FICTION

Of This New World

by Allegra Hyde
Univ. of Iowa. Oct. 2016. 124p. ISBN 9781609384432. pap. $16. SHORT STORIES
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In Hyde's opening story, an exasperated, take-charge Eve rallies sulky Adam while secretly acknowledging that she will "feel shame and be bent by it." This brief piece is both tough and magical, like all that follows. Hyde frequently explores teetering idealism, from the Caribbean combination eco-base camp and school run by a former Navy SEAL to the teenager rescued from her parents' hippie commune to an Englishman upended by 19th-century American Shakers. Hyde is good at developing her ideas fully, though occasionally a piece is more portrait than story; the tale of one young woman's move away from a former best friend is so achingly memorable one wants more. In the end, though, we see "the sheer horror, the ecstasy of being alive."
VERDICT A luscious collection (and John Simmons Short Fiction Award winner) promising more good things to come.
Reviewed by Barbara Hoffert , Sep 01, 2016
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