Set amid the devastation of a new American civil war, Hestia Strikes a Match is the story of a woman looking for love and friendship, even as the world collapses.
This acerbically funny and tender book about endurance is laced with tangible affection ... Hestia Strikes a Match could have been a solid exploration of contemporary politics or an amusing middle-age rom-com, but Grillo’s secondary characters make this a book about repair and unexpected community ... Grillo’s search for reunion extends in all directions in this supremely layered, emotionally and intellectually resonant novel for our time.
The mutation of the nation’s current political dysfunction into actual civil war is fast becoming a go-to setting for contemporary fiction, but debut novelist Grillo puts a new spin on it by focusing on the romantic misadventures of Hestia ... A sharply observed and written tale that never seems to add up to much.
The civil war element doesn’t yield much of a plot, though an act of Confederate terrorism proves consequential, and as Hestia adjusts to the new normal, she finds time for sex while the ruins of democracy smolder in the background. Occasionally, the setup feels half-baked, though for the most part Grillo pulls off a clever satire of life in a divided country. At its best, this is Bridget Jones’s Diary for the post-MAGA era.
