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie.

With moving insight and uncanny precision, Curtis Sittenfeld pinpoints the questionable decisions, missed connections, and sometimes extraordinary coincidences that make up a life. Indeed, she writes what we’re all thinking—if only we could express it with the wit of a master satirist, the storytelling gifts of an old-fashioned raconteur, and the vision of an American original.

Curtis Sittenfeld is an auto-read author for me. I didn't even read the blurb from the publisher until just now and, yes, You Think It, I'll Say It is all of the above. She is MASTERFUL. I think this just tied with Prep for my favorite of her books.

Short stories are not usually my jam. I love great plot, and I feel that short stories can be unsatisfying in that regard and oftentimes abrupt. Leave it to Sittenfeld to change my tune about short story collections. Each story is certainly self contained, yet there is an underlying similarity that underpins them all. She examines the minutiae of everyday life and our inner turmoils and turns the ordinary into extraordinary with her unique brand of crazy storytelling. Most of the narratives revolve around women in their early 40s (my and Sittenfeld's age) and are so identifiable to me, but should really be to anyone. She tells some stories from the man's perspective, reminisces about high school love and politics, newlywed dynamics, first babies, and even a trip to summer camp run the gamut of experiences that will probably spark a feeling of empathy from any reader. Until they are NOT empathetic - characters id's and ego's start to go off the rails and she examines them in a deliciously scandalous way. I couldn't put it down! From stories about college friends, one night stands, social media woes, mommy wars, she touches on all things we can relate to and then takes them in such unexpected ways.

I am praying that she comes to Seattle on book tour so that I can get myself a signed copy and ask how many ideas germinated from real life experiences. Though the stories are completely strange, they appear to fall into the stranger than fiction category. Did she meet a lifelong friend in a lactation group? 'Bad Latch' was one of my favorites and I love how the dynamic of female friendship felt so real. Did she ever interview a celebrity ingenue? 'Off the Record' seems like a celebrity blind story. Does she know something about The Pioneer Woman that we don't know? 'The Prairie Wife' feels like a fun and shocking fictional take of such a celebrity.
If I haven't made it abundantly clear, this book is phenomenal and you should run right out and get it for some stellar summer reading. Thank you SO MUCH to Random House and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review!