A fine and varied collection that gives eloquent voice to the unsayable.
An anthology offers short stories about breaking cultural and family rules.
The editors of this collection—Smith, Neville, and Laskar—gained their inspiration from the fourth lesson, titled “Ideas: Exploring Taboo and Darkness,” in Joyce Carol Oates’ MasterClass lecture on the art of the short story. Tales about the overall theme, breaking taboos, were in some cases solicited directly from contributors while others were selected from entries by authors responding to an open call for stories. Many of these were previously published in other collections or literary journals. The anthology also reprints “Gargoyle” by Oates. Unsurprisingly one of the strongest tales in the collection, the story is narrated by a woman who is driving the streets in the wee hours, her thoughts directed at her lover’s wife. Adultery, though, isn’t her chief transgression; it’s loneliness, something that can’t be talked about and has twisted her sensibility toward the grotesque. The narrator’s memory and imagination, especially of her lover’s wife’s pregnancy, are haunted by the sinister, with Oates maintaining the chilling tone in sentences where every word counts. The opening piece, “True Crime” by Kim Addonizio, is another potent tale that digs beneath the surface. Teenage girls steal from school lockers or stores, even taking a diamond necklace from a friend’s house; they get fake IDs and have unprotected sex. Or do they? The narrator’s story keeps changing: “Here’s the necklace. Is it real? Is it fake? Does it even exist? Who gives a shit?” The powerlessness of their world and the hopelessness of their prospects are the true crimes.
Drugs and alcoholism represent another class of taboo examined in several tales. In “Exit Stage” by Chavisa Woods, for example, a high school girl endangers her future by snorting cocaine with her mother even as she suspects that, on some level, her mom wants her to fail. Other stories concern transgressions of family and cultural mores, as in “The Tao of Good Families” by Soniah Kamal, in which a Pakistani girl learns what she truly values about people, and “I Still Like Pink” by Francine Rodriguez, in which a gay teenager resolves that being her true self is more important than facing anyone’s disapproval. Few readers would argue with the premise of such pieces, but other tales challenge the sensibilities more intensely. In “Not a Cupid,” for instance, by Molly Giles, the female narrator buys a young boy named Beto in Juarez. Hedrugs, gags, and binds her, touching her sexually and playing with her body. The encounter assuages her loneliness, so she concludes: “I will not use my knife on this one I thought....It will take some time, but this one I will teach.” The story’s tender ending makes it all the more horrifying and truly transgressive. Some pieces are more lighthearted, such as “Jamboree” by Pam Houston, in which a woman and her dog prank a gun-loving “Mountain Man” convention.
A fine and varied collection that gives eloquent voice to the unsayable.Pub Date: March 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-94-869264-9
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Madville Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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
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