Linked Short Story Collections
I love linked story collections, where each story stands on its own, but when read together as a book the sum becomes so much greater than the parts. Whether it is in the world-building or in intertwined characters—this is one of my favorite genres to read. This year, I read four such collections steeped in the spirit of place.
The first was Sidik Fofana’s collection, which I cannot recommend enough about tenants living in a large Harlem apartment building. The book is composed of eight stories and eight POV characters. Each character lives in a different apartment in a large, low-income high-rise in Harlem. The writing was so vivid I was sure the place was real—but no, there is no Banneker Terrace. How is that possible? I loved all the stories. I loved it.
The second collection (perhaps my favorite) was The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai. My favorite story in the collection, "Saba’s Story" first appeared in the Sewanee Review. I think that was the story that won the O’Henry Prize which was where I first read it. Kochai’s talent is off-scale. Somewhere online I read someone say that “he is the kind of writer you only see once a decade,” or something like that—well, I have to say I agree. He brings something so original to this collection with his combination of old-fashioned storytelling tradition (unconventional form and often someone is recounting what happened instead of the usual scene, cut, scene, cut) together with this amped up voice which is almost reminiscent of early Rushdie. The characters from Afghanistan, living in Sacramento are between worlds… they are flying back and forth from Sac to Kabul and on to Logar where most of the characters still have family. And in story after story what seems surreal is mainly real and shows just how stupid and absurd war is— and no place so much as in Afghanistan… from characters buying burner phones and picking up old Soviet parrot bombs to women with skin like shir chai and grandmas who look like a large kofta, Kochai evokes a world that you just cannot believe is real. As Elliot Ackerman said in the New York Times the decades of violence from the Soviet invasion to the American one appears like a haunting in these pages—culminating in the totally brilliant titular story at the end. The Book is absolutely brilliant.
The third was Megan Kamalei Kakimoto’s magical collection set in Hawaii (review coming).
And finally was the breathtaking debut by Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You. As everyone knows by now, it was short-listed for the Booker Prize (I hope he wins!)… As a whole, the book is unforgettable. About a family from Jamaica who are trying to make it in Miami, sometimes the writing is so sumptuous I felt like I was reading Florida Gothic/speculative fiction by Karen Russell or even Lauren Groff. The stories are really compelling —and also there is some humor.
As the mother of a mixed race kid, many of the sentiments about how strange ideas of race are in the US resonated with me. In school, a Jamaica kid is considered black—or is he hispanic? What is he? “What are you?” How many times my kid has had to answer that one, and like Trelawny in the stories, my son is considered one thing in one country and something else in the other country. As if this constant struggle is not enough, Hurricane Andrew destroys their house, just downwind from the miasmal stench of Mount Trashmore, which the boys agreed long ago was cursed, plagued. The father chooses the older brother to held him rebuild and the brother lets it spill that Trelawny and the mother actually won’t be moving back. The family is being divided and the father wants his older brother with him. Not Trelawny. Even Trelawny’s university degree doesn’t really help him during the 2008 recession. His struggle in the gig economy is almost surreal. It’s hard to write reviews of story collections, but I will say that this was an absolute tour de force—and it also opened up a world to me with characters and weather that I won’t quickly forget—hawks dive-bombing the kids when they leave their home every morning.
The last story (titular) was my favorite--brought me to tears.
A writer that is also a new world.