What's Important Is Feeling: Stories
This collection of 12 short stories follows Wilson’s critically acclaimed first novel, Flatscreen (2012). First-person narrators tell of ambition, personal failure, and loss. People die, jobs are lost, and dreams dissolve under the grind of daily life. Many of the stories are set in New York City and the Boston area, but one, the hilarious “What’s Important Is Feeling,” comments on the culture clash between L.A. types on a film shoot and the contemptuous Texas oil-field workers who surround them. Wilson’s use of language can be ironic and satiric, sometimes sparkling with humor even as it stabs at the peculiarities of American culture (in “The Long In-Between,” a young woman comes to Manhattan, which she describes as having “New York’s immutable infrastructure. No matter how high you climbed, there would always be someone above you”). And since Wilson often describes the lives of teens, college students (and dropouts), and new professionals, drugs, sex, and profane language lend verisimilitude to the narration. Irony and strong writing make this an excellent addition to short story collections. --Ellen Loughran