Tougher Than the Rest by Dina Del Bucchia
DIna Del Bucchia is a tough customer. Is she tougher than the rest? Possibly! Is she tougher that the women in this collection of short stories? Maybe! But they are pretty tough. And, like I love Dina, I fucking love the characters in these stories fiercely, even the ones I don’t get, or don’t like very much (spoiler: there’s only one). These women are angry and sweet and weird and loving all at once - like most women I know.
This self-described “weird girl” story collection exposes the tyranny of the neo-capitalist world we live in. The characters in Dina Del Bucchia’s new short story collection tougher than the rest, live in the Vancouver of the future; a slightly different (but not very different) future iteration of Vancouver where you work for a nameless corporation, all your friends have moved to the suburbs, “cheap rent” comes with sketchy power and you get your teeth cleaned by a robot. A great example of a capitalist dumpster fire!
Wait. Is the future now?
Here’s the playlist of this collection, please listen to it as an actual music playlist on repeat as you read (or before and after, if that’s too distracting)!:
Night Moves
A lonely, underpaid dental receptionist shops at a thrift store and discovers a lifelike sex robot for sale, and she is immediately fascinated. When her loneliness gets too much she ends up buying the robot and treating him like a less annoying easier to manage boyfriend. She doesn’t mind robots, she works with several at the dental office, but of course Matty (short for the unfortunate “Mattel” that the Thrift store woman named him) has small quirks and abilities that give her pleasure and make her feel nice. And loved.
But soon, Matty develops a glitch and can’t stop asking her “how do you feel?” No one likes that.
Poignant, tender and strange.
Tougher than the Rest
This title story is in my top 3 of this collection. A woman is a comment moderator for a company called Comment Custodian she monitors websites like EverEverStream (a YouTube type platform); she has to spend her days (or nights) checking on flagged comments and reporting them. or not as she feels necessary. She lives in a small room with a friend. Power is spotty so she sometimes has to steal wifi from the bar her roommate works at. She clocks a commenter on a EverEverStream who seems sad and lonely and not really stable, so against the policy of EverEverStream, she begins messaging them to check in. They begin to bond over their deep connection to classic rock and especially Bruce Springsteen (because timeless) despite the timeline and their youth.
Bleak but also extremely hopeful!
It’s all over now, Baby Blue
A functionally depressed woman struggles to cope with the possible suicide of her partner. On leave from her work, she meets with her manager (and friend) to try to come back to work but: no can do. They are worried about her mental health. She fills her time by going to Stanley Park and watching the wildlife, hoping to find clues, a sign, something to help her process her partners disappearance. Instead, select animals start talking to her to give her advice. She becomes obsessed with the talking animals and the park and withdraws even further into herself, ghosting her boss after she is told she can return to work. She story culminates into a perfectly fantastical peak that I won’t spoil here. This story is dark and comedic, every sentence a treasure trove of zingers you’ll want to read twice.
Wild and surreal.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Poor Allie, trying to climb the ladder to a better job at Platinum Corp. This story was grotesque and funny. I could feel the sinister management structure trickling down and poisoning every worker in its path! Scarily believable! As soon as Allie gets the job as a Junior Executive Assistant to Lucien she slowly becomes infected with a corporate evil. Because what choice does she have, right? She needs this job.
This allegory of corporate capitalist greed killed me.
I Want Candy
This story really starts showing us how vast the class divide is in future Vancouver. Written as Yelp-like reviews online, one reviewer (Jenny F.) writes glowing reviews of extremely high-end places and the other (Nic B.) responding to her reviews only to expose the insane privilege of people who eat at places like “Aprés Afloat” (“that has tables suspended from the goddamn ceiling like a production of Peter Pan.”)
The result is a hilarious battle of reviews ending in violence. The writing was so sparse and the voices so clear, making the ending all the more jarring and impactful.
Devastating.
Working for the Weekend
Three best friends are meeting in Harrison Hot Springs for a fun girls weekend and Paula is really looking forward to it. Her other 2 friends have fancy careers and family and Paula knows they have busy lives but getting together like this is like a balm for Paula. Before her friends arrive Paula has encounters with other guests at the hotel and Paula begins to feel a close connection to Joanie, an older woman with a luminous presence. When one of her friends end up bring their spouse the other her children along, a deep fury begins to burn within Paula. Quite literally. Antics ensue! Supernatural powers!
Fun and Cathartic.
Here I go Again
This is the one! The story that made me mad! But I loved it. Kristie is infuriating: privileged, rich, naive, loves yoga pants - she thinks she is a #feminist but when she tries to join a feminist action group to “give back” things start falling apart almost immediately.
Kristie seems incredibly lonely, married to her career in finance, and has a false nostalgia for her activism days in university. She remembers it as rewarding, but all the instances that she recalls are of others ostracizing her, while she was being great. She wants to rewrite the story with this new activism starring herself as the heroine, but her polished, overly resourced suggestions just serve to push these young activists away. I was so invested in Kristie’s arc. I wanted her to change, for the women in the group not to be cruel, like the others who had shunned her in university. Kristie made me feel sorry for her and disdainful for her cluelessness at the same time.
Riveting. Made me close the book a couple of times because, COME ON, Kristie.
Dream On
Hmmmmm…. maybe this body horror story is the darkest story? I mean, it definitely is, who am I kidding!?
It starts innocently enough: 2 influencers making their way! One, Petra, is young and still paying her dues: getting more freebies than sponsorship, and the other is a 10 year veteran, Hazel, who is taking Petra under her wing. Hazel has developed an illness related to the beauty products she has been using as an influencer and while she undergoes treatment, Petra makes a judgement call and signs a contract to have a procedure done with a company called SkinSoYou. There are devastating consequences.
The perils of the cult of beauty are split open and are brutally laid bare and the evils redeemed by the strength of women’s friendship.
Under my Thumb
Hahahahaha! I will only say this - this is a great fantasy and I am here for it! Another great character, but unlike Kristie, this woman actually uses her resources for true, grassroots activism, yes and violence, but guys - it’s just a story, ok?
The perfect endcap to this collection and on point to read post-municipal election in Vancouver.
Woven throughout these main stories is a moving narrative of a young 14 year old girl who has made it her mission to deface every development application sign in the city. She and her mom have been terminated from their home and her anger has been replaced with determination. It’s beautiful to read.
Catch Dina at Vancouver Writers Festival event 64 Dancing On My Own: Lyrics Night tonight at 8 pm at Performance Works on Granville Island! And subscribe to her Substack.
✌︎︎♡⃛📖