I began Short Story September with two remarkably similar collections – Other People We Married by Emma Straub and Middle-Aged Boys & Girls by Diane Bracuk.

Both collections focus on the complexities of adult relationships. Of the two, Bracuk’s is slightly grittier, with twelve stories covering themes including body image, power imbalances and fraught dating experiences.

The opening story in Bracuk’s collection, Shadow Selves, explores the friendship between two women – one comfortable in her ‘overweight’ body and the other, slimmer woman, inherently insecure.

Our common bond was that we were both late bloomers. Overcomers of great psychological obstacles.

Bracuk’s writing is terrific in parts – observant and funny –

The two of us at 50, spinsters, still living in this building, my place becoming shabbier, yours belligerently brighter as dictated by psychics. And you still parading around nude, steely grey public hair bristling between your thunder thighs like cut electrical wires.

Also good was the story Dirty Laundry, about a couple who rent the flat attached to their house to a young woman. The man in the couple steals the tenant’s underwear. It’s an uncomfortable and well-written story.

Equally uncomfortable is Valentine, about a divorced mother who discovers that her teenage daugjhter has taken raunchy photos of herself. The mother realises that she has lost control of her life and relationships –

Yet wasn’t that the great lie about healing… Sometimes it didn’t mean getting well at all. Sometimes it meant adjusting to another kind of pain.

Straub’s collection on the other hand, is far more ‘suburban’ and predictable, with the twelve stories focused on intimate relationships.

The standout by far was Puttanesca, about a young woman, Laura, widowed, who is in a relationship with a fellow widower, Stephen. They have been set-up by their grief therapist (note: this would never happen in real life – not by a therapist who had any ethics, anyway!) and have been muddling along in a relationship for some time. The story takes place in Rome, where the woman had previously holidayed with her first husband – comparisons are inevitable. It’s a very subtle but accurate examination of pure and disenfranchised grief, and both Laura and Stephen think about their first spouses, and the difficulty in living up to someone whose life was cut short (Laura’s husband suffered a slow death, while Stephen’s wife died suddenly).

Jane, the blond, the good, the dead, had gone quickly. This was a dangerous patch of ice they sometimes skated across, too thin to support their combined weight. “Better to be hit by a bus,” she said. “Then all anyone can remember is how gorgeous you were, how effervescent and funny…” 

Laura goes on to compare her experience of being a widow with women older than her –

…she didn’t know what they were complaining about, these old women who’d had entire lives with their husbands, babies, babies who’d had babies. All she had were some poems he’d written in college, his books, his clothes, a few years and his early death.

Regardless of how long you have with someone you love, it’s never enough.

Equally good was another story about a widower, Marjorie and the Birds.

After her husband died, Marjorie took up hobbies, lots of them, just to see what stuck. She went on a cruise with widows and widowers, which was awful for everyone except the people who hadn’t really loved their spouses to begin with.

Both stories conclude with a glimpse to the future, and how people adapt around their grief. But these were the high points in what was otherwise a fairly ordinary collection.

Next up for me for Short Story September is the always wonderfully weird Ottessa Moshfegh, with her collection, Homesick for Another World.

Straub – 2.5/5
Bracuk – 3/5