β Scribed by Robin Black
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The stories in Black's solid debut collection are fraught with loss, usually of a loved one. Evocative and lyrical, the characters' introspections, while sometimes overwrought, are balanced by the sharp dialogue. In The Guide, a father takes his blind teenage daughter to meet her new seeing-eye dog and is forced to confront her independence. While painting a portrait of a man with Alzheimer's, the aging main character of Immortalizing John Parker grapples with the recent death of her lover. The title story is the tale of neighboring couples battling over a fence, told from the perspective of the wife with terminal cancer. In Pine, a woman must decide whether to move on from the memory of her dead husband to begin a love affair with her male best friend. Each story is carefully crafted, though Black is at her best when she resists the impulse toward tidiness. (Apr.)
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A blind daughter prepares to leave her parents and go to college. An artist paints a portrait of a terminally ill man. A young widow contemplates life alone. This collection of poignant stories about lifes transitions examines the truths of human relationships, even when those truths seem almost unbearably depressing. On its own, each story is a delicately crafted look at relationships and life, and is easily read. As a collection, though, a moment or two of comic relief, or a story or two not about death, illness, dying, or betrayal, would help lighten the overall feeling of gloom the book currently evokes. These are well-written explorations of characters and situations sure to appeal to readers of Alice Munro and Mary Gaitskill. --Marta Segal Block
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