Shelf Life: Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls by Alissa Nutting
The author of a debut collection of surreal stories reads at Georgia State University on Thurs., Nov 11 at 7:30 pm.
Genre: Debut story collection
The Pitch: The title is an accurate description: each story in the collection is narrated by a woman with a different job. This ranges from “Zookeeper” to “Porn Star” to occupations that aren’t necessarily money-making, like “Alcoholic” or “Cat Owner.”
First Line: “I am boiling inside a kettle with five other people.”
The Twist: Despite being tuned into contemporary voices, Nutting isn’t trying to pull off some faux Studs Turkel volume about woman’s work. Each story is twisted by some unreal condition: the porn star works in space, gnomes and fake deer become animated, and a woman is served as dinner.
“She-man”: “My boyfriend Ginno is a pro-bowler. It is not a glamorous as it doesn’t sound. I was on the streets for a long time so I took the first chance I got to settle down. Ginno doesn’t know I’m really a man, but other than that we’re completely honest with one another.”
Openings: The clarity and economy of Nutting’s prose is never more evident than in her opening paragraphs. The world of each story in this collection is neatly packed and explained in just a few sentences. No matter how surreal the situation is, we always know exactly what is going on.