“Recovery” by Helen DeWitt

This novella by DeWitt packs a lot into every line. It is serious, funny, and just a little bit strange. DeWitt takes the everyday and turns it on its head to reveal the inner weirdness inside all of us. With lines like, “when you pass a strip mall, what you’re seeing is people who imagined a whole market out there in the world of people just as pathetic as they were. Enough pathetic people so that a store catering to the needs of pathetic people could cover its overheads and turn a profit,” she invokes biting criticism of modern society, capitalist culture, and fellow humanity, all with wit. One of her characters has a cheese-fetish, along with his alcohol addiction, “of course, you could say, it’s not in the spirit of one day at a time. But see, I might be able to handle ordering $3,722 worth of cheese on one day but not be able to handle buying, you know, an 8 oz stick of Monterrey Jack on an as-needed basis daily or bi-daily or weekly for years. Maybe that single day is the only day I can count on being able to get through, you know, the shit associated with cheese acquisition.” DeWitt has the gift of making something so bizarre seem so rational. It is this taut blend between the fantastic and the mundane that makes “Recovery” such a perfect story.