Right After the Weather

Anshaw (Carry the One) brings a fresh, keen voice to this story of modern lesbian life. In 2016 Chicago, 40-something Cate, a theater set designer, needs a boost in her low-level career. Her likable, wealthy, neurotic ex-husband Graham is temporarily living with her, despite their divorce many years before, when Cate had accepted that she was a lesbian. Cate tries to improve her unsatisfying life—and recover from the mortification of Trump winning the 2016 presidential election—by dating a seemingly ideal woman, a costume designer named Maureen, but Cate’s quirks and immaturity prevent her from convincing herself that she has found a just-right partner, or that she can achieve security in her profession. The narrative also features a thread involving two scruffy adults who stopped by for candy on Halloween and turn out to be addicts, and the narrative occasionally turns to brief vignettes of their lives with drugs and the homes they invade, adding suspense and culminating with a violent intersection of the two story lines. The danger of the addicts inspires the creative Cate, who has been surviving mostly on help from others, to grow up. Anshaw’s account of a woman seeking love as she struggles to make a living in her chosen profession will captivate readers. [em](Oct.) [/em]