Random Acts Of Cruelty
Kristen Roupenian’s extraordinary short story Cat Person, published in the New Yorker, was so popular, that she followed it up with a collection of twelve witty and wicked stories, about strange people and the chaos of their lives–You Know You Want This: Cat Person And Other Stories.
Cat Person was about a young woman meeting an older guy, who could have her dream man, but he turns out to be a nightmare. The stories in thebook are funny, kinky and sometimes shocking, like Bad Boy, about a couple who rescue a friend from a toxic relationship and put him up in their home, till his presence becomes an aphrodisiac for them.
In one of the best stories of the book, The Boy In The Pool, a bunch of women who used to have a crush on a young actor, who appeared in a forgotten movie, meet him years later, when of them tracks him down and pays him to appear for her friend’s bachelorette party. The story about teenage lust that can only disappoint in later years is as melancholic as it is witty.
The Good Guy is a sad and somewhat perverse story about Ted, who is unable to commit to any woman, and explores the ugly and soulless side of modern relationships. So is Death Wish, in which a man invites Tinder date into his foul motel room, and is appalled when the woman insists that he hit her.
In Sardines, an eleven-year-old girl makes a “mean” wish while blowing out the candle on her birthday cake and unleashes something she cannot control. In Biter, a girl has the irresistible urge to bite people.
Roupenian obviously does not bother about political correctness or happily-ever-after romance. Her characters are not in the least charming, which lends even her more fanciful stories an air of realism—in life, how many relationships are perfect? People may not actually bite, but so many wound by their acts of random cruelty.
