Katherine Heiny

Each of these stories felt like a full novel, the characters and their world so fully realized in so few pages. There were laugh-out-loud moments, and times when my heart ached with recognition.

Lovers, exes, friends, parent and child–these characters are confronted with relationships that disappoint or are revealed to be something different than they expected.

A mother worries that her son is making all the mistakes she made as a teenager. A woman who is her father’s caretaker is driven show more crazy by his politics and demands. A wife becomes devoted to downsizing, hoping it will make her happy. A man elated by his affair learns a hard truth. A wife’s husband’s ex asks for his help in packing for a move; while the exes are comfortably lost in a haze of nostalgia, she carries the boxes outside and suffers the cold. New roommates are in lockdown; one Zooms with her employer just for companionship. Wearing a bridesmaid dress to work brings attention. Two women whose plane flights have been cancelled meet two local men.

Heiny share that the stories sprang from real-life incidents. Like a laundry-crisis that resulted in wearing a bridesmaid dress to work. Considering that even Ted Bundy took a driver’s road test. “They will forever be some of my favorite people,” she writes. That love comes through the stories.

Heiny’s imaginative powers shine in this collection. I loved every one.

Thanks to A. A. Knopf for an ARC. show less

Sweet but not schmaltzy - the story trips along over 15 years or so in small-town Boyne City, MI. Just like real life, some moments are spotlighted and savored, and other times years pass by marked only by milestones. “Some occasions were magical, like that, and some occasions were the opposite of magical, whatever that is. Real, Jane supposed. (Life with small children is often teal in a visceral, corporeal sense that people without children know nothing about.) (308) Jane, a second grade show more teacher meets Duncan Ryfield (who looks like the Brawny paper towel man) on page one - she locks herself out of her new house and he’s the local locksmith, among other things- and she’s in love with him by page 5, despite the fact that he has slept with a large portion of the women in town. But the book is narrated in such a detached and wry way, that this just becomes an accepted fact Jane has to come to terms with. The town is full of quirky characters portrayed the same way - warts clearly visible, but still loveable: Frieda Fitzgerald, high school music teacher and mandolin player, Aggie, Duncan’s ex-wife who is bossy beyond measure, but a perfect fit for her second husband Gary who couldn’t function without her, and Jimmy, Duncan’s only employee in his wood-working business, a cognitively disabled man with a simple understanding of life, but a profound sense of love and loyalty. In the wake of a small tragedy (here, really tragi-comedy) Jane decides to make her own definition of family and community and let love lead. “What kind of love did withstand matrimony? Was it the kind of love Jane had? She really needed to know.” (145) Reminded me most of The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal and maybe We Are All Adults Here by Emma Straub, but really it is its own unique story with well-worded truths: “Oh, the joy of a shared life! The joy is not - as many people believe - building a future with someone or opening your heart to another human being, or even the ability to gift each other money with limited tax consequences. The joy is in the dailiness. The joy is having someone who will stop you from hitting the snooze button on the alarm endlessly. The joy is the smell of someone else’s cooking…” (116) show less

Jane is a young, elementary school teacher in Boyne City Michigan. Almost from the first time she sees him, she falls deeply in love with Duncan. The problem being that so do most of the women Duncan meets. But love, with a few ups and downs, flourishes. Also, once Jane gets to know more people in Boyne City (apart from the numerous women whose eyes light up when they see Duncan) the ups and downs become more meaningful. More connected. Which means more joy, but also more pain. We follow show more Jane from 2002 through to 2019. Over that timeframe she learns a few things about life and love.

In some ways, this is just a gentle, episodic, take on a life (not a whole life, but a sizeable enough chunk of one). But that sounds dismissive. Whereas what I want to say is how much I enjoyed this gentle, episodic, take on a life. I’m not sure it all ties together in the end. But then, life probably doesn’t tie together as much as some fiction might have us think. Jane is a lovely person and through her we meet a range of characters, each of whom is highly particular but also, ultimately, lovely (well, Gary was a bit much, but exceptions as they say…). And a fine measure of the enjoyment that this writing engendered was the fact that I didn’t want it to end. Some narratives are just like that.

Easy to recommend to others. show less

What a treat of a novel. This is so refreshingly different and such fun to read, I was laughing out loud so often. Written in the third person and from the point of view of Graham, we meet him and his second wife Audra and their son Matthew. She is an open and generous woman who is loving and invites people to stay and eat with them all the time. Their lives in New York are a long social whirl. Graham and Audra get in touch with Elspeth, Graham's first wife and, along with her dapper English show more boyfriend make up foursomes. The comic characters in this novel are numerous. Some of the things that Audra says had me smiling with recognition. Olivia, Graham's secretary, is so naive about the practicalities of life and the picture of her unpacking her heavily-laden suitcase because she didn't know you got charged for over-weight bags was a wonderful scene. As well as funny, this is a tender novel. Sad things happen and the family have to deal with them, again and again and this is basically what the novel is about. This is a privileged family, they have no money worries or health worries but life throws things at them and they have to muddle along making the best of things. An enjoyable read that I can't recommend highly enough. show less