Come up and see me sometime - Erika Krouse

The spirit of Mae West, the original liberated woman, lives on in this smart, funny collection of bittersweet tales of sex, cynicism and the single girl. Erika Krouse's agile stories combine the addictive appeal of Melissa Bank and Helen Fielding with the nervy, neurotic wit of Lorrie Moore. Thirteen stories are narrated by thirteen different women - none of them mothers, none married. Each revolves around a famous line by Mae West, whose brassy boldness represents the unflappable self-sufficiency that all of Krouse's women strive for but never actually achieve. From 'What She Wore', where an actress takes Method acting too seriously to 'My Weddings', in which a discontented single woman spends her life attending other people's weddings, Erika Krouse's perfect comic timing and scalpel-sharp one-liners cull delirious humour from the trials and tribulations of her characters' lives. COME UP AND SEE ME SOMETIME is a delightful and thought-provoking collection, consistently surprising us with mirror images of the fears, foibles and facades of our own lives.