The Souvenir Museum

I classify McCracken as quirky . . . a bit out there with her stories. Though I thoroughly enjoyed reading her novel “Bowlaway”, it was too much for me to get through this latest short story book within the two weeks I had it from the library. I will say that if I owned it, I would have read the stories at my leisure. It is worth reading as I enjoyed many of the stories I did read in the first half of the book.

Yesterday I read a romance novel about two identical twins who switch places and (probably not really spoilers for anyone who reads a lot of romance novels) end up with new, more satisfying jobs and with new, more satisfying relationships. Complete Hallmark Channel stuff.

It is satisfying. But, after a bit of reflection, not.

Today I finished The Souvenir Museum. In The Souvenir Museum, relationships go wildly asunder, life-changing events arise out of nowhere and shake our worlds, people are here and then people are gone. You know, real life.

And yet it, too, is oddly satisfying. It sits with you. This is how things are. Really.

One a pop of candy. The other a glass of French wine.