Review: Heartbreakingly brilliant.....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 16, 2014
My heart breaks a little every time I read R.H. Ramsey’s work. What leads a person to address abuse, mental illness and addiction? It’s so easy not to talk about these tough topics, and yet they’re clearly issues that Ramsey seeks to bring to the forefront. The first short story of the novel, “Fist”, is a story of abuse told from the perspective of the abuser. Ramsey gives us pathology of a man who terrorizes his young daughters and wife. The rage of the abuser and fear of the children and the hints of brutality are soul ripping. The story is written with a beautiful flow that makes no excuse for this antagonist, but shows the helplessness of everyone involved.Undone: Excerpts, short stories and other musings is free form. The placement of the excerpts and stories feel random brought together by theme. The snippets of the novels chosen work well in this format.  We meet Landon of Just Beneath the Surface II: Landon’s Story (Volume 2) at the start of his novel when he walks into his home to find his girlfriend strung out again and he wearily works to sober her up. Tying into that excerpt is a short story entitled “Oxycotin” which chronicles a young life absorbed by addiction. There is consideration given to theme and an inability to escape terrible and destructive situations that may have more in common than a reader may have originally thought.“My Mother’s Shadow” tells the reader symbolically that bringing these issues to light opens them to the world and gives the reader hope in the poignant oppressiveness of the issue.Ramsey’s stories are hard to read. They are raw, meaningful and intended to make a reader think and they accomplish that goal in spades. Hug your children tight and pick up Undone: Excerpts, short stories and other musings if you’re not sure Ramsey’s writing is for you and fall for her clean style and leave a bit of your soul behind.