Sometimes when I read short story collections I try to figure out what the author’s thing is. By thing I mean the big issue they address in their writing. While it’s easy to extrapolate from there that it’s the big issue the author him or herself is dealing with in his/her own life, I try not to make that assumptive leap.
For instance, I always thing of Mary Gaitskill’s thing as trying to reconcile sexuality with intelligence; Raymond Carver is sensitive men who cope with their sensitivity by drinking; George Saunders – things that will make a reader’s brain melt; and Amy Bloom is love is fucked up but we’re gonna do it anyway.
Whee. I could do that all day. But I won’t, because I’ve come to talk about Danielle Evans’ short story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. If I were to guess Evans’ “thing” it would be smart black girl copes with being smart black girl. Which sounds kind of dismissive, but it’s not at all.

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