Send Me Work

As the title suggests, Karlin's debut story collection focuses on men and women in the everyday world of work, from a loan officer-turned-fish tank cleaner to oil refinery workers and a New Orleans shipyard welder. The author's own job experiences in offices and blue-collar trades supply the narratives with detail and the characterizations with authenticity. Some of the stories, such "Muscle Memory," which is about welding, and "The Severac Sound," about oboe playing, deal explicitly with mastering a craft and portray women struggling to get a foothold in male-dominated industries. Still, while many of the stories feature women working alongside men, sexual politics is not the author's primary concern. The final story, "Geography," succeeds best in combining sharp character portrayals with expertly paced storytelling. It is a subtle tale about an oil spill, a cover-up, and the erasure of truth.