Some of Them Will Carry Me

Scodellaro debuts with a wild and wonderful collection of surreal and enigmatic accounts of sex, relationships, and encounters with strangers. The one-page opener, “The Cord,” offers an electric invitation to Scodellaro’s world of strange possibilities. In it, a woman meets a man on a bus and, from the seat next to his, guides his hand under her skirt. Then, with the fingers that were inside her, the man pulls the cord for his stop. “Now I’m on the cord,” the woman narrates, “and soon others will pull it... and some of them will carry me.” Tenuous connections such as this drive other stories. In “Triangle,” a woman observes a couple on the street and follows them home into their building. “The Balcony” concerns a woman who is seeking peace while her apartment is being renovated, and she begins having sex with a woman from the construction crew. “Spalding,” a highlight, finds a woman named Jazmynn sleeping among belongings left by her ex. Then a strange woman visits and spends the night, and Jazmynn makes room for her on the bed amid her old partner’s rusted bike, his basketball, and items from the pantry. The stories aren’t linked in the conventional sense, but once the reader adjusts to the author’s vision, they suggest a unified meaning. It’s an auspicious and consistently suprising first outing. (Oct.)