Make Me Do Things

Morally ambivalent characters contend with romantic relationships, raising children, and the dark side of human nature in Redel’s (The Border of Truth) second collection of stories. Beginning with “You Look Like You Do,” a divorced mother’s contemplation of sexual fantasies, Redel’s stories examine children, spouses, and parents working through manifestations of their lesser selves. In “Stuff,” a grieving son is reluctant to parse his dead mother’s things; in “On Earth,” a young mother has an affair while her doting husband and daughter remain clueless; in “Ahoy,” a substance-abusing father-to-be emotionally abandons his wife. Often referred to by their station—“the wife,” “the husband,” “the lover”—Redel’s characters appear as reflections of broader archetypes, and succinct, direct language reveals through them the ethical concerns of adulthood: the “private world” of marriage, the “reckless” nature of divorce, the “alternating hilarity and concern” of parenthood. Each story opens a small window onto the unspoken thoughts and desires of the characters: their underbelly of wants and desires and honest opinions. Even those stories absent a moral defector—including “Trust Me,” whose central character accepts a job reading aloud to a blind painter—explore relatively victimless vices like self-absorption, sanctimony, and resentment. Indeed, for all their hapless villainy, Redel’s characters betray her own nuanced understanding of how we, as people, really are. (Oct.)