Community Klepto

May 1, 2022
At 25, narrator Ann finds herself alone, anxious, supported by her parents, and deeply rooted in kleptomaniac tendencies. More often than not, she fulfills her need to steal at the Percival O'Shaughnessy Community Center. One day, while pounding on the treadmill and pondering what item to take next, she meets Joe, who invites her to play on his community dodgeball team. This seemingly random invitation ends with Joe asking Ann on a date. Their relationship progresses; so too does the search for the community-center thief. Forced to make a decision about what she wants her future to be, Ann must also grapple with the fact that Joe might not be who he seems. As readers get to know Ann, her true self begins to emerge as a person searching for a path forward to heal. In this quick-paced read, Hitchcock creates characters who are well developed and humorous. She weaves complex psychological topics with a lighthearted, romantic story line in a way that proves to be both entertaining and thought provoking.

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June 1, 2022
A socially awkward millennial and small-town criminal sees the error of her ways--but can she change them? In a suburban Kansas community center health club, fanatical exerciser Ann Josephson is sweating it out six days a week early in 2016. She's the sticky-fingered, mid-20s protagonist of Hitchcock's devilishly fun second novel. While scoping out a woman's unsecured belongings in the locker room, Ann, whose pessimistic interior monologue dominates much of the narrative, innocently remarks, "Anyone could just walk up and take it, but I actually do." Ann steals at will, adding pilfered items to the ever expanding "junk mountain" kept at home. Apart from her rampant kleptomania, she struggles as a graphic designer while keeping up appearances for her affluent, well-meaning parents, who keep her financially afloat. Her therapist prescribes regular doses of encouragement, particularly when a friendly fellow gym-goer named Joe invites her to join his dodgeball team. As the gym warns members about the thief among them, Ann becomes distracted by the possibilities of jump-starting her nonexistent personal life. Joe's offer hits Ann's needy sweet spot, and soon they're dating, but a twist near the end makes her rethink every aspect of her sociopathic side hustle. While an entertaining, contemporary psychological character study, the story also intelligently reflects upon society, anxiety, depression, and the implicitly competitive, body-conscious social dynamics of gym culture (Ann calls the rush of new members in January, "Resolutionaries"). Narrated by Ann, the novel initially doesn't work quite hard enough to make its heroine likable, but ultimately Ann's attempts at self-reflection and corrective behavior draw readers closer to a woman with a warm heart behind all the chilly, snappish dissatisfaction with others. While the novel has humor, humanity, and pathos, perhaps its best quality lies in Hitchcock's talent for making you care about whether a socially challenged, mean-spirited thief can become a self-aware, remorseful sweetheart thanks to a smitten cop. A clever, endearing, and funny tale of one woman's missteps and her efforts to atone.

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