Switch - Hardcover

Carol Guess's lyrical and accomplished second novel, set in small-town Indiana, is poised on the tension between the surface cheeriness of the waitresses at the M&H Diner and their dark inner lives. Caddie and her friends each have a secret and, through years of hiding and watchfulness, they have developed a wary alertness to what other people are withholding. Since her lover Jo skipped town, no one escapes Caddie's attention or the brief focus of her shifting desire. She learns that shallow, selfish Gwen, the new girl at the diner, has a surprisingly rich singing voice, "as if all the things she knew she kept hidden in her throat," and that Selena, her long-time ally, cares little for people, but will kiss a $50 bill when she thinks no one is looking. Suffering makes Caddie compassionate, as well as needy, and she unhesitatingly adopts the small orange cat that shows up on her doorstep one rainy night. Here at last is something to love, someone to listen to her dangerous confidences. But why does the cat remind her of her lost lover? And where does the cat disappear to when the lover finally returns? Switch is a complex, haunting novel with mystical overtones and a mastery of narrative voice. --Regina Marler

Carol Guess is the author of the fiction collection DARLING ENDANGERED (Brooklyn Arts Press); the novels Seeing Dell (Cleis Press) and SWITCH (Calyx Books); a memoir, Gaslight (Odd Girls Press); three poetry collections, FEMME'S DICTIONARY (Calyx Books), DOLL STUDIES: FORENSICS (Black Lawrence Press) and TINDERBOX LAWN (Rose Metal Press); and a collection of essays, MY FATHER IN WATER (Shearsman Books). She teaches Creative Writing and Queer Studies at Western Washington University and lives with her spouse, writer Elizabeth Colen, on the Washington coast.