The Really Funny Thing About Apathy
Sunnyoutside, 2011
Paperback, 68 pages, $13

Four easily digestible shorts fixate on fleeting incidents in the life of the young and fearful. Says Kevin Sampsell, author of A Common Pornography: "These stories are awesome little jigsaw puzzles that turn into a whole miraculous universe. And in this universe, Chelsea Martin (Individualized Major 2008) is yearning for the answers to life's biggest questions in the most entertaining way possible. This contemplative little book is both funny ha ha and funny peculiar." A knock on the door precipitates the nonaction of "At the End of This Story the Door Will Open and Under Eight Seconds Will Have Passed," in which the narrator mulls over who might be calling. She runs through a series of insignificant scenarios, testing out irony and earnestness, before concluding, "I half believed that the world made sense and I just didn't get it."