What's True, Darling

Claire Wilkshire is a PhD candidate in English at the University of
British Columbia.

West Coast writer M.A.C. Farrant offers up another wacky collection of
stories. Some of them deal with ordinary situations in an unusual
manner; for example, in “Tales from Wit’s End,” a mother-teenager
relationship plays itself out in a sequence of numbered episodes
reminiscent of Grimm, Kafka, and Matt Cohen. In other stories, the
situation itself is less conventional; in “Closing Time at Barbie’s
Boutique,” Barbie and Skipper talk about boys (Ken and Brad), good
looks, and what it’s like to be a doll—“I fear the feminists,”
says Skipper.

What’s True, Darling is quintessential Farrant: parody, satire,
fantasy, and a generous dose of outright zaniness.