Spectacle: Stories
In a voice that is both edgy and sardonic, and with a style that is spare and often unconventional, Steinberg links the experiences of young women contending with age-old problems of love, abandonment, grief, and destruction. “Superstar” rocks the collection’s opening in a tale of unrequited love gone wrong, while in the closing “Universal,” she demonstrates the consequences of confusing lust for love. In between, Steinberg tackles the death of an unloved parent in “Cowboys” and “Cowgirl” and presents the degradation of domestic abuse in “Underthings.” None of these subjects make for easy reading, but in Steinberg’s agile hands, the potent telling is more than worth the potential discomfort. Steinberg’s heroines are a fiercely introspective and reflexively bold lot, and their personal dilemmas are vibrantly communicated through narratives delivered with both staccato briskness and stream-of-consciousness languor. As they stagger helplessly through gritty urban landscapes or dance exuberantly past stealthy emotional minefields, Steinberg’s women offer an idiosyncratic yet thoroughly recognizable take on contemporary relationships. --Carol Haggas