Tin House Books

200 pages, $15.95

Review by Thomas Michael Duncan

Standing in the remains of his fire-ravaged apartment, gripping an iron poker from the fireplace, staring down a man who will not and can not reciprocate his obsessive devotion, Jack Gorse says, “Tell me that you love me.”

So begins the thrilling climax of Pamela Erens’s debut novel, The Understory, reprinted earlier this year by Tin House Books. This rare edge-of-the-easy-chair moment stands out in the otherwise quiet, understated novel, heavily preoccupied with the internal conflicts of Jack Gorse’s devastated psyche. While The Understory is perhaps not as complete or compelling a novel as Erens’s sophomore effort, The Virgins, published by Tin House Books to national acclaim in 2013, this debut bears the watermark of a uniquely talented writer. Continue reading →