Review: You Think It, I’ll Say It

Title: You Think It, I’ll Say It
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Genre: Fiction, Short Stories
Publisher: Random House
Source: NetGalley
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

‘Most people I know who have read anything by Curtis Sittenfeld would read anything else the woman wrote, me included’ The Times

In ‘The World Has Many Butterflies’, a married woman flirts with a man she meets at parties by playing You think it, I’ll say it, putting into words the bitchy things she guesses he’s thinking about their fellow guests. But she is in for a shock when, in time, she finds out what was really in his mind. ‘The Nominee’ sees Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, confessing her surprising true feelings about a woman journalist she has sparred with over the years. In ‘Gender Studies’, a visiting academic sleeps with her taxi driver, for what turns out to be all the wrong reasons.

The theme that unites these stories in this dazzling first collection by Curtis Sittenfeld is how even the cleverest people tend to misread others, and how much we all deceive ourselves. Sharp and tender, funny and wise, this collection shows Sittenfeld’s knack for creating real, believable characters that spring off the page, while also skewering contemporary mores with brilliant dry wit.

Review:

I loved Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel Elgible! It is one of my favourite Pride and Prejudice adaptations. So I was excited to read her new collection of short stories.

I really enjoyed these stories. The stories all give the same message at the end: people are often misjudged, either by ourselves or others. This was more obvious in some of the stories than others. This message became clear in the second story entitled “The World Has Many Butterflies.” In that story a man and woman play a game which they call “I’ll Think It, You Say It,” where the woman judges people nearby, presumably saying what the man thinks about them. After that story, I understood the point of the collection.

Some of the stories were so detailed and hooked me right away, so I was left wanting more. I loved “Plausible Deniability.” It had a great twist that I didn’t see coming. “A Regular Couple” was also good, and kept me holding my breath to see how it would end. These stories could be expanded into great novels.

I liked this collection! It is clever and entertaining.

Author: jilljemmett

Jill lives in Toronto, Canada. She has studied English, Creative Writing, and Publishing. Jill is the creator and content producer of Jill’s Book Blog, where she has published a blog post every day for the last four years, including 5-7 book reviews a week. She can usually be found with her nose in a book. View all posts by jilljemmett