MESSES WE MADE

Bennett’s collection of short stories centers flawed, vulnerable characters as they navigate loss, regret, and fleeting joys.

The author captures the quiet struggles of everyday life with warmth and occasional tension in this subtle exploration of aging, loneliness, and human connection. In the first story, “Daredevils,” a couple moves through a strained Sunday morning after the woman returns from an unexpected night away. As she gets dressed to head out for work, the narrator is reminded of the lack of excitement in his life as he watches a pilot pull off daring stunts in a nearby field. Dissatisfaction with the realities of adult life is a common theme, also cropping up in “Rain,” in which 46-year-old Carl wakes up after a drunken argument with his teenage son. After storming out of the house, Carl is clipped by a kid on a bicycle, whom he then spends the rest of the story trying to track down; his misguided pursuit escalates into an embarrassing standoff with a group of boys on the boardwalk, revealing Carl’s fear, anger, and difficulty with letting go. The vulnerability and helplessness that comes with aging are movingly depicted in “Dancing Guy,” in which an evening on the boardwalk finds a man named Eddie tap-dancing for Jack, his eccentric neighbor, and a woman named Roz. This is interrupted by a tense confrontation with two punks, highlighting the lack of dignity afforded to those on the margins of society. Bennett ends the collection with “Messes We Made,” the tragic tale of two lifelong friends who grow up drinking and lifeguarding along the Jersey Shore. The story deftly charts the slow unraveling of one of the friends, Phil, whose alcoholism leads to his divorce and the loss of his job. The narrator struggles to reconcile nights when Phil insisted they had plenty left in the tank and Phil’s lonely death. Throughout these stories, Bennett displays a gift for turning ordinary moments into rich, emotional landscapes, though the sheer number of the pieces gathered here can make this a slog at times.

The minutia of daily life, transformed into affecting narratives.