CAN I HAVE A HUG FIRST?

Praise for CAN I HAVE A HUG FIRST

Can I Have a Hug First? is a fever dream of a short story collection. Each story is lit with quick bolts of humor and surrealism as the characters act and speak in unexpected ways, often saying the quiet part out loud in a delightfully devious way. This book kept me on my toes. The characters, fueled by anxieties, miscommunications, and humor, second-guess and worry their way against a backdrop of dance and family dynamics and personal doubt. Often they’re stuck in a state of freeze, unsure of what to do next. But this tension is also a propeller, and I found myself silently screaming at them like old friends, like when the dance instructor couldn’t tell if her student had died (!!!) in “The Dance Studio.” 

“The Pressing Foundation,” nails the push-and-pull of worry and confusion that comes with waiting for a medical diagnosis and results, while the main character is also constantly searching for her husband. What’s lost, what’s found, what was always there, and what never was? Plus the ending imagery is beautiful. 

Hunter has a talent for portraying family life in all its mundane, gross, flawed beauty. In the story, “Bring Things Out In People,” a frazzled mother handles a health scare while juggling the reality of sexual harassment. This story made me pause because it felt so true in its everyday horror. And it ends on the gut-punch line of internalized blame: “I don’t trust him,” I said, wondering, as my husband lifted his eyebrows, if he, too, thought I brought things out in people.” 

I also loved that the opening of “A Magnet for the Weird and Desperate” starts out with, “I never open the front door to anyone, not even to someone I know. When I hear knocking, the first thing I do is drop to the floor and crawl like a baby. Sometimes I log roll.” Such an amazing way to start a story. 

Hunter pulls the surreal from the everyday in a unique way that left me wondering is life stranger than fiction? Or are we?

KERRY DONOGHUE, Author of MOUTH

Playlist for CAN I HAVE A HUG FIRST?

About MARY PAULA HUNTER

MARY PAULA HUNTER came to writing as a performance artist fusing text with dance. Her debut novel, SOMEONE ELSE (2019) has a five-star rating on Amazon and was selected by Kirkus Indie Editors to be featured in the Kirkus Reviews (June 2020). Her writing has been called "brilliant" by The Village Voice and The Manhattan Spirit. CAN I HAVE A HUG FIRST? was published by GULF COAST online (2018). HEAVEN a flash fiction piece was published in FLASH FICTION MAGAZINE (2016). GROCERY STORE, submitted to Glimmer Train placed in the top 3% and was awarded Honorable Mention. Hunter gained her perspective on life growing up in the midwest in a family of eccentrics. She lives in Providence, RI with her husband Brown University historian, Richard Meckel.