Promising story from new writer in current New Yorker

Good to see the New Yorker introducing a new American writer w/ short story in current edition by writer named Thomas Pierce about whom the notes say his debut collection is coming soon. On the plus side, his story Ba Baboon show promise as a quirky and witty writer - his voice reminds me a little of TC Boyle and a little less so of George Saunders, two NYer staples, so you can see how Pierce appealed to the fiction editor whoever that may be, and good company: this story about a 40ish man and his sister, he's been seriously brain-injured in a robbery and she helps care for him - he is ambulant but his mind's not right, which leads to some interesting creative possibilities for the author - mixing time sequences and blended reality and illusion, as we see things for most of the story from the POV of the injured man. Story opens with man and sister hiding in some kind of kitchen food pantry, and she's peaking out the door wondering when and how they can leave; an unusual beginning to a story, and it takes us quite a while to figure out what's going on - I would guess most readers would think initially that these are two children playing a game. As we get our bearings we gradually learn: they have entered the house of sister's ex-boyfriend but have been surprised by a couple of guard dogs and are pinned in the closet till they can make an escape and sneak past the dogs. Later we learn (spoilers here) that the sister entered house not to feed the dogs but the steal a porno "tape" ex-boyfriend has made of her; ultimately, she grabs a stack of cassettes, when she gets home they play a cassette and realize it's just a family recording of his kids - she and brother are very moved by this, a scene from a, seemingly, happy family  - very different from theirs. It's great that the story actually has a narrative arc and that Pierce brings it to a full and meaningful conclusion - very unusual among young (I assume he's young - but what's with the references to cassettes? how long ago did this story take place, supposedly?) writer. The only drawback here for me, perhaps also typical of young writers, is the obviously forced quality to the narrative: these events are the kind of things that "characters" do but that "people" never do, or almost never - it all feels like a narrative set-up, a device, to place characters in jeopardy and hold our attention fast. W/ his talent, though, I'm hoping that Pierce has written and will write other stories that rely less on exaggerated plot elements and more on a natural flow of action and dialog - it's great to see something "happen" in a story, but it should feel organic to the characters rather than imposed by the author.