A review by katrinky
Twilight of the Superheroes: Stories by Deborah Eisenberg

4.0

My new favorite short story writer. These stories are strange, and abstract, and daaark, dark dark, and I loved them all. A story about family and memory that is, tangentially, the best writing on September 11th I've ever read. One about true love and finding independence that is actually about abuse and sisterhood, and things one can't escape. One about schizophrenia and genius, that is actually about what all of us have inside us that is incurable and glorious and devastating. One about old age and decisions that is actually about mental illness and familial delusions. I love how Eisenberg writes about mental illnesses like many, many people have them, and they look different every time. (Because they do, to both points.) And she writes about couples like there are a lot of couples in the world that are gay, and look for all the world just like straight couples think coupledom looks. (Because there are, and they do.) The world is natural, to Eisenberg. People fold extraordinary circumstances into their ordinary lives (if there is such a thing), tuck them into their pockets, or their senses of self, and they keep on. People see terrible things, do terrible things, lose terrible things, and there's always a next page, if not written, than imagined.
I'm asking for her collected works for my birthday. I want to dive all the way in.