Recommended by Lisa Baker
101 stories, each of 101 words: Perec trickery again, but pithier, dafter. Lovely Lisa Baker, with her long black hair and literary encyclopaedia brain, kindly recommended a book suited for the commute. Women with names like Nightjar and Honeysuckle romp around these tales, twisting men around elegant digits. The stories are funny (Herself is pure Tommy Cooper, plus brilliant punchline), but also often disturbing (Kangaroo) or desperately sad (Crying). I’ve read criticism about the female subjects being either witches or ditzes, but the male narrators aren’t feted; they’re shown unadorned, and unravelling. The older jacket’s better too. 101 words yet? Yes.
