The return to the Pacific Northwest and introspective characters finds the author striking familiar, responsive chords.
Some of the best stories in this uneven collection suggest a return to form for a writer better known for his novels.
Guterson’s first story collection in 15 years should appeal to fans of his debut novel (Snow Falling on Cedars, 1994) who might have found the dark, antic humor of his most recent one (Ed King, 2011) jarring. Many of these stories concern the awkwardness of intimacy, how uncomfortable it can be—particularly in the Internet age, which has had such a profound effect on how people understand their own lives and each other. The first story, "Paradise," sets the tone and theme; it concerns two middle-aged people traveling to consummate a relationship that began through an online dating service. They barely know each other except for the narratives they have conjured, and the unnamed man has particular concerns: “He told her he didn’t know what would happen in bed. He said he hadn’t slept with anyone but his wife for twenty-six years—then add on the six months since she’d died of a heart attack while in the middle of leaving him for someone new.” The woman ultimately tells her story, which casts her in a different light than he had imagined, in a tale that resists sentimentality or pat resolution. Many of the rest feature similar difficulties in connecting: the landlord and the title character of “Tenant” (whose interplay is restricted to email and bank transfers until they finally meet in person); the adult brother and sister in “Pilanesberg” (he visits her in Africa, where she is dying of cancer). Many of the stories hit similar notes, in which self-conscious characters discover that “no matter what you did, you were wrong.”
The return to the Pacific Northwest and introspective characters finds the author striking familiar, responsive chords.Pub Date: June 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-35148-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Like a pair of distressed designer jeans, the narrative's scruffiness can feel a little too engineered, but the narrator's...
A young woman with a knack for trick shooting heads west in the late 1800s to track down her outlaw brother.
Jessilyn Harney, the folksy narrator of Larison’s third novel (Holding Lies, 2011, etc.), has grown up watching her family lose its grip on its prairie homestead: Her mother died young, and her father is an alcoholic scraping by with small cattle herds. He’s also persistently at loggerheads with Jess' brother, Noah, who eventually runs off to, if the wanted posters are to be believed, lead a Jesse James–style criminal posse. So when dad dies as well, there’s nothing for teenage Jess to do but head west to find her brother, which she does disguised as a man. (“A man can be invisible when he wants to be.”) Her skill with a gun gets her in the good graces of a territorial governor (Larison is stingy with place names, but we’re near the Rockies), which ultimately leads to Noah and a series of revelations about the false tales of accomplishment that men cloak themselves with. Indeed, Jess’ success depends on repeatedly exploiting false masculine bravado: “I found no shortage of men with a predilection for gambling and an unfounded confidence in their own abilities with a sidearm,” she writes. The novel’s plot is a familiar Western, with duels, raids, and betrayals, brought thematically up to date with a few scenes involving closeted sexuality and mixed-race relationships. But its main distinction is Jess’ narrative voice: flinty, compassionate, unschooled, but observant about a violent world where men “eat bullets and walk among ghosts.” The dialogue sometimes lapses into saloon-talk truisms (“Men is all the time hiding behind words”; “Being a boss is always knowing your true size”). But Jess herself is a remarkable hero.
Like a pair of distressed designer jeans, the narrative's scruffiness can feel a little too engineered, but the narrator's voice is engaging and down-to-earth.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2044-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
A tantalizing, suggestive reconnaissance where the phantasma of other worlds—and private worlds—reveal a disconcerting...
Dr. Montague, an investigator of psychic disturbances, extends an invitation to three young people to join him at Hill House, whose tragic history has made it unfit for human habitation, and where perhaps they can intensify the forces at work.
Eleanor Vance, who had spent eleven years in caring for an invalid mother, is now alone in the world and unwanted—and she has had a poltergeist experience; Theodora is telepathic; and Luke Sanderson is the nephew of the present owner. During the days and nights to follow there are doors that close; drafts that chill; banging and scurrying noises—and writing on the walls. Mrs. Montague arrives—eager to launch a session with planchette and hoping for further materializations beyond these "decided manifestations." But Eleanor becomes increasingly disturbed and distraught; her hoped for close friendship with Theodora is brushed aside—as Theodora goes off alone with Luke; she is the most susceptible to the dark history of this house and attempts to imitate a tragedy in the past; and the story which begins as a spritely tour of the spirit world, ends on a note of real disequilibrium.
A tantalizing, suggestive reconnaissance where the phantasma of other worlds—and private worlds—reveal a disconcerting similarity, and Shirley Jackson's special following will find pause to wonder and admire.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1959
ISBN: 0140071083
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1959
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