Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld is a strong collection of short stories. I had read some of them before. Reading this made me look forward to reading her next new works.

Rounding up to 3 ⭐

Very much hit and miss for me, as is often the nature with short stories.
It took me a lot longer than usual to read, as I kept putting it down.
I feel bad saying this, because I can't write at all, but some of the stories were just dull.
But then the next story might be great, and I enjoyed it so much I read it in the blink of an eye.
Buy it if you are, or are gifting to a Sittenfeld fan , but definitely not the book to introduce someone to a new author.

Show Don’t Tell is a short story collection from Curtis Sittenfeld. The stories touch on life, marriage, religion, heath, politics, relationships and sex. Overall I enjoyed the collection but the majority of the stories didn’t stand out to me. I recently read Romantic Comedy by this author and the writing of these short stories felt similar to this collection and fans of this author will enjoy these stories. The Marriage Clock story felt a little performative to me but Giraffe and Flamingo has stuck in my mind because it was really creepy and insidious in a specific way. Not to give spoilers but it was about a guy who follows a woman into the toilet whilst she is pooping and this was a really uncomfortable story but I think quite impactful. Overall it was enjoyable so I’m giving it 3.5 stars generously rounded up to a 4.

I love this author…. But I am not a fan of short stories at all so this gave me a real dilemma.
I’ve always felt frustrated and short changed with a short story. I want the full novel, the depth and length of a complete story, and almost always got to the end of a short story feeling it had ended just as it should have been getting going.
However….. life events recently have meant my reading has been limited and I simply haven’t had the capacity, time nor attention span to properly absorb a novel and so for the first time I really understood the role a short story collection could play in my reading life. And of course Curtis would be the one.
Loved all of these, but particularly special was to revisit the characters from Prep, an earlier novel by this author, 20 or so years later. I hadn’t known it was part of this collection and so a total joy to get to this last story in the collection.

I love her writing and I loved this collection of insightful short stories great to in and out of while on the commute home from work. Funny in a true to life way we can all identify in some ways with these stories. Great works from a very talented writer who captures the age we live in perfectly