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The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
By Heidi Durrow
(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Paperback, 9781616200152, January 2011, 278pp.)

The Short of It:

A tragic tale of a motherless girl and her struggle to come to terms with who she is. Strong in voice, but fell short in the execution.

The Rest of It:

After her family falls off the roof of their building, Rachel is the sole survivor and since her G.I. dad is not in the picture (by choice), she is forced to leave Chicago for Oregon, to live with her paternal grandmother.

At eleven years of age, Rachel finds the transition to be a rough one. In Chicago, the fact that her mother was Danish and her father was black, didn’t seem to be an issue, but when she moves to Oregon, her blue eyes cause her fellow classmates to raise their eyebrows over this “light skinned-ed” girl (as she is called by some).

Her innocence and confusion over what happened in Chicago, and her concern over how she will fit into this new world, is heartbreaking. Except, she’s not all that innocent when it comes down to it, and there are mysterious circumstances surrounding the true events of that fateful evening which is given to the reader in tiny pieces, as told by various characters and sometimes even moving back and forth in time.

What Durrow does well, is create a voice for this young girl that tugs at your heartstrings. Rachel is fragile, like a baby bird. You can’t help but feel for her and all you want to do while reading this book, is grab the girl and give her the biggest hug possible. Life without a mother and father, knowing what she knows, and knowing that there is no way to ever bring her mother back, is almost too much for this young girl to bear.

However, I did have some issues with the story. In a book like this, where identity is front and center, you expect the main character to come full circle or to at least feel comfortable in the skin she was born in. I’m not certain that this occurred by the end of the story. I don’t feel that she had any more of an understanding of who she was at the end, than she did at the beginning of the story which left me feeling lukewarm about all of it.

All in all, what could have been a great book was really just an okay read for me. It lost steam in the middle, picked up towards the end and then left me feeling so-so about it. However, as a book club read, which this is for me, I think there is plenty to discuss. The choices that the parents made, the need to fit in, mixed-marriages and issues of self-worth are all discussion worthy topics and if given a chance to read another Durrow book, I would.

Source: Borrowed
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Stay Awake (stories)
By Dan Chaon
(Ballantine Books, Hardcover, 9780345530370, February 2012, 272pp.)

The Short of It:

Reading this collection of short fiction is like walking into a dream only to experience extreme consciousness. It’s unyielding in the most satisfying way.

The Rest of It:

I used to reserve the reading of short fiction for very specific times. For instance, short story collections are perfect for the nightstand as they are easy to pick up and put down right before bed. They are also great for work when you don’t have quite enough time to delve into that novel you’ve been reading.

However, my feelings about short fiction have changed over the year and I attribute that to collections like this one. This is not a collection that you pick up and immediately put down. It’s a collection that once started, you can’t help but continue with. I found myself making time for it and that’s not my usual routine when it comes to short fiction. For one, the writing is impressive. Tight prose and beautifully constructed sentences certainly help, but the stories are amazing.

So what’s it about? The stories in this collection include characters who are searching for that elusive something and they happen to be doing it from a questionable state of consciousness. Are they awake? Dreaming? Hovering somewhere between this life and the next?

In one story, a man feels extreme guilt over the separation of a Siamese twin, in another, a man tries to understand his son’s night terrors and how they relate, if at all, to the child he abandoned years before. All of the characters are unsettled and anxious and there is a suspenseful thread that weaves itself between these stories. That same, tenacious thread wraps itself around you and demands your attention from beginning to end.

This is a riveting collection of fiction, steeped in isolation and loneliness. It’s not a collection of “happy little stories” but it’s a collection that begs to be read and contemplated. Although not technically a collection of short fiction, I felt the same way about Chaon’s novel Await Your Reply which I enjoyed very much. You really can’t go wrong with either book. Both are examples of solid, atmospheric writing, which is what I typically enjoy.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher via Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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