Sex Romp Gone Wrong

In the 12 poignant and humorous stories of her debut collection, Julia Ridley Smith's women experience romance, motherhood, friendship, and more. Sex Romp Gone Wrong is wildly entertaining and profoundly thoughtful.

In the titular story, a woman longs for a second baby and plans a rendezvous with her husband at a convention hotel, while their teenage daughter flirts with danger in the hotel bar. Both encounters are suspenseful, yet Smith (The Sum of Trifles) resolves the plot lines with humor. In "Don't Breathe, Breathe," a woman heeds these instructions during a mammogram before driving to an oceanside weekend party for her friend's 50th birthday. There, the same coping phrase gets her through sharing painful stories of early sexual encounters "with these filter-less people with no sense of privacy."

Smith explores a complex story of friendship and motherhood in "Flown," when a relationship between two teenagers highlights the estrangement of their mothers. "Hot Lesbian Vampire Magic School," written as director's notes, juxtaposes a dramatic love story with stage directions, an entertaining vision of two vampires in "a doomed relationship" of cape-twirling and sensuous music before the pragmatic denouement of one student transferring schools. Although the settings of most stories aren't specific, Smith, who lives in North Carolina, effectively references the American South, such as with a character in "Damn It, Damn It, Damn It" who says "chimbley" and "barfoot," as well as the woman driving to the coast who notes that "the radio disintegrated into nothing but static and Jesus." These witty tales vary widely, but each offers credible characters whose entertaining escapades beg repeated reads. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.

Powered by: Xtenit