Meat Eaters & Plant Eaters

Meat Eaters & Plant Eaters, Jessica Treat's third collection of stories, shows her to be as much a master of the short-short story form in rural North America  as in the urban milieu. Regardless of the terrain, in Treat's stories what was once familiar is suddenly less so. Ever concerned with relationships, with the tension between what lies on the surface and what remains hidden, these stories explore the territory between estranged husband and wife, mother and son,  new and well-worn lovers, girlfriends, as well as those relationships we maintain with our pets and our cars. Treat's prose is at once sensual and cerebral, precise and mysterious. Her stories invite the reader in, only to make them complicit in a transgressive act, real or imagined: adultery, trespass, sexual jealousy. Her dark humor and portrayal of consciousness recall authors as diverse as Clarice Lispector, Anna Kavan, and Lydia Davis. Comic, skillful and menacing, the stories in Meat Eaters & Plant Eaters ha