2★

I’m a fan of short stories, I’m a fan of quirky, I quite like vignettes and hints of slices of life. I couldn’t even make it half-way through this book, which is why the low rating. But the “writing” is good. I know, kind of a contradiction, I guess.

I can’t tell you what the first story is about, because I don’t really know. It’s called “How to Draw From Life, Watertown, 2000”. There seems to be a studio for animation art and a new life model called Dragos, who prefers to run around naked and doesn’t (or won’t?) speak English. He is described in his hairy, naked strangeness “arriving witchily with nothing but a robe and broomstick.”

Later, someone’s place: “The living room is a still life, Footstool with Circulars which is a perfect description, telling me just what it’s like.

About a dog (not the Fever Dogs story) who loves attention: “He wants his face touched. Also his belly. He loiters in high-traffic areas on his back, just in case.”

About a man at the airport, infuriated to find his ticket hasn’t been book.. “Cesar is in a rage. He can break planks bare-handed. Where in God’s name is a plank?”

The cold:
“Jean’s final day at the studio, she goes running alone. It is the last week of winter, negative ten with windchill and the sky densely white. The river lies blanketed. . . When she returns to the studio lot, she cannot feel her nose or hands. Her blood has evacuated these disposables and repaired to her chest, favouring the organs.”

I remember feeling exactly like that, walking (not running) home from school in the winter snow.

There’s no doubt O’Neil can write, which is why I’ve included some quotes. But I couldn’t get enough appreciation of the story to continue. Others have really enjoyed it, so I suspect it’s just me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Northwestern University Press for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted (so quotes may have changed).

I love the voice this author creates, and the world she builds with it. These characters are eccentric and vulnerable and endearing. The plot is rather less well-formed, but the storytelling is nonetheless well done enough to carry us through.