A clutch of deeply intelligent short stories.
Kersey presents a collection of short stories that explore the quiet joys and desperations of quotidian life.
In the titular story, Elsie Anderson lives alone—her husband, Bucky, died in World War II. She continues on cheerfully, even as the neighborhood seems to change for the worse, and labors lovingly over her prized lilacs. But after she’s robbed in her own home by two teens, she methodically yanks all the lilacs out of the ground in an angry and methodical response to the cruelty of the world. The author captures her movingly blunt response with great subtly. The story’s understated but powerful conclusion provides the key to the rest of the pieces—meditative investigations of the myriad ways in which human beings cope with the everyday challenges of ordinary life. In “Memorial Day,” Levon, a 12-year-old Black boy, attends a holiday lunch at the home of his white best friend, Dave. Levon hears a neighbor repeatedly use a vile racial slur, and the situation is only worsened by the words of comfort Dave’s mother offers: “Don’t pay any attention to him, Levon. He’s had too much to drink. Besides, you know we don’t think of you that way.’ (What way?)‘Why, you spend so much time with Davey, we don’t even think of you as colored.’ (Let’s hope that’s what she calls you.) ‘You know what I mean.’ (No. I don’t.)” In “Under the Silence,” Kate and Gary, a married couple, ponder the ways marriage changes as they both grow old and find bottomless comfort in the ways their love for each other remains unaltered; it’s a simple tale that poignantly depicts the minor dramas of domestic existence. Kersey has a keen eye for the small-but-profound moments that occur all the time in human affairs but often remain unnoticed in their modesty. This is a short book—not much more than 100 pages—but it’s densely packed with insights.
A clutch of deeply intelligent short stories.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2018
ISBN: 9780692187678
Page Count: 116
Publisher: D + D Creative
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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