Connecticut writer's characters
teeter on edge of fantasy, reality

By Seth Taylor

In 1993, Jessica Treat published A Robber in the House, her first book of short-short fiction. She was praised for writing bite-sized stories about desperate characters who teeter on the edge of mental breakdown. Since then, Treat has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her work has appeared in Quarterly West, American Literary Review and Ms. Now that her second collection has arrived, seven years after the first, are Treat's characters finding some peace?

Not a Chance.

Which happens to be the title of her new collection. And if short-story anthologies are feasts of appetizers, Treat serves up delicacies this time around. Not a Chance offers eight stories and one novella that may go down quickly, but should still be savored all the way to their slightly bitter aftertaste.

Treat's tales describe mostly female characters who are not merely unhappy or wistful for love, but who nurse obsessions until their world becomes a delicate balance of fantasy and reality, fragile and distorted. Like the woman in the title story, who imagines her best friend's affair so intensely she begins to inhabit it herself .. Such forlorn, unanchored characters start to feel disembodied, and after the first few stories it becomes impossible to trust any of them. In "Radio Disturbance," a woman obsesses over her therapist's private life until she finally breaks into the doctor's home (or perhaps only dreams of doing it). And the collection's centerpiece, a novella entitled "Honda," is about the misadventures of a woman who dreams up an imaginary son named after her car, despite the fact that she can barely take care of herself.

Honda is Treat writing with sharp-edged precision, letting her narrators descend gradually into delusion as she sits near a playground. "He was a good boy. He kept to himself, never bothered anyone. Of course the sand creations he made, castles with drawbridges and so forth, were so fantastic that the other children begged to play with him-Honda didn't mind them helping."

But when she drives away from the playground, alone again, and realizes she's accidentally taken someone else's car, a simple question becomes a life-changing decision: "Where do you go in a car that isn't yours?"

Backdrops range from European cobblestone boulevards to bland American diners. Treat has an affinity for faraway locales, but the most exotic terrain remains inside the twisted perceptions of the characters themselves, clearly Treat's trademark.

As she continues to blend dark humor with darker obsessions, Treat may find herself in a unique position among current women writers: lighter than A.M. Homes, darker than Lorrie Moore. Not a Chance shimmers with smart, poignant prose. But as to whether or not Treat's creations will ever find what they're looking for-the answer's in the title.

About the Author: Jessica Treat lives in Lakeville and is Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted. She received an Artist Fellowship Award in Fiction from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts for 2001. Her stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.

Not a Chance is available through amazon.com; the publisher's website: http://fc2.org; by calling 1-800-621-2736; or through your favorite local independent bookstore.

About the reviewer: Seth Taylor's short fiction has been published in the Carolina Quarterly, Indiana Review and Lynx Eye Magazine.