HEART-WORK

Silman’s short stories intricately explore themes of family, grief, and aging.

In “Here We Go Again, Alice,” Joereflects on his childhood and his older sister’s untimely death as he comes to grips with his wife’s pregnancy and his impending transition into parenthood. In “Labyrinth of Love,” set in the late 1950s, Muffie lands her first job after college, which leads to a sexual awakening and a relationship with a wealthy but insecure man. Dinah, in “The Scent of Lilacs,” processes her grief after the death of her husband and father of her two children, Max and Addie. In 2019, as Vera Schoenfeld reaches the age of 70, she opens her home as a B&B and strikes up a friendship with Simon Lang, a 76-year-old who becomes a long-term boarder (“Bed and Breakfast”). Laura appears in multiple stories, including one about hiking through Europe with her husband and their three kids, aged 5 through 13 (“On the Way to Courmayeur”); watching her children grow up (“Touchstone”) and contending with her elderly parents’ mortality (“Heart-work”) and with getting older herself (“The Sugar Road”). Silman’s collection of 16 short stories explores heavy but universal themes. Many characters are college-educated writers living in or around New York:They’re each their own person and easily distinguishable from one another. Throughout, the stories offer masterful and authentic representation of the Jewish American experience. The author’s deep characterization of Laura is especially compelling as she navigates marriage and motherhood. The tales focusing on Laura’s relationship with her parents—particularly her ill and dying father—are also engaging (“My Chilean Playwright”; “Her Father’s Voice” ;the title story). Readers will also lose themselves in the author’s evocative prose as they become immersed in each chapter, as in a description of an artist in “My Chilean Playwright”: “In the morning light bathing her face she has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. A brilliant sky-blue that she never uses in her work. Is that because there are no blue fruits or vegetables, or because she has enough blue in her life?”

A powerful collection of intimate, heart-wrenching stories.