BookBrowse Reviews Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby

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Witty and dexterous short stories that engage with history to challenge the patriarchy.

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In her debut short story collection, Gwen E. Kirby finds new frontiers for feminist thought, reimagining characters from myth and historical personages with a sprinkling of the supernatural. About half are speculative/alternative history stories, while the other half toe the line of realism.

The speculative stories tend to be built on gimmicks, to varying degrees of success, such as the one the collection's title is taken from: "Shit Cassandra Saw That She Didn't Tell the Trojans Because at That Point Fuck Them Anyway." Along with the shock factor of the title, the story relies on the novelty of its premise, which is the prophetess Cassandra from Greek myth looking into the future and seeing banalities like Velcro, tampons and t-shirts with humorous sayings. One of the best of these stories is "Mary Read Is a Crossdressing Pirate, the Raging Seas, 1720," which does not lean on a comical title or absurdist setup, but simply and movingly narrates the experiences of an 18th century English woman who lived as a man and joined a crew of pirates (see Beyond the Book). In the story, Mary Read dies in childbirth, and proclaims from beyond the grave, "Yet when the coroner notes the cause of death, he writes childbirth, instead of the truth, that I died in battle against a daughter even stronger than myself, impatient to be free."

Still stronger are the stories grounded in reality, with more heart and less humor. "Mt. Adams at Mar Vista" revolves around a high school softball game in which the visiting team, Mt. Adams, wrestles with their complicated feelings about playing a team where a school shooting has just occurred. The author does not sensationalize the violence; it is barely mentioned and never in more than the vaguest of terms. Is it fair to try to win when the other team has just suffered a terrible tragedy? But wouldn't it be more disrespectful to throw the game on purpose? In the midst of asking themselves these questions, the girls of Mt. Adams contemplate petty jealousies and rifts in friendships, because life goes on, especially when shootings at schools are a part of daily life. One of the girls thinks, "This shooting was closer to her school than the one in Philadelphia or the one in Ohio, but in the end, it still wasn't her school."

Humor and pathos are combined effectively in "Here Preached His Last," a story about a woman who is having an affair because she feels unfulfilled. Her husband is frequently away, she has a young child and she works as a teacher, leaving her little time to have a life of her own. The affair affords her some measure of satisfaction, but this is hampered by the presence of the ghost of George Whitefield, a preacher who, according to the stone marker outside of her house, "Preached His Last Sermon, September 29, 1770." George's contributions to the narrator's life initially consist only of hissing the word "whore" at her while observing her adultery, but gradually she comes to understand him as a fellow human being who wanted what anyone wants: to communicate, to have a purpose, to impart hard-won wisdom, to be remembered.

Despite being under 300 pages, the collection feels a little overstuffed. There are 21 stories crammed into the book, resulting in the sense that one has just encountered everything but the kitchen sink through a feminist lens. This is a minor editorial complaint, and the author's humor and politics will resonate with many. Shit Cassandra Saw is madcap fiction with a satirical edge — fun, clever and unpredictable in all the right ways.

This review first ran in the March 2, 2022 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.