Ms. Hen reviews Daddy

 

Daddy

Emma Cline

Random House 

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this collection of short stories because she saw a photo of it along with another book she liked, MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION, and she had read that book and liked it, and learned this is similar. Both books are about characters on the edge, people who live in the dregs of society, those who are not quite right. Ms. Hen likes to read about characters who are messed up in some way, because it makes her feel better about her life (sometimes.) 

These stories are about characters who are twisted, and all of them have to do with fathers in one way or another. The first story, "What You Can Do with a General," is about a family getting together for Christmas, and the chaos that ensues. The story "Los Angeles," is about a young woman trying to become an actress, who decides to sell her underwear to men for extra cash, and the thrill of doing so. A young woman hides from the press after having an affair with an actor she was working for in "The Nanny."

"Northeast Regional," is a story of a man who is going to pick up his son in boarding school after the boy performs an act of violence. "Marion," is about two tween girls who take naked pictures of each other, and destroy their friendship. "A/S/L" is about two women in rehab, and their dysfunctonal situations.

Ms. Hen thinks the characters in these stories are bad, and have no redeeming qualities. She wonders what it's like to be so bad. She enjoys reading about characters like this because she doesn't think she could ever be this way. Good people are not interesting in fiction; it's the evil ones that spice things up. Not all these characters are evil, but some of them have their own agenda, and will not change.

Some chickens appear in one of the stories. In "Arcadia," a couple lives on a farm with the woman's brother. She goes to junior college, and is pregnant, "Hedy had taken his car to school, so Peter drove Otto's truck out to the trailers, the passenger seat full of cartons of eggs from the chickens." Peter is giving eggs to the workers on the farm, as a gesture of goodwill, or of appeasement. They have extra eggs.

Ms. Hen likes to read books that make her cringe sometimes, because life isn't always beautiful. People can be screwed up, but they have the option of changing, but at times they can't. Ms. Hen would like to change and become a better hen. She's not like the misfits in these stories, or so she likes to think. Some people might think otherwise, but Ms. Hen knows the truth.