The lovely cadences in Summer Brennan's High Heel stack up like so many sand castles that sift iconic examples of high heels into a finely grained pile of pros and cons that each reader will sift through quite differently.
Is there still any credence to the idea of non-required reading?
These five short stories — by Roxane Gay, Jeff VanderMeer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, George Saunders, and Curtis Sittenfeld — fictionalize the personal lives of American presidents, a wannabe president, and a president's spouse.
Perhaps some gatekeepers are realizing that the challenging short story form proves a writer's chops and future longevity with more certainty than a debut novel.
