Women's voices

Posted on Sun, Mar. 27, 2005

Akron Beacon Journal

With her 2003 novel High Strung, Kent State University alumna Quinn Dalton established herself as an ``edgy'' writer. Her story of an Ohio woman home from London, where she copy-edits pornography, had a dark humor that was a welcome addition to the flourishing field of chick-lit. Dalton's followup, Bulletproof Girl, is a book of stories that show the author's depth.

Each was previously published except the title story; each is about a different woman, but the ``chick-lit'' label doesn't fit here. There are no Bergdorf Blondes or Prada-wearing devils, just the sincere voices of women and their lives. The voices include the snarl of a wife who killed her husband's duplicitous boss in ``Graceland''; the exasperated sigh of ``Bulletproof Girl,'' which goes on a trifle too long in the telling of a daughter baffled by her mother's attempt to right an old injustice; and the quaver of ``Lennie Remembers the Angels,'' a lovely dance of an isolated woman and the good-natured neighbor she keeps at arm's length. Bulletproof Girl (224 pages, softcover) costs $12 from Washington Square Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, at www.simonsays.com.

Quinn Dalton now lives in North Carolina.