With a wink to every writing teacher’s favorite adage, Curtis Sittenfeld’s “Show Don’t Tell” delivers a dozen short stories that will make you think, smile, and often nod your head in agreement. Featuring mostly middle-aged characters from the middle of the country, it’s an assortment of stories focused on people either looking back and reconsidering formative moments in their lives, or in situations that force them to challenge their long-held beliefs.
My favorite of the bunch was “Creative Differences,” an 18-page gem about a photographer in Wichita, Kansas, who got Internet famous for a couple photo series she did and is now being interviewed by a freelance production crew on behalf of a conglomerate that sells a 72-year-old toothpaste. When she refuses to be filmed actually brushing her teeth, the story sets up a standoff between the corporate sponsor that flew a dozen people from the coasts to Wichita and our hero, Melissa, who tells them: “All you care about is getting me to do whatever you’ve already decided I should do on camera.”
