I-96: Short Stories

Like cars snaking down the interstate, Judith Roof’s I-96 offers a contemporary collection of singular yet connected short stories fueled by America’s lifeblood: individualism and gasoline.

Roof’s incendiary wit and sly commentary poke at the ＂-isms＂ driving our collective road rage . . . regional and political stereotypes, gender and sexual anxieties, parenting and policing, anti-intellectualism and aging, and the being and nothingness that comprise the human condition.

In the vein of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Franz Kafka, Jean Shepherd, and others, just when the protagonists let off the gas, a twist in the route sparks chaos and collision, with others as well as ourselves.

I-96 unfolds traditional literary maps to travel new paths - trapping its characters and readers alike in moving vehicles on this never-ending highway - ever isolated but also refusing the share the road.