October 2014 Review Issue

Sharon Erby
Harvard Square Editions
9780989596091 $19.95
www.harvardsquareeditions.org

A linked set of short stories revolving around a working-class woman is an unusual approach, but Parallel's collection is a standout with short tales that correspond to American lives and working-class hearts, and is a special recommendation for women's literary collections and general-interest readers looking for realistic stories of an ordinary woman experiencing life's changes.

The stories are set in the mountains of rural South Central Pennsylvania, focus on a working woman and her family, friends, and neighbors, and offer vignettes that capture their lives, concerns and purposes through deft signature moments and transition points.

What connects the tales in Parallel isn't just gender and class: it's the gritty niceties and darknesses of everyday life and relationships that provide insights paired with a 'you are there' feel: "If Robbie would've been any kind of man, he'd have gotten the kids up, helped them with their clothes. He would have looked after them. And he did - sometimes. What did she expect of him, for that matter? Yes; it was safer not to expect anything from anyone. She'd expected Robbie to take care of her and the boys, like her daddy had taken care of Mama, her and her brother. Things changed…Things always changed-there could be enormous changes at the last minute."

As the same characters appear in different stories (more linking…) and interact with one another, a special feel of the book emerges like a butterfly: its ability to be followed as either a series of linked vignettes or as independent short stories. They're strongest, however, when viewed as a unit; with each story building adding more meaty details of characters, concerns, and lives.

In the end the web of life becomes well defined and what began as a series of disparate stories connected primarily by a sense of place evolves to a gathering of intermingled experiences shared through the perceptions, hopes and thoughts of the female protagonist. The result is an achievement especially recommended for followers of literary short fiction interested in the mechanics of linking a short story collection's events and characters.

Parallel

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Spirituality

Spirituality text here

Young Adult/Childrens

Young Adult text here

Laura's Star and the Dream Monsters

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Uncovered in Istanbul

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