From Birds of A Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman
Scribner – March 2012

“When someone’s ideal is the absence of all human life, romance is kind of a joke.”

Enough With Us is a kind of grass roots start-up sustained by granola bars and bacon bits which seems to be rooted in every part of this story. Our heroine meets Malachi at a vegan cooking class, and sort of burrows into his fur for warmth and comfort. Along the way she starts to live his life, which is to run, sustain, and spread the good word about EWS. Which is a champion of a few disturbing things. They aren’t pro-life, or choice, they are pro-no life.

How big is your carbon foot print? Malachi wants to know, and he sounds like a giant pain in the ass. He’s convinced the human race will go down like the dinosaurs. So why is she with him? Oh, well, she gets pregnant, and Malachi wants her to choose between his set-in- stone ideas that the world isn’t worth spit, and a child.

Motherhood is a tricky beast. There are no rules for what women will do once they get pregnant. Malachi should know this, but he’s too busy being a smarty pants. I’d kick his ass if I met him. Yes, the world is stressed out, we’re low on essential life stuff.

The above quote comes around when it’s clear that Malachi’s line of bullshit is just that. Does Ms. Bergman take us to a safe place, a house that smeels baked goods? Of course. Does she take the bullshit out of this story and boil down the real reasons why people make the choices they do? Skip to this story when you get the ARC. At this point I’m going all Annie Wilkes on Ms. Bergman. My apologies, it has been a long time since I fell so hard for a collection of stories.