When the Messenger Is Hot: Stories [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Crane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2003

The women in WHEN THE MESSENGER IS HOT are fierce and kind, damaged and optimistic. They are recovering from loss or addiction or betrayal, they are on the fringes of reality or sanity or a "conventional" life. From a woman who decides to live on the patio rooftop of her friend's apartment building, to the bestselling memoir writer who finds her identity overtaken by the actress cast in the movie version, to the daughter convinced her dead mother is in fact simply stuck at a North Dakota bus depot, their experiences of loss and love are both uniquely theirs and universal.

With disarming humor, honesty, and playfulness, Elizabeth Crane gleefully and memorably explores the absurdities and possibilities of modern life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Crane creates a spirited cast of loopy, neurotic and self-absorbed women, then puts them through their paces in this debut collection of 16 inventive but frequently one-dimensional stories. Dating is a primary concern, as in "The Archetype's Girlfriend," a tongue-in-cheek description of the common attributes and behaviors of gorgeous, over-the-top women who drive men crazy. "You Take Naps" is a similarly short but amusing checklist of romantic red flags drawn up by a 41-year-old woman who begins dating younger men, while "Normal," the tale of a man who begins seeing a woman with a penchant for knives, takes the dating theme into (slightly) scarier terrain. The two most impressive stories in the collection, "Year-at-a-Glance" and "Return from the Depot!" delve into the issue of loss, imaginatively splicing grief and humor. In "Return from the Depot!" the protagonist insists that her recently deceased mother will be coming home soon. Her friends tell her she's in denial, but then her mother really does return-from a bus depot in North Dakota-and becomes a celebrity and the star of a TV sitcom. Crane's machine-gun, first-person narration is entertaining in small doses, but its magazine-style pertness grows tiresome over the course of the collection. Similarly, Crane's bratty, city born-and-bred protagonists-the kind of women whose first thought is "Susan Minot" when "MNT" is traced on a Ouija board-rarely break out of their wisecracking personas. Still, the tart wit and sharp comic timing of these urban fictions will appeal to readers who relish jokes involving both Friends and Elizabeth Kbler-Ross.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Crane works on an intuitive plane as her funny, funky, wounded, but still swinging women protagonists struggle to survive in a cacophonous and aggressive world. Having kicked the alcohol habit, they've turned to caffeine with a vengeance, making for marvelously keyed-up and jittery narratives. Sounding a bit like Mary Robison, Crane off-handedly toys with assumptions about reality as her characters change shape, indulge in elaborate fantasies (one accompanied by lengthy footnotes), and even, in "Something Shiny," slowly disappear. One narrator is certain that her mother has come back from the dead, another riffs hilariously on the complications of having a much younger lover, and yet another documents her experiences dating various men named Dave. Clever, inventive, and piquant, Crane's breathless stories hit the brain with more voltage than a double espresso. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (January 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316096520
• ISBN-13: 978-0316096522
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,415,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am: writer, wife, sister, daughter, teacher, eater of sweets, crafter, blogger, happy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars can't put down (even if I want to), January 10, 2003

By 

Chel Micheline "Chel Micheline" (Southwest Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When the Messenger Is Hot: Stories (Hardcover)

The only way I can describe this book is to compare it to music- it's sort of a cross between Liz Phair's "Exile in Guyville" and poetry. It's bold, shocking, thoughtful, aching, and funny all at once.

These aren't stories that make you feel good about yourself and inspire you to go and change the world or call your closest friends up to share the joy. This isn't Bridget Jones, either- it's far too intelligent. These are stories that are honest in the best way. Elizabeth Crane writes the way you talk inside your head- lots of run on sentences, extraneous thoughts (that most authors wouldn't dare to allow in their writing), and then one pure, true statement in the middle of it all that just grabs you. Some of it is too raw, and some of it seems too blase, but I don't think that Crane is looking to engage the reader in all of her characters' lives. This book is more of a dirty friend you admire than a close, sensitive sister.

The reason I didn't give the book five stars is because there are a few flaws. Sometimes, Crane allowed her characters to go on *too* much and after two pages of the same sentence I felt like I was listening to a friend that wouldn't shut up. Ironically, that's also part of why I liked the book, too. I did roll my eyes at some of the characters (especially Hayden and Hyman) and situations, but overall this is a solid collection. Lots of quotable lines and paragraphs, which to me is the ultimate compliment for a book- it's something that will live beyond its place on my bookshelf.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Satisfying, January 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: When the Messenger Is Hot: Stories (Hardcover)

Having heard this author read one of these stories,"Return from the Depot!" about a mother's return from the dead and subsequent celebrity, I assumed this was among her strongest in this collection. Well, having ingested the entire collection in one sitting, I can say that while the story was a good representative of her sensibilities and talent, the whole of the collection exceeds the sum of the parts, each story illuminating the others while maintaining its distinct place in the cosmos of the author's worldview.

Crane treads the familiar hip-sensitive female territory of Lucinda Rosenfeld and Elissa Schappel: grief and longing, laced with humor and hope over such commonplace heartbreaks as dead parents, bad boyfriends, unfortunate lifestyle choices. Yet in several stories she throws a curve reminiscent of a softer edged Aimee Bender, a fairy-dusting of magical realism, putting the pain in perspective, reminding us that with imagination wonderful things are possible, horrible things endurable, and transformation is just a dream away.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I want to kiss this woman's sentences, February 15, 2004

By 

B. A Varkentine (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When the Messenger Is Hot: Stories (Hardcover)

I like smart, funny women, and though the women in this book are sometimes smarter than they are funny I liked them, too.

It's a form of "chick lit," I suppose, but at least one of Elizabeth Cranes' characters seems to realize (if not really accept) that although her experiences may be unique, her feelings are universal. And you will smile in recognition as she says that she really doesn't want them to be. And like I said, I love her sentences.

This is the kind of collection that makes you want to read more; though as another reviewer pointed out the women in each of the stories have many similarities. She might as well have just given them all the same name and called it a novel.

Hey! And I just found out from reading an article in Book Magazine that Crane and I share a favorite movie, Broadcast News. I love when that kind of thing happens--when you find connections between two things you love.