DEAR ORCHID

Novelist Van Den Hende provides a compilation of essays and short stories reflecting on her life and interests as a writer.

The author tees up this collection of short nonfiction and fiction pieces by noting that “stories can live on, not with a reverberating boom, but with an echo, an insistent tug to revisit what haunts us or heals us.” The opener, “Still, You’re Tall,” is about Van Den Hende meeting triple amputee Iraq War veteran U.S. Army Sgt. Bryan Anderson, an inspiration for her Goodbye Orchid trilogy, which featured the character of Phoenix Walker, an entrepreneur who lost an arm and a leg after saving a man from a suicide attempt at a subway station. The anthology then unfurls in four sections: “Where I Begin,” reminiscences about a childhood shadowed by the illness, then death of her father; “A Coterie of Orchids,” a series of epistolary episodes about pivotal experiences, including meeting her husband and returning to a “post-punk nightclub from the 1980’s”; “Meeting My Heroes,” honoring Anderson and other “real-life warriors who shaped my fiction and my heart;” and “Fate Chance Love,” six short stories about “resilience, compassion, and the redemptive power of second chances,” which her Goodbye Orchid saga also addresses. Fans of Van Den Hende’s work will recognize and appreciate the warmth and insight in this lovely literary offering, which skillfully connects her range of topics to her formation as a writer. A particularly touching entry is “Dear Mr. Ten-Speed,” about a silent childhood acquaintance to whom she later dedicated her third novel. Certain stories may resonate with some target audiences more than others; “Goldie Forever,” for instance, may appeal most to cat lovers, as it’s about the author’s childhood feline, given away during her father’s illness, which, she wonders, may have been reincarnated as her future pets.

A gracefully executed exploration of an engaging scribe’s thoughts and journeys.