NOVEMBER 2006

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A Review of Crane's When the Messenger is Hot (2003)
By Jason Jordan, Oct 30, 2006
It’s heartening to see a large, mainstream press – in this case, Little, Brown and Company – take a chance with not only an experimental author, but a collection, which, typically, is a tougher sell than a full-length novel.  Crane’s When the Messenger is Hot is, as said, a collection of experimental short stories that touch on a variety of topics.  All in all, it’s a pretty good read, though not quite as fulfilling as I originally hoped it would be. 

From dating to drinking to death, the Chicago-based writer continually blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction.  Whereas opener “The Archetype’s Girlfriend” cannot be mistaken for nonfiction – “Sarah or Anya or Max is five foot ten, five foot nine or five foot eight, but never shorter, and she’s naturally thin,” as the first sentence states – other stories like “Privacy and Coffee” (about living on a roof in New York), “Year-at-a-Glance” (about the death of the narrator’s mother), “An Intervention” (about drinking and addictions) come across as semi-autobiographical at the very least. 

Due to the untraditional format and structure, however, When the Messenger is Hot proves divisive.  From the first few lines of “The Archetype’s Girlfriend,” you will almost instantly know whether you want to continue reading or not.  While Crane’s style is adventurous and endearing, and her humor is more hit than miss, it’s frustrating when the narrator dwells on the grief resulting from the death of her mother.  Get over it already, I kept thinking, perhaps too insensitively.  Everyone dies.  And the world doesn’t need more writers glorifying New York, though Crane seems torn about the city’s value because she praises and berates it regularly.

I can’t vouch for the follow-up compilation – All This Heavenly Glory (Little, Brown and Company, 2005) – but When the Messenger is Hot gets the job done.  Still, it’s not the most entertaining or enlightening book I’ve read recently, and despite Crane’s quirky style and voice, I was expecting a bit more.  Maybe it accomplished what it set out to do, though, since I’m strongly considering ordering her second effort.               

Jason Jordan is many things. He is staff reviewer for this magazine. He was the host of the Bean Street Reading Series. He was an editor of The IUS Review. He has been a featured writer at the Tuesday Night Reading Series in Evansville, Indiana. His writing appears in The Edward Society and The2ndHand. He teaches college writing to college students. His book is called Powering the Devil's Circus and his website is located here. He is a writer.

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