Cate Kennedy

I truly loved this book, and only a couple of the stories fell just shy of the perfection mark, which is why it gets not quite a full five stars from me. I picked this up from the library for the ANZAC challenge - Cate Kennedy is an Australian author, and I was not familiar with her work. I have been branching out into short story collections, although it is not my favorite format. This collection is different - I loved the humor, the wit, the charm of people caught in the actions of every day life. Some of these people are at crossroads moments, and what was unexpected was that in the beginning of most of them, I had no idea of the sex of the main character. You learn that as the story unfolds, but first just the voice that could be from any skin, any gender - just...human. The first story, What Thou and I Did, Till We Loved was sublime; a perfect read for me on what it means to love someone.

And the writing! The writing is gorgeous, and thought and feeling flow with each sentence, taking us along on the journey of each story. The unexpected sharp smack of dark humor and the hum of edginess all woven into the structure that is a paragraph. This collection is a feast for the senses. When I had finished reading it, I wanted nothing more than to turn back to the first story and begin again. Which is just what I did. Highly recommended, even if, like me, short stories are not your favorite. This collection shows how very much can be done with so little - fully-fleshed characters and plot and an advanced story arc all in miniature. Small, but not abridged.

"I watch people sometimes, wonder how they can walk around with the weight of what they know. Wonder if they feel like me, stumbling with lead shoes on the bottom of the ocean, swimming in a sea of the unsayable. It's a mistake we make, thinking that it's words that tell us everything. It's sound that breaks glasses, cracks windows, sends cats up trees. Bats hear more than humans, understand more noise, let alone dogs. Maybe we're just not getting it, standing here listening for sensible speech, dying of loneliness and waiting for whatever it is. How do we know we're not calling and calling all the time, our throats so tight with it, it's too high to hear?"… (mere)

An exciting collection of short stories about love from all sorts of angles - straight, same-sex, romantic, parental. There's passion and missed opportunities, illness and dementia, new love and old love, from established writers and new ones. For my full review, please see Whispering Gums: http://whisperinggums.com/2014/09/21/cate-kennedy-ed-australian-love-stories-rev...… (mere)