Varied, engaging, and skillfully written tales.
A brief collection of five short stories explores universal themes from a variety of perspectives.
Williams’ debut book opens with the title tale, in which a man deals with life at home with his geriatric dog in the early days of the pandemic. In “Uncle Duck,” a fraught relationship between uncle and nephew becomes more complicated with a bathroom renovation. “Ludmilla This, Ludmilla That” tells of a New Yorker’s sequentially unsuccessful attempts at romance. “Bunny” jumps back to the early days of the Great Depression as a woman tries to ensure that her sister’s death is treated respectfully, at least by the local newspaper. The final work, “The Guru Had an Off Night,” returns to the present as a father and son suffer through a tedious sales pitch with appropriate skepticism. The five stories are varied in topic and style, and they demonstrate an appreciable versatility; for example, Williams experiments with a choppy, commandlike prose in the opening tale: “Stop & Shop. Short line out front. Social distance. Grim faces. Mask up, eyes down.” Other stories offer more traditional narratives and delve into familiar themes, such as masculinity, family, and connection, from different angles (“I was more comfortable as the father of a little boy than of a teenager, even less so now of a young man,” the narrator of “The Guru Had an Off Night” muses), offering thought-provoking and challenging interpretations of human beings’ responsibilities toward one another. Manhattanites and those from other parts of New York state will particularly appreciate the precision of most stories’ carefully developed settings, which are full of subtle, realistic details. Some characters are less engaging than others—in particular, the protagonist of “Ludmilla” grows tedious with his expectations of reciprocated affections—but most are compelling and multilayered, offering readers plenty to ponder.
Varied, engaging, and skillfully written tales.Pub Date: March 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781667880914
Page Count: 90
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.
A British widow travels to Ibiza and learns that it’s never too late to have a happy life.
In a world that seems to be getting more unstable by the moment, Haig’s novels are a steady ship in rough seas, offering a much-needed positive message. In works like the bestselling The Midnight Library (2020), he reminds us that finding out what you truly love and where you belong in the universe are the foundations of building a better existence. His latest book continues this upbeat messaging, albeit in a somewhat repetitive and facile way. Retired British schoolteacher Grace Winters discovers that an old acquaintance has died and left her a ramshackle home in Ibiza. A widow who lost her only child years earlier, Grace is at first reluctant to visit the house, because, at 72, she more or less believes her chance for happiness is over—but when she rouses herself to travel to the island, she discovers the opposite is true. A mystery surrounds her friend’s death involving a roguish islander, his activist daughter, an internationally famous DJ, and a strange glow in the sea that acts as a powerful life force and upends Grace’s ideas of how the cosmos works. Framed as a response to a former student’s email, the narrative follows Grace’s journey from skeptic (she was a math teacher, after all) to believer in the possibility of magic as she learns to move on from the past. Her transformation is the book’s main conflict, aside from a protest against an evil developer intent on destroying Ibiza’s natural beauty. The outcome is never in doubt, and though the story often feels stretched to the limit—this novel could have easily been a novella—the author’s insistence on the power of connection to change lives comes through loud and clear.
Haig’s positive message will keep his fans happy.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593489277
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
An uncompromising message, delivered via a gripping story with two engaging heroines.
An undergraduate at Brown University unearths the buried history of a Latine artist.
As in her bestselling debut, Olga Dies Dreaming (2022), Gonzalez shrewdly anatomizes racial and class hierarchies. Her bifurcated novel begins at a posh art-world party in 1985 as the title character, a Cuban American land and body artist, garners recognition that threatens the ego of her older, more famous husband, white minimalist sculptor Jack Martin. The story then shifts to Raquel Toro, whose working-class, Puerto Rican background makes her feel out of place among the “Art History Girls” who easily chat with professors and vacation in Europe. Nonetheless, in the spring of 1998, Raquel wins a prestigious summer fellowship at the Rhode Island School of Design, and her faculty adviser is enthusiastic about her thesis on Jack Martin, even if she’s not. Soon she’s enjoying the attentions of Nick Fitzsimmons, a well-connected, upper-crust senior. As Raquel’s story progresses, Anita’s first-person narrative acquires a supernatural twist following the night she falls from the window of their apartment —“jumped? or, could it be, pushed?”—but it’s grimly realistic in its exploration of her toxic relationship with Jack. (A dedication, “In memory of Ana,” flags the notorious case of sculptor Carl Andre, tried and acquitted for the murder of his wife, artist Ana Mendieta.) Raquel’s affair with Nick mirrors that unequal dynamic when she adapts her schedule and appearance to his whims, neglecting her friends and her family in Brooklyn. Gonzalez, herself a Brown graduate, brilliantly captures the daily slights endured by someone perceived as Other, from microaggressions (Raquel’s adviser refers to her as “Mexican”) to brutally racist behavior by the Art History Girls. While a vividly rendered supporting cast urges Raquel to be true to herself and her roots, her research on Martin leads to Anita’s art and the realization that she belongs to a tradition that’s been erased from mainstream art history.
An uncompromising message, delivered via a gripping story with two engaging heroines.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781250786210
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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