Learn from my mistake, and spread these grim but excellent short stories out over time.
Published: 2021
This is a tough thing to write about. These are bleak stories about women with bleak lives. The men are mostly useless or worse than useless. This much I knew going in. What I should have done was spread the stories out across several days or a week.
The author skilfully sets the mood of the story – this is not poverty porn, though there’s plenty of characters that are short on prospects and have been for some time. Kennedy knows how to create a world in a few short paragraphs.
The grimness is unrelenting though, which is why I feel that reading these all in one go was unfair to the author and the collection. It was fatiguing and many of the stories felt like they were the same subject photographed from different angles.
Perhaps it’s because I’m a man with a fairly straightforward circumstance. Personal experience is also why the story Wolf Point is the standout from this – it’s the story of a father who is doubling as a caregiver for his younger wife as she suffers from a debilitating mental illness.
Kennedy’s writing is engaging and lyrical – I’ll certainly pick up other work by her. I also wouldn’t be surprised to be drawn back to certain stories in this one as they linger in my memory.
By all means pick it up, just adjust your dosing.