Music for Torching »

Salon wrote of the characters in A. M. Homes s 2002 story collection Things You Should Know, There are few formalities, even less bulls--t, no making nice for the sake of appearances. The same could be said for Homes s work as a whole. She specializes in bringing dark impulses and twisted tendencies to the surface, never softening or downplaying the often disturbing behavior displayed by her characters.

As A.M. Homes's incendiary novel unfolds, the Kodacolor hues of the good life become nearly hallucinogenic.Laying bare th foundations of a marriage, flash frozen in the anxious entropy of a suburban subdivision, Paul and Elaine spin the quit terors of family life into a fantastical frenzy that careens out of control. From a strange and hilarious encounter with a Stepford Wife neighbor to an ill-conceived plan for a tattoo, to a sexy cop who shows up at all the wrong moments, to a housecleaning team in space suits, a mistress calling on a cell phone, and a hostage situationat a school, A.M. Homes creates characters so outrageously flawed and deeply human that thery are entriely believable.

Mademoiselle

The queen of bad-girl heroines puts her own sinister twist on all the cliches to create a hyperreal vision of men, women, marriage and suburbia.