Half in Love: Stories

These stories are like a bubbling brook, comforting and refreshing in its simplicity, with a glint of startling clarity every so often. The details that the author occasionally sprinkles throughout her stories remind me of when painters place small white dabs on the surfaces of water: it's only a small detail but it's what makes the story and the water come to life for the reader and the viewer.

My favourite story was The Ice Harvester, and I was unable to get through Paint due to my own squeamishness at the visceral.

Here's the thing: For a while, I was off short story collections, the way you're off fish for a while after your favorite market forgot to de-bone it. I read the ones that got all the accolades and thought, "I don't get it." Meaning, I don't get the stories and I don't get the hype. Lots of short story collections are over my head. They seem abstract and pretentious to me. But, I loved Maile Meloy's "Liars and Saints" so figured I'd give her stories a try. I'm glad I did. Her stories are real, honest, straight-forward, raw. There is nothing pretentious about them. They're not trying to win awards (though they have). There isn't a single story in this collection I didn't like, which is very, very rare. It's like loving every song on a show more CD.

A couple favorite excerpts:

"I had not wanted a dog, but the children loved him. It was true they did not fight so much now. The day my wife brought him home, my daughter held the dog in her arms and said, 'This is the happiest day of my life.' Children are whores. They will say anything. But I thought it could be true."

"Jo thinks there's something permanently unfinished about Inger--like the missing 'id' of her name, though I guess it's not an id that's missing--and that's why she's never with a man very long; there's an absence in her that doesn't seem to need filling, or that other people can't fill." show less

Maile Meloy is truly a master of her craft. I have read many of stories by this author and I am always amazed by how easily she is able to grip my attention from the very first sentence and carry me along with her for the entire journey, and this collection of stories is no different. They are touching, poignant and gripping. They change the way you look at and think about life and daily experiences. Meloy’s stories stay with you long after they are completed and you have put the book back on the shelf. Each story is raw with emotion and really allows you understand the character’s thought process in a short space of time. Meloy never shies away from the gruesome side of life, the natural turn of events, telling things the way they show more are in a way that most people would run away from. However, Meloy does this in such a way that you cannot help but turn the next page and see what she has in store for you next. The locales Meloy takes you to are by no means exotic, but they are not all dull or boring. Anything by this author is a must read for any short story lover. show less

I recently watched and adored a film called Certain Women, directed by Kelly Reichardt. I loved the way the stories carefully, unfolded and discovered that the writer was a novelist and a short story author. I immediately requested this collection and it was as good as expected. I love stories set in the modern American west and Meloy nails it here. I highly recommend it. Here is a taste:

“We left early, heading into a pale sunrise, and somewhere on the winding road through the canyons it turned into a hot, dry day. I sat with my feet on the dash, lead ropes and old race programs on the floor beneath me, and watched the mountains and the impossibly blue sky go by. I'd seen this landscape so much that most of my senses were glutted and show more one mountain range looked like the next. At other times, and this was one of those, it caught me by surprise and the blue was so vast and bright I couldn't breathe.” show less

Great cover!

The first story, TOME, was at the high level of the author's best.

The rest, notably with Ranch Girl and Garrison Junction, became predictable, flat, and depressing.

When a short story inspires me to determine how many pages to its ending, I skip a lot.

ps. The dog dies.

Some of the stories in this collection were stunning in their minimalist precision -- Malone has a talent for painting the vastness and majesty of the west in just a few, well-chosen words.

Others, however, missed their mark. Nothing quite gelled in non-western settings. Other stories appalled with gross violence or manipulative shock-tactics.

I admit, I have always had a hard time with short stories. I feel like there is never enough character development and that the endings are always mashed or hanging and it drives me crazy. With that being said, I thought this was a really really great book of short stories. Now, not all of the stories were stars to me, and some of them had the same problems I already stated. A few I couldn't even finish because I was either bored or too much information was packed in that I didn't understand the plot. I did however, enjoy most of these stories because they were set in the Southwest. (That's just me). I really liked Garrison Junction and Paint (even if they were both disturbing in their own.. I tend to kind of like stuff like that show more anyhow) and I also really liked Kite Whistler Aquamarine, Ranch Girl and Thirteen and Half. The other stories were just so-so. I didn't like Last of the White Slaves. I couldn't figure out what was happening and there were too many characters for a short story I thought.

Anyhow, these stories for the most part were beautifully written and it was a quick read. The nice thing about short stories (and poetry) is that when one of them really strikes a chord in you it really sticks with you. I like that. I hope to find other works of short fiction like this in the future. show less