With a title as intriguing as The Dead Husband Project and an equally gorgeous, floral cover, this short story collection by Sarah Meehan Sirk is deceitfully dark and foreboding—and yet the 14 stories in their entirety provide a spyglass to several broken and resentful characters who find themselves navigating within some strange, almost absurd plots.

From different contexts that deal with the exhibition of death as art; to the absence of maternal love in lieu of obsessive ambition and research; adultery with life-threatening ramifications; emotional adultery and its resignation; the death of a loved one; the inevitability of aging; the submission to betrayal in friendship; the weary disconnect in relationship; to the turmoil of grief and loneliness—while these stories share burdensome contexts, the writing itself can at times, seem heavy-handed, not striving to be succinct, but rather succumbs to unnecessary explanation, which can and often does feel cliché.

What could be a collection of complicated characters with a variety of emotional landscapes in stories of obsession, pain, loss, grief, and love; instead contextualizes a narrative, which fails this intent. Otherwise, the stories themselves hold the potential of depth and retrospection.

And while the beginning of most of the stories in the collection show promise of not only interest, but depth, their endings rely on a self-conscious narrative that feels the need to “tie up loose ends” with the explanation of circumstances and/or the end result of emotions felt by its thwarted and disappointed characters—which most of them tend to be.

But, where the narrative in the book can sometimes fail, the stories’ dialogue on the other hand, can and most often does sound true. There’s also a tenderness in some details found in such stories as Ozk or The Centre.

While most of the characters are unable to incite full likeability in its readers, one can empathize with what these characters might feel considering how absurd or surprising the plots they find themselves in.

Perhaps the plots’ themes were too large or extraneous: Cancer, coma, HIV, adultery, abandonment—relying instead on the significance of their emotional magnitude and crisis, rather than focusing on truths that can be shared in more daily, simple struggles or outcomes for those who experience such dilemmas.

If not for the design of its cover, nor the intrigue of its title, and the ambition of its poorly executed imagination—The Dead Husband Project, would remain an inert collection of stories perhaps better left on the shelf.

Yet, there’s still hope. It is only a debut novel, after all.

Should Sarah Meehan Sirk hone in her creative writing skill with less explanation or a self-conscious narrative that compels itself to obvious closure, her imaginative power may then truly explore and execute the potential profoundness of what could essentially be her work.

***

Characters: 2.5 stars
Plot: 3 stars
Language/Narrative: 2.5 stars
Dialogue: 2.5 stars
Pacing: 3 stars
Cover Design: 4 stars

***
Zara's Overall Rating: 2.5 stars

The Dead Husband Project, by Canadian author Sarah Meehan Sirk, is a series of short stories that all look at love and death in all their forms. I don’t read a lot of short story collections, but I was drawn in to this one by its beautiful cover and general synopsis.

Each of the stories is about relationships and, for the most part, women narrate all the stories. I absolutely loved this. The women in each story are different types, different classes, ages, and mind sets. It was such a diverse work.

Each story brought something totally different. The first story The Dead Husband Project features a woman who is planning an exhibit featuring her dead husband, but he isn’t dead yet. Another story features a couple facing their relationship issues at the gym.

I also loved that I was able to pick this work up and put it down at my leisure. Each story is short and sweet; I didn’t need to read this all in one sitting, instead, I relished in it, picking it up when I needed a break, read a story and then would it set it down.

My favourite of all the stories was Barbados, Mommy Blogger and The Date.