Tumble Home: A Novella and Short Stories

Weekend - Almost a poem, this brief and finely wrought story describes the events of a casual weekend spent in the company of friends.

Church Cancels Cow - A nostalgic recollection of a nonsensical game played by siblings on long car rides.

The Children's Party - A charmingly hilarious and relateable story about a children's party. The adults keep themselves entertained while doing their best to ignore the kids.

Sportsman - Following the termination of his marriage, a man drives cross-country to spend time with friends he's neglected. They commiserate but also try to set him up with a psychic. The beauty of this story is the way in which the familiar friendships resonate with comfortable truths.

Housewife - A bizarre little sentence that show more contains multitudes.

The Annex - A darkly humorous story about the resentment that arises when a couple moves into the house of a mother whose baby died. Alas, the child is buried in the cemetery across the street and the mother visits the grave frequently. The home owners feel like the dead baby is basically living with them.

The New Lodger - The narrator returns to a familiar haunt of their childhood. Although they still have many connections here, they don't make contact, rather they have come to commune with the place and the memories. An oddly touching slice of life about nostalgia, growing up, and the unpredictable ways of memory.

Tumble Home - A sprawling, rambling, exquisitely detailed story that takes the form of a letter written by a resident of a mental hospital. They are in residence for reasons that are not fully revealed, and they are recording their thoughts to be mailed to an artist they admire. It's clear they have a relationship, although it's nature is never explicitly said, and the reader begins to wonder if it's entirely one-sided. The narrator recounts the events of their days in such a captivating way, despite the fact that nothing is really happening.

The author's writing style is magical. The characters leap of the page with so much authenticity and charisma. They feel like old friends. show less

I love Amy Hempel's writing. She's the kind of writer I don't mind discussing in English classes, the kind whose writing I understand the nuances of. Simple words and simple situations, set up beautifully with words.

a prodigious collection of stories; hempel's masterful use of language alone makes this worth reading