2008-04-20 "Sometimes, if you care to look hard enough, you can find beauty in ugliness."

To be honest, I bought this thinking it was written entirely by Mark Poirier - author of Goats, Modern Ranch Living and one of the freshest, exciting new literary voices to emerge from across the pond - only to discover it was a collection of short stories by a number of different writers. My initial disappointment was soon transformed, however, when I started reading the first offering, by George Saunders, entitled 'Bohemians'...

All of the stories are based around the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. The awkwardness, the embarrassment, the pain and the confusion - it's all here, in abundance, captured with breath-taking honesty and wonderful imagination in all its ugly glory. There are contributions from the likes of John Barth, A.M. Homes (author of This Book Will Save Your Life) and from Poirier himself. My personal favourite is 'Note to Sixth-Grade Self', by Julie Orringer; a direct and brutal memo written by a woman to her younger self telling the story of when she was a geeky, unpopular young girl who gets chosen to dance with the best-looking boy in the class. Naturally, all the others girls loathe her and she pays the price accordingly... Now, writing as a 29 year-old guy who, against his better judgement, occasionally finds himself at hardcore punk gigs where angry young men swing punches at each other and generally like to get a bit rowdy, you may be surprised to learn that this was easily the most terrifyingly gripping, edge-of-the-seat 20 minutes I've experienced in a long time. It was so intense and yet so brilliantly executed I don't think I breathed for the entire time I was reading. It's still hard to believe how cruel young people (especially girls!) can be to each other at that age.

The stories contained herein are all - without exception - superbly well-written, darkly humorous and, much like their subjects, totally unforgiving. Poirier has done a sterling job in collating such a diverse, comprehensive and powerfully emotive collection and this book (not least because of the beautiful text-type used) is a real treasure.

Matt Pucci