MY DATE WITH SATAN: Stories
Breathe a sigh of relief at the appearance of Stacey Richter, a hip,  pop culture-obsessed fiction writer who actually knows what she's doing. A lot of "buzz" surrounds her first collection,My Date with Satan, and she was hailed by theVoice Literary Supplementas a "writer on the verge," but Richter is much more than the flavor of the month. Her prose bristles with humor and sadness, and her characters are true originals: an ex Teen Idol ("The Ocean"), a member of a Swedish heavy-metal band ("Goal 666"), a girl who desperately wants to be a Cat Lady ("Rats Eat Cats"). In this last story the 21-year-old narrator can't wait to get old in an apartment overtaken by felines:I would constantly wear the same sweater, and maybe a synthetic wig. I'd have several litter boxes in my apartment, and this litter would be changed infrequently. I would receive either welfare or social security and spent most (if not all) of these public moneys on cat food.... Cat hair would be embedded in my sweater. It would almost appear that my sweater wasmadeof cat hair.Richter's characters are often pathetic or blind to themselves, but the author never condescends; writing solely in first person, she masterfully captures the private logic and language of her narrators. They are like messengers from an overlooked world, telling us stories we somehow need to know. In this way Richter reminds me of Eudora Welty, who also invested small, outcast characters with poetry, humor, grace.My Date with Satanestablishes Richter as a talent to be reckoned with. She writes like a discoverer who has found the country she's been looking for.--Emily White--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.