The Irresistibles: Lyrical, Luscious Reads
From a hilarious futuristic novel to a comedy of manners about a
late-life love affair, you’ll want to read these literary standouts over
and over again.
42 of 136
Radio Iris
By Anne-Marie Kinney
208 pages;
Two Dollar Radio
Iris, the receptionist at Larmax, Inc., starts each day by flicking on copiers and answering phones with the "corporate-approved greeting." Radio Iris tells the story of this 20-something's daily schedule and her interactions with two cryptic male characters: her boss, whose erratic behavior makes Iris question the company's future, and a stranger who is living in the office next door, setting off the fire alarm and bathing in the men's room. At first, "as long as she had a place to go every morning...and as long as she didn't have to look directly at the earth's edge," Iris is fine. But when she obsesses about the man on the other side of the wall, life is never mundane again. Anne-Marie Kinney's debut novel uses flatline prose to convey Iris's dull loneliness and her yearning to make herself visible to the world.
— Abbe Wright
Published 05/24/2012