My Body Would Be the Kindest of Strangers

Fiona Helmsley's "My Body Would be The Kindest of Strangers" begins with an epigram from Anne Sexton's "With Mercy for the Greedy" and ends with an essay on the virtues of Courtney Love. In-between, her stories and essays breathe new life into the idea that the things that we are ashamed of often make for the best stories.

Including essays on art and persona, the rejection of the word "victim," and an imagined meeting between Joan Vollmer Burroughs and Patti Smith at the Chelsea Hotel, "My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers" proves Fiona Helmsley is as deft at turning her gaze outward as she is at turning it in on herself.