Michelle Suzanne Mirsky's compulsively readable debut essay collection, Here, Now, is a candid exploration of a life set adrift before and after the death of her three-year-old son, Lev, and her divorce. Mirsky, a former columnist for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, covers a lot of ground in 18 essays and fewer than 200 pages. In "No Mas," Mirsky addresses replacement child syndrome, reckoning with an old friend's similar tragedy and revealing how she felt the psychological and biological urge to have a baby as her own child slowly died. In "Solipsists Do It for the Folks Watching at Home," Mirsky describes losing her inhibitions in the wake of losing her son and how she shed her old friends in the process of moving elsewhere but found new, younger ones, as well as lots of sex.
On the first anniversary of Lev's death, and on subsequent anniversaries, Mirsky narrates what she does. Using her signature declarative sentence structure in the titular essay, she writes about the first anniversary: "I take the day off work. I get a tattoo. I drink whiskey. I meet an idol. I'm always in love. My heat is on the outside of my body, bruised and screaming."
Mirsky's irreverence and casual, blog-like tone might not be for everyone. She's self-aware, even conceding, "I am vain and a know-it-all." However, fans of Jenny Lawson will find a home here, as will readers who want an inside view of how life might go on after some of their worst nightmares come true. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator