Below the Falls

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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What’s Below the Falls About?

This is a diverse collection of 25 short stories (some very short, some not). I’m struggling to say more than that about it.

The title comes from the first story, but it applies pretty well to the collection as a whole. Some more directly than others. Each story does deal with the effects of a fall–metaphorically, naturally (with an exception or two). Sometimes the protagonist is the one who fell (or is falling), sometimes they’re next to or observing the fall, maybe dealing the the consequences of it.*

* I fought hard against the impulse to say “dealing with the fallout” there.

The Publisher’s description puts it this way:

Two climbers in the North Cascades risk their friendship and lives ascending a frozen waterfall. The girlfriend of a famous comedian in Greenwich Village must decide whether she wants to raise a child in the spotlight of fame. A mysterious Bird of Paradise makes daily overtures to an elderly widow in the frigid Midwest. A Texas fracking mogul struggles to find the love his money prevents. The deeply rendered American landscapes of these stories emerge as a vital background for characters faced with conflicts that cannot be easily resolved, illuminating interior worlds filled with contradiction.

I might have picked other stories for the blurb, but then again, those are probably some of the easiest to summarize in a sentence.

So, what did I think about Below the Falls?

Like most short story collections, this is a mixed bag. And your results are going to vary (perhaps wildly) from mine. Which sounds like I’m trying to weasel out of giving a firm opinion, but it isn’t.

There’s a meme that I see everywhere (except for now when I’m looking for it) that says something about running across a sentence that makes you close your book for a while to sit and think about it. Nearly every story in this collection has one or two of those sentences, or at least sentences that I had to read a couple of times just to appreciate them.

Too often, those sentences were all I had to commend a particular story, however. My notes are filled with comments like, “why?”, “a plot would’ve been helpful here”*, or “what was the point?”

* Yes, yes, yes–they’re not always needed for compelling reading. But they are sometimes.

However…the other stories more than made up for that. For example, an early story was described aboVe as “A mysterious Bird of Paradise makes daily overtures to an elderly widow in the frigid Midwest” story (“Small Firey Bloom”). It was haunting, beautiful, and is probably what kept me going after a rough start.

I’m not going to list the others that were as good–without getting into too much detail, it’d be hard to describe my reactions in a meaningful way. But more importantly, anyone who reads this collection is going to end up disagreeing with me about which ones I was knocked out by and which ones I found skippable or pointless.

So, I’ll just leave it with this–there’s a lot of dross in this collection. But there’s also some of the shiniest gold you’re going to find, too. You’ll have to do some sifting, some panning, and maybe even some chiseling to get it–but you’ll be so glad you did.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from the author and Lori Hettler of The Next Best Book Club in exchange for this post and my honest take—thanks to both for this.