News From Heaven – The Bakerton Stories by Jennifer Haigh

• Title:  News From Heaven – The Bakerton Stories
• Author:  Jennifer Haigh
• Genre:  Short Stories
• Published:  (expected) January 29, 2013 – Harper
• Source:  Review copy from Harper

Synopsis: Set in Bakerton, Pennsylvania— the company town that was the setting of Jennifer Haigh’s award-winning bestseller Baker Towers—News from Heaven explores how our roots, the families and places in which we are raised, shape the people we eventually become. Through a series of connected stories, Haigh brilliantly portrays this close-knit community from its heyday during two world wars to its decline in the final years of the twentieth century. Exploring themes of restlessness, regret, redemption and acceptance, she depicts men and women of different generations shaped by dreams and haunted by disappointments.  A young woman glimpses a world both strange and familiar when she becomes a live-in maid for a Jewish family in New York City. A long-lost brother makes an unexpected and tragic homecoming. A woman must come to terms with a heartbreaking loss when she discovers a shocking family secret. A solitary middle-aged woman tastes unexpected love when a young man returns to town. And characters familiar to fans of Baker Towers—indomitable Joyce Novak, her eccentric sister Dorothy, and their mysterious younger brother Sandy—return for an encore performance. Written with poignant realism, News from Heaven deftly captures our desire for escape and our need for connection, and reveals the enduring hold of a past that remains ever present in the lives of ordinary people struggling to understand themselves and define their place in the world. 

My take:  I shouldn’t be surprised that Jennifer Haigh’s collection of short stories made me rethink my automatic response to the format. Normally I don’t care for them at all. I find them bleak, depressing, and a chore to read. Not so with News From Heaven. Reading each story was like paging through a scrapbook. There’s history, relationships, celebrations, heartbreak, regrets, and even a bit of optimism. 

Bakerton, Pennsylvania was home to the coal mine that employed most of the men from town. Once the mine was mined out the jobs were gone and the town was thrown into hard times. Haigh’s connected stories cover the ups and downs of the townspeople – from the  mine owners to the workers and everyone in between.

I grew up in a small town so I could identify with the aspect that Joyce in “Desiderata” acknowledged of everyone knowing your story – or at least thinking they know. I don’t live there anymore so they don’t know the rest of my story. That’s not the case with the older residents in Bakerton. More than likely they were born there, raised families, and will eventually die there. Their complete stories known to all.

My favorite story (if I must choose one) was Broken Star. It’s about Regina, a girl in her early teens, and the summer her young aunt and cousin came to visit.  I also liked the final story in the collection: Desiderata. The high school principal died a few months earlier and his wife is sorting through his things. Poignant, relatable, uplifting. Really, though, I enjoyed each story.

Jennifer Haigh is one of my favorite authors. I know it’s only January but I expect News From Heaven to be on my 2013 Favorite Books list. It was a pleasure to read.

Note:  I read Baker Towers several years ago (the month it was published) and although I remembered the general story there was a lot I forgot. If you haven’t read Baker Towers I recommend doing so before News From Heaven. It’s not imperative but it could help in your overall enjoyment of these connected stories.

Reading William Trevor

My daughter gave me William Trevor’s Selected Stories for Christmas a couple of years ago. I put it on the bookshelf and then forgot about it. So. I’m going to make it a goal to read the collection in 2012. I’ll list the title here as I read each story and then do a wrap-up at the end of the year.

About William Trevor (from the book cover): William Trevor was born in Middletown, County Cork, in 1928 and spent his childhood in provincial Ireland. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the author of fourteen novels and twelve collections of short stories and has won many prizes, including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. He lives in Devon, England.

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1. The Piano Tuner’s Wives

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Short Story: The Cupcake Witch by Sharon Galligar Chance

Title:  The Cupcake Witch

Author:  Sharon Galligar Chance

Genre:  Short Story

Published:  October 2011

My take:  Summer Garner owns the Sweet Tops bakery. Her cupcakes are known for the effect they have on anyone who eats one – it’s magical! Summer senses that change is in the air so she’s not surprised when she discovers that customer Nick Wilson is a private investigator sent to check out her shop. What she doesn’t know is who sent him and why.

The Cupcake Witch is a cute short story. Sharon Galligar Chance’s descriptions created an exact picture in my mind of the shop, the characters, and the cupcakes. I seriously wanted to find a bakery and indulge my sweet tooth while reading!

The story itself is sweet and the premise is fun. As a reader I’d love to see it developed more – possibly as a cozy novel but for now it was a great way to spend time in a bakery without the calories

Source:  I bought it

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Bookflap: From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories – longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written – that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.

Up until now I’d never met a book of short stories that I liked. Up until now. I read Unaccustomed Earth over two days. The final three (they are linked) took my breath away. I think this collection deserves all the acclaim it has received.

The Whore’s Child and Other Stories by Richard Russo

Back of the book: To this irresistible debut collection of short stories, Richard Russo brings the same bittersweet wit, deep knowledge of human nature, and spellbinding narrative gifts that distinguish his bestselling novels. His themes are the imperfect bargains of marriage; the discoveries and disillusionments of childhood; the unwinnable battles men and women insist on fighting with the past.

Even my favorite author couldn’t make me a fan of the short story. That said, I was intrigued by The Whore’s Child which is about a nun who attends a college Fiction class (without enrolling) and writes about how she ended up at a convent. I think Poison is a great idea for a book. Another story, The Farther You Go, was worked into Russo’s book Straight Man (if I remember correctly). I really liked that book (much more than the short story). My issue with this form is I’m always left wanting more – that there’s something missing. My problem, I know.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

In the town of Crosby, Maine lives a woman named Olive Kitteridge. She’s a tough nut and most people avoid contact with her. She’s a retired 7th grade math teacher and she taught many of the people of Crosby. This book of linked stories (yes, I read another book of short stories!) involve Olive in one way or another. To quote the book jacket: “As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life – sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – it’s conflicts, it’s tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.”

I enjoyed reading this book if for no other reason than to see how Olive would figure into each story. I found several stories depressing, yet thought provoking. I’m still not in love with short stories but this book was better than the other collections I’ve read in the past several weeks.

Olive Kitteridge would be a good book club selection. Discussion could go in so many directions.

Mothers and Sons by Colm Toibin

This book is a collection of short stories. Someone on Goodreads posted “These stories always seemed to promise more than they delivered”. I have to agree. I’m not a fan of short stories – at least I haven’t come across a collection that wowed me. After reading Mothers and Sons I have to say I’m still not a fan.

The Hill Road by Patrick O’Keeffe

I’ve concluded the month of March with another book about Ireland. The Hill Road consists of four short stories that are set in the rural southwest of Ireland. Here I go again describing a book as mostly bleak. That said, O’Keeffe’s writing is very good. He had me drawing parallels to my own life – especially the car ride to Sunday Mass in the story “The Hill Road”.