FICTION

A Guide to Being Born

by Ramona Ausubel
Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). May 2013. 208p. ISBN 9781594487958. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9781101614617. F
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Ausubel follows up her debut novel, No One Is Here Except All of Us, with this collection of 11 short stories that are arranged according to the stages of life—birth, gestation, conception, and love—but not in a literal-minded way. Birth (which in one story oddly resembles death by way of an ocean voyage) and gestation precede conception, and throughout, key life events appear in an odd, even surreal light. In "Tributaries," for instance, people grow an extra arm each time they fall in love, while in "Chest of Drawers," a man gives birth to a piece of furniture, with drawers sitting in his own chest and holding small items emblematic of his wife's pregnancy. In "Catch and Release," which is set in the present day, a dead Civil War general (not a ghost, he says) plays catch with a girl nicknamed Buck, as in dollar bill.
VERDICT Using a light touch and surprising wit as she weaves together elements of fantasy and folk legend, Ausubel wills a suspension of disbelief while illuminating life's common passages. This eye-opening book will appeal to short story readers as well as to fans of fantasy and young adult fiction (with a caveat that some stories are openly sexual).
Reviewed by Sue Russell, Bryn Mawr, PA , May 01, 2013
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