Women in Bed

If Keener’s first short story collection, following her debut novel Night Swim, can be said to have a theme, it might be women’s struggles to reconcile relationships—be they with friends, family, lovers, or enemies—with changing perspective and internal turmoil. In the wrenching “Woman with Birds in Her Chest,” a newly unemployed woman searches for purpose through volunteer work at a hospice. A waitress finally gets a chance to spend time with the regular who intrigues her, with disappointing results, in “Secrets.” Several stories (“Boarders,” “Bird of Grief,” “Heart”) visit the same character at different phases of her romantic life: a naïve college dropout on the verge of being rejected by her boyfriend; a habitual liar and serial monogamist; and, finally, a woman working at stability with a long-distance lover. The most interesting and memorable relationships in these stories are directly adversarial—a student and her antagonistic professor in “Papier-mâché,” a young girl and her petty tyrant of a landlord in “Boarders,” a woman and her jealous husband in “Shoreline”—but Keener can convey subtler dynamics with equal skill. Although the collection sometimes drags, she demonstrates a versatile voice and ability to deliver as much exquisite detail as the stories’ brevity will allow. Agent: Emma Sweeney, Emma Sweeney Agency. (Oct.)