Circling the Drain: Stories

Davis debuts with this often exciting but uneven collection of 15 stories, offering glimpses of women struggling, often in vain, against the magnetic pull of bad men and low self-esteem. At times Davis's prose displays an elegant acumen; elsewhere, it relies unconvincingly on social and literary conventions: ""women [are] dormant until rescued by powerful strangers like the cowboy, who appeared to them with magic kisses... to wake them from their sleepy lives."" Except that the cowboys are no heroes. Rather, they are con artists, arsonists, philanderers, and often absent. In one of the strongest stories, ""Red Lights Like Laughter,"" a couple stuck in a hotel room during a blizzard seem ordinary until the violent tumult they are running from is revealed. Davis beautifully contrasts the freezing weather and the stuffy, shabby room with the narrator's conflicting emotions for her charming, murderous boyfriend. In ""The Very Moment They're About,"" a sliver of time is cherished on the last night of camp as a teenage couple experience the fading moments of their childish innocence. Davis can aptly illuminate the mysterious connection between men and women, but she also tends to resort to the clich of the woman scorned. In the title story, a woman finds her actor boyfriend in bed with a man, so she jumps off the Williamsburg Bridge, because ""there was nowhere to go,"" a sentiment that resurfaces often. Most of the female narrators are frustratingly dependent on controlling men who remain inscrutable to the reader. ""Chase"" is a self-conscious, overwrought fable about a girl who kills a boy's horse to redirect his love to herself. ""Faith, or Tips for the Successful Young Lady,"" however, is a magnificently haunting tale, interspersed with Miss Manners-type guidance, about a formerly overweight teenager who cannot eradicate her demons until the image of her former self stops (literally) following her around. This story showcases Davis's talent, holding out promises of an interesting career for this new author once she settles into a stronger, more confident literary voice. Author tour. (June)