Jack Pendarvis, Your Body is Changing ***

I picked up this collection of stories at Red Lodge Books in Red Lodge, Montana, based on a cover blurb from George Saunders. Pendarvis has a humorous narrative voice similar to Saunders' although his plots hew closer to reality. The greatest strength of the stories is the dialogue, especially the ways in which people take pride in the things they claim to dislike about themselves.

"Isn't that funny, I don't even know what Jay Leno looks like," said Mandy. "That's just how little television I watch.... Isn't that just dreadful of me? People become intimidated when they realize that my opinions are so uninformed when it comes to television."

My favorite story is "Outsiders"; it consists almost entirely of this type of dialogue.