A review by elibrooke
Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain: Stories by Lucia Perillo

5.0

Perillo's stories are full of hard-luck characters -- women mostly, some kids. They offer a rough yet dreamy reality, a place where people have given up and find solace in whatever they can sink into -- cough syrup, bad sex with broken strangers, or just the intricacies of the patterns in the wood floorboards. Perillo is an amazing wordsmith, particularly good with images and setting a mood. Her characters are sympathetic without being pitiable. They’re fucked up and trapped, maybe, but they’re making the best of it on their own terms. It’s all set in the Pacific Northwest but might as well be my hometown, reminds me of a lot of people I knew as a kid, could have become myself if I'd made different choices. It's unsettling yet comforting, somehow. I didn't realize she was a poet until after I finished the book, and am now reading through her back catalog and loving it. Been a while since I found a new-to-me poet I could really get into.