Hiding Out.

Messinger, Jonathan (author).

Messinger, book review editor for Time Out Chicago, is a writer of nuance in this fearless collection of short stories. While the writing is mostly straightforward, these 15 subtle (even quiet) stories offer a sliding scale of solipsism. The characters—mostly aging Generation Xers with the occasional teen thrown in, and urban professionals (think Thirtysomething but with more thoughtful characters and less pretty people)—always seem a step away from saying something significant to each other. A tale about a teenage poet ends with him muttering, “I’m just saying.” A man walking around with two aneurysms offers, “I’d finally been outed as not one of them, as an other.” A superhero robot states, “I wasn’t invited, but I went anyway.“ There is also an angel kleptomaniac; a kung fu fight; and a seven-year-old who gets his head stuck between iron bars. Messinger’s stories are aching, not bleak, and the collection, wittily and expressively illustrated with Rob Funderburk’s line drawings, is fun, engaging, and a bit more than thought-provoking. A fresh, spot-on debut.