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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jun 2001, 208 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2002, 208 pages
Potently witty, neurotic and nervy, this debut collection about sex and the single girl is smart, sharp-tongued and delightfully addictive, and marks the arrival of an irresistible new voice in fiction.
Potently witty, neurotic and nervy, Come Up and See Me Sometime marks the arrival of an irresistible new voice in fiction. Erika Krouse's debut story collection about sex and the single girl is smart, sharp-tongued and delightfully addictive.
The thirteen stories in this collection are linked by a common theme: the main characters are all young, childless, geographically and emotionally nomadic women who are searching for self-knowledge and satisfaction in the face of the vicissitudes of single life.
In Krouse's able hands, each of these agile stories manages to cull universal truth from idiosyncratic experience and delirious humor out of deepest pathos. "The Fast" is about a woman who seeks power, independence and immunity from heartbreak through a brief flirtation with a latte diet. "Drugs and You" is the story of an innocent woman who hits a heroin addict with her car and falls blindly in love. In "My Weddings," a woman nearing thirty relates a lifetime of attending nuptials, none of them her own.
Mae West, pop culture's original Liberated Woman, is the ingenious guiding spirit of the collection. Her famous quips -- "Peel me a grape," "Come up and see me sometime," "I used to be Snow White but I drifted" -- stand as both complement and telling counterpoint to the lives of Krouse's diverse characters. These are smart, searching, quick-witted women who may strive for the unflappable sass and self-sufficiency of a Mae West, but more often fall prey to their own anxieties.
Erika Krouse's perfect comic timing and dead-on one-liners lend levity to each story, and ultimately these seemingly everyday experiences become sly riffs on common fears of loneliness and isolation. Come Up and See Me Sometime is a delightful, thought-provoking and consistently surprising read.
Contents
The Husbands
There was a time I didn't know where my next husband was coming from.
- Mae West
I like to sleep with other women's husbands. I try not to like this. It's not the healthy thing to do, either mentally or hygienically. I see a shrink. I see a gynecologist. But then I sleep with the husbands anyway.
I started big, with my own sister's husband, Patrick. Sarah had always been the stupider one, the uglier one, and the one who lost her virginity first. It's like I couldn't let her get away with that one. The first time I slept with Patrick, I seduced him in a bathroom at a party. I walked in while he was standing at the toilet.
I slept with my best friend's husband. Norton. This did not make me feel like a woman. I slept with...
Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish and Ray in Reverse
Erika Krouse's stories about men and women and all the trouble they cause each other are painfully accurate, relentlessly hopeful and amazingly funny. Emily Wortis Leider, author of the biography Becoming Mae West
Erika Krouse invokes the free-spirited sass of Mae West by setting off each short story in her promising debut collection with a Mae West quip. Like her muse, Krouse focuses on savvy, sexy women who need loving, but need their autonomy more. Propelled by mordant wit, and an honesty that can sting, these gripping stories sometimes veer into dark territory. Their compressed intensity explodes on impact. Jennifer Egan, author of The Invisible Circus
In Come Up and See Me Sometime, Erika Krouse makes an intelligent, dreamily off-kilter debut and manages the tricky feat of moving the reader without indulging in a single moment of sentimentality. Margot Livesey, author of Criminals and The Missing World
Erika Krouse's dazzling debut is full of the best kinds of heroines witty, spirited, always ready to take a chance on love, or the next best thing. A lovely collection, bright with humor and unexpected wisdom. Percival Everett, author of Glyph and Watershed
These stories are smart, funny and unexpected. There is surprising range here. The patience of the work is beautiful, allowing full appreciation of the craft without calling attention to it. Stacey Richter, author of My Date with Satan
Erika Krouse's prose is fresh and inventive, bursting with wit and oddball charm. Whether her characters are looking at the light at the end of the tunnel or just looking at the tunnel itself, these tales of women searching for love and connection are deft, moving and acutely funny. Reading this book is a bit like finding yourself seated next to a fascinating guest at a stuffy dinner party a wonderful, unexpected delight.
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