Review: Emotionally tone deaf
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2011
These stories aren't written badly, but they struck me as emotionally "off" or tone deaf.  Fiction about abuse -- whether physical or emotional -- can take us places that are difficult, places that are unfamiliar or maybe sadly familiar.  But in each story, I found myself thinking that people wouldn't act that way or think that way -- things were a little too pat, a little too rushed.  Language was a bit careless, observations were a little bit off.It's hard to specify exactly what seemed off about these stories but it was almost as if I was reading a collection of stories written by somebody who hadn't had much more exposure to father/child dynamics than watching a Lifetime movie marathon.