The Dark Dark

The Dark Dark is the second book by Samantha Hunt that I’ve read, and it lives up the imagination and lyrical promise of Mr. Splitfoot. It’s a collection of magically realistic short stories linked by the slender threads of motif: swimming pools, deer women, motherhood. Hunt’s characters are complex individuals just trying to survive their lives, as they are forced to choose between confronting or ignoring the quiet strangeness of their world. Her plots meander at times, but she makes up for it with a clever and careful use of language. The crown jewel of this book is “The Story of Of,” which at first appears to be a repetition of an earlier story. It starts with an infertile woman in a restaurant and ends shattering every rule of the writing world. Hunt gently mocks the ridiculous mechanics of literature while simultaneously making a magnificent contribute to it.