Excellent short-story collection. Subtle, insightful, true. I would agree that the giant mustard penis is the best entry, but capping off a collection that needs to be read first. ( )

The author, a Detroit native, an academic and an attorney, brings her own childhood in the 1970s and 1980s to bear in these very clever stories, earning an enthusiastic endorsement from Tayari Jones (An American Marriage). Out of the eleven, the most poignant and infuriating is the title story, based on a Cheryl Lynn disco tune, Star Love, from 1978. In it, an indignant mother corresponds with a bureaucratic white school administration determined to derail the education of her black son. It's both hilarious and furious, and so vivid in the mother's attempts to corral her contempt so as to not make more trouble for her son. It appears to have been written through gritted teeth. In another story, an African American teenager is discouraged by the response to her portrayal of Maria in a school play of The Sound Of Music. Her father, a former backup singer in a well-known Motown group, refuses to let her back down, extolling: "Do it until their clapping sounds like love." This is a smoothly flowing collection of very sharp observations. ( )