The Last Animal

This uneven debut collection of stories sets the familiar motifs of infidelity, heartbreak, and loss against unfamiliar and often exciting backdrops, and successfully interlocks human foibles with a single theme: the profound coloring of our relationships by our experience of the natural world. In "Terror Birds," the dissolution of a marriage comes to a violent conclusion on an ostrich farm; in "Captivity," an octopus handler becomes caught up in a mystery surrounding her missing brother; and in "Dharma at the Gate," a girl with an emotionally abusive boyfriend writes in her journal, "Without my dog... I would not know how to feel certain things. Without him, I do not believe I would ever feel joy." Varied in perspective and setting, the stories take on an almost mythical quality. Unfortunately, while the stories and the people telling them are diverse, the prose is not, and midway through the collection, it becomes saccharine and cloying. Every character sounds the same and seems to speak through Geni's narrative voice, which is particularly a problem in "Terror Birds," where the shifting of perspective from mother to son underscores Geni's inability to break free of her own stylistic tics. This collection shows brooding promise but lacks the right filter through which to render it. (Oct.)