MOVING ON

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.