Review: What a collection of short stories. Tender. Fascinating. Sad. Funny. So worth reading.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2014
This collection of eclectic short stories about mothers, women, and others, is so worth reading.'One of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands - bare hands - and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon. Bare hands - a kind of mad courage.' ~Robert FulghumThat Robert Fulghum quote opens the introduction to this book of short stories about mothers, and certainly (as a mother myself), motherhood, perhaps personhood, takes a kind of mad courage.Whether you're a mother, or the child of one, the stories and themes explored in this book will evoke many emotions. I felt joy, love, sorrow, anxiety, fear, disgust, and more, the full gamut of human emotions in reading the many different types of stories in this book.The ending of one of my favorite stories, 'Verity' by Wendy Janes, about an aging woman in the UK, made me cry from surprise and possibility. I won't spoil the story but say that the skillful denouement, and the general short story plot included a sort of lovely misdirection (whether intentional or unintentional) which meant I was surprised and truly touching in reading the ending. The prose pacing and ambiance of that story really flowed and gave me a sense of being there.Many of these stories touch the heart and well explore the human and, in particular, the female human condition.This is the kind of short story collection that bears reading and re-reading.I felt horror and disgust at another story, that described a murder (which I am able to write about but am more squeamish when reading). Other stories tugged my heart-strings, including, curiously, a mother's tale of temporary abandonment of her family (I won't spoil the plot by stating the title of that short). Certainly a couple of the stories were less beloved to me than others (one writer had a more stilted, distant way of writing that I find off-putting, which other readers may find old-fashioned or even literary), yet all of the stories were nicely written (or very well written).I really enjoyed this book and think that most readers will, too. Happy reading~*