rev. of How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

How to Breathe Underwater, stories by Julie Orringer: The three stories that open this debut collection are pure gems, rollicking along with scintillating prose and surety. Just when you think they will stop—and lesser writers would stop—they keep going with inexorable momentum. Almost all of the stories involve youths imperiled—by accidents, illness, fate, and, most interestingly, by siblings and other children, who bring new meaning to "cruel and unusual" punishments. (Knopf)