Lauren Groff’s debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, pulled off the rare combo of commercial success and critical hyperbole. Less than a year later she’s back with Delicate, Edible Birds and Other Stories, a collection of short stories that investigate a number of topics, from the lonely life of a female high school swimmer to the travails of a World War II journalist captured by a Nazi sympathizer. Groff illuminates her work via a vivid, richly detailed prose style.
Try this from “Lucky Chow Fun,” the collection’s first story: “If a boy made fun of the way I bulged in my bathing suit, calling me Moby Dickless, for instance, that boy would find himself stunned on the pool bottom, having been swum over by my own impersonation of a great white whale.” Groff discusses her book 7 p.m. Monday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
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This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2009.
