Realistic Fiction

Solomonik probes trans identity in this provocative debut collection. The narrator of the title story, a college graduate who “always hated” the “realistic” and plotless fiction he was assigned in school, rediscovers his affinity for the crime novels preferred by his dad, an epiphany that comes to him while on his first date with a woman after transitioning. In “August, 1962,” an homage to the TV show Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett uses his time machine to inhabit the body of a Kennedy White House intern. While having sex with Kennedy and an aide in the woman’s body, he finds an erotic thrill in being used for pleasure by a president who “vaingloriously sought to reassure the nation.” In “The Hot Tub Story,” a writer, desperate for social connection, is excited by an invitation to participate in an LGBTQ+ reading series. They’re so focused on using the occasion to get back at a girl that blocked them online, though, that they don’t give themself enough time to write. Solomonik slips in plentiful philosophical musings and highbrow wit without taking himself too seriously. Fans of weird and punchy short fiction will enjoy this. (Apr.)