An obvious choice, yes, but it's obvious for a reason. These stories completely changed for me what can be talked about -- addressed like never before -- in the short story form. Homes tackles the darker sides of human behavior, but the dark sides that live in plain sight and are never discussed, always ignored, big elephants in tiny rooms. The collection is well-known for "A Real Doll", which begins thusly: "I'm dating Barbie. Three afternoons a week, while my sister is at dance class, I take Barbie away from Ken. I'm practicing for the future."
However, I've never been able to get "Chunky In Heat" and "Looking for Johnny" (in which a child is kidnapped, only to bore his kidnapper and drive the 'napper to return the child home) out of my mind, so clear and alive and real were the characters, the awkward situations, their unenviable lots in life. To re-paint the unforgettable scenes, I offer the intros from these two excellent short stories:
Chunky in Heat: "Her thighs spread across the vinyl ropes of the lawn chair. In the heat they seem to melt into the plastic, seeping out from under her shorts, slipping through the vinyl as though eventually she'll begin dripping fat onto the lawn."
Looking for Johnny: "I disappeared a few years ago; I disappeared and then I came back. It wasn't a big secret. It wasn't one of those beam-me-up-Scotty deals where I was here and then all of the sudden I was there. I didn't get to go to another planet or anything. I was gone for a few days and then I came home and the police wanted to know everything. They wanted to know about the car, who was in the car, where I went, what happened. They said I could draw pictures, show them with dolls, but I didn't know what to say. I disappeared when I was a child. I disappeared when I was nine."
