Book Review: Claire-Louise Bennett, ‘Big Kiss, Bye-Bye’

I never knew how sensitive I was until I started to write. Anything less than 100% praise will send me off-kilter; someone I was dating at the time said an essay of mine was “insular,” and once, on a family vacation, my mother said that the characters in a short story were “unlikeable” and the whole thing was “trying too hard to be funny.” It would have been better for her to abandon me years earlier so I wouldn’t have to hear that. I sulked internally, lest I ruin the vacation — plus, you’re not allowed to be too mad at someone paying for your meals.