As I read the stories in this 2012 published collection, several seemed familiar, and I finally realized where I had originally read them. I had encountered them in The New Yorker over a period of time. Although I did not recall the author’s name, her style and type of topic her stories are based on was what rang a bell. Many of the stories are based on newspaper clippings or snippets of history.
The Houston Chronicle referred to it as “one of the best books of the year” in 2012, and every story is of “New Yorker quality”, whether a longer piece or a very short, short story. The book is divided into three sections: “Departures” (My favorite of this section was “The Widow’s Cruise” where a scheming lawyer decides to take advantage of a grieving widow, only to have his plan boomerang on him.), “In Transit” (My favorite of this section was “The Body Swap” which tells of a little known plan to steal and hold for ransom Abraham Lincoln’s corpse. Its denouement is a humorous, “gotcha” ending which made me chuckle.), and “Arrivals and Aftermaths,” more or less miscellaneous stories (My favorite of this section was the shocking and true story, “Daddy’s Girl.”).
The author chose her title expressed in the front from a thought in Virgil’s Aenid:
“…We wander, ignorant of men and places,
And driven by the wind and the vast waves.”
Indeed, all of the characters in all of the stories have gone adrift or “astray” in some way or another.
It is a masterful collection.
I’m sure it is a wonderful collection – she is an amazing writer. Have you read ROOM?
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I have heard about it but forgotten what I have heard. Fill me in; what is it about?
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It’s the book where she wrote in the pov of a 5 yr old boy whose mother had been kidnapped and they were both living in a garden shed where they’d been imprisoned since before Jack was born.
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And I know it sounds awful – but she has taken care not to be sensationalist. I thought it a wonderful, heartrending read…
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Now I remember reading the reviews about it and passing on reading the book because I thought it would be depressing. Was it?
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No, not really. I won’t deny there are parts that are grim and parts that are frightening, but it is also very funny – and moving. I think it’s a remarkable read and it is certainly a book that has stayed with me.
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