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I picked up this book by Kim Edwards because it was on sale at Borders. Yeah. That’s how long this book has been sitting on my shelf before Book Riot made me read it.
Short stories are one of those things I keep meaning to read more of, but I rarely do. I’m always so excited to read the next novel sitting on my shelf or waiting for me at the library that I tend to go straight for it, despite all previous intentions of taking a break to read a short story in between.
Then Book Riot challenged me to read a collection of short stories this year and I decided to go for it. I did read the first short story in this collection shortly after I bought the book, but that was so long ago that I could only vaguely remember what the story was about, so I re-read it when I picked the book up again this year.
I remembered that I really enjoyed reading the first story and that I couldn’t wait to read the rest of the stories in this collection, which leaves me to wonder why I didn’t do so earlier. I refer you to the above-mentioned lame excuses.
I enjoyed the story, “The Great Chain of Being”, as much as I did the first time, but it wasn’t even my favorite story in this collection. Having just finished, I’m still not sure which story was my favorite. “Thirst” is definitely up there. It’s a take on “The Little Mermaid”, but several years after the mermaid has taken human form and married her human, and it was definitely one of my favorites, at least in part because it was a take on something familiar. There were two stories about the discovery of radium: “A Gleaming in the Darkness” and “In the Garden” and they’re both definitely in my top 5.
At 255 pages, this book contains 14 short stories. I decided the only way I was going to get through the challenge was to sit and read all these stories straight through. I got about half way through the book before I decided I needed a break, although I’m not sure why. The only thing I can figure is I became emotionally exhausted by going so quickly from one story to another. Like I said, I’m mainly a novel reader, so I’m used to immersing myself in one story for about a week at a time.
All the stories were subtle and incredibly well written. Almost all of them focus on female characters, what’s expected of them, and the ways they fulfill or deny those expectations. Sometimes they deny them intentionally, other times not so much. I especially liked the way some of the stories focused on a character that was not the narrator. “A Gleaming in the Darkness”, for example, tells a story about Madame Curie and the discovery of radium, but from the point of view of the maid who was hired to clean the building in which the Curies kept their lab and did their research. The narrator talks about how she viewed Madame Curie and contrasts that with how the rest of the world viewed her and I thought that perspective was much more beautiful than if Madame Curie had narrated her own story.
I thought the last story, “The Story of My Life”, was especially poignant, but that might just be because I just finished reading it. It’s about a 17-year-old girl who suddenly realizes her life is nothing like what she thought it was. Her mother has been lying to her her whole life, which means her life hasn’t been her life (or her story) at all: it’s been what her mother has made of it. I loved it because it made me think about whether any of our stories are really our stories or if we’re at the mercy of those around us to create our stories for us. As with most things, I think it ends up being about 50/50.
What did you read this week? Anything that’s been sitting on your shelf for a while? I want to hear all about it!