Books by and for independent women

The Necessity of Certain Behaviors by Shannon Cain

The Necessity of Certain Behaviors is the début short story collection by Shannon Cain. It features a half-naked woman on the cover and strap-ons and cunnilingus in the first two paragraphs, and earlier this year it was awarded the 2011 Drue Heinz Literature Prize by author Alice Mattison.

The slim collection contains nine short stories, each with its own assortment of quietly sad, strange and sexual characters. Women are central characters in all of them, and mother-daughter relationships are a recurrent theme.

In The Steam Room, mother and mayor’s wife Helen is at the centre of a media maelstrom after being caught masturbating at the local gym, while Cultivation is the story of a single-parent family on a cross-country road trip with an agenda, to sell a sizeable stash of cannabis and keep creditors at bay.

While at times the writing comes across as detached and anonymous, leaving little room for emotional connection with the characters (in the anthology’s opening story, for instance, the heroine’s two lovers are named only as ‘the boy’ and ‘the girl’), at others it features sharp, original observations, subtle nuance and hopeful, redemptive endings.

The Queer Zoo is a highlight, detailing the internal politics at the “home to the world’s largest collection of homosexual, bisexual and transgender animals,” but to me the collection’s title and closing story was the weakest.

An intriguing introduction to an original author, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors is not without its flaws, but I’ll be waiting to see what Shannon Cain comes up with next.

Published this month by the University of Pittsburgh Press, you can order it in hardback for £15.96.

Rating: 3/5

Recommended for: Lovers of short stories from the likes of Mary Gaistkill or Alice Munro. Shannon Cain’s tales may be quieter and more melancholic, but her characters have a similar combination of strength and fragility.

Other recommended reading: For more luminous short stories about sex with friends, enemies and strangers, try Because They Wanted To by Mary Gaitskill.

Jane Bradley