Jessica Treadway

Do any of us really know ourselves? Do we really understand why we do as we do, and how we affect the other people in our lives? Do they have any idea who we are anyway? We meet the characters in Jessica Treadway's Infinite Dimensions at the moment they make a decision that forces them to ask who they are, and if that person is the same as the one that moves around in the world. Running through the collection are a handful of reoccurring characters and a fictional short story about a Russian housewife and a probing talking sugar bowl that everyone but us gets a chance to read.

I loved this book. You should read it. Thank you to LibraryThing and Delphinium for a review copy. Sorry it took me six months to read it.… (more)

The book starts off with a story that made me feel a deep sympathy for a secondary character, watching as the main character and narrator did everything she could to hide her past.

In one story a student contemplates the question "is it worse to be cruel to a dog than to a flea?"

In another, a woman faces her ex husband's widow and just can't seem to forgive her for marrying her husband.

These stories are somewhat connected by a fictional book written by the fictional Chaykovskya, a character of Treadway's own invention.

It's clear in these stories that the author understands people and the things that make them tick. Characters are flawed. They hold grudges. They give into temptations. They fail. They grapple with themselves. They wonder "what kind of person am I?" In Divertimento, a character from an earlier story wonders if there is really any meaning to life, while her companion loses patience with her "pity party." I liked this story in particular because it is so similar to the conversations I have in my head with myself, that inner struggle to find meaning and hope, while pessimism tells me it's all for nothing.

I think Jessica Treadway's strong suit is the way she builds these realistic characters. And so I really liked these stories.… (more)