Marly Swick

I bought this collection of short stories 20 years ago when I was working at a Barnes and Noble during college because the author did a book signing at our store and many of the stories had a Nebraska connection. Then I moved it across state lines, in and out of different apartments, and just now finally got around to reading it. The stories as a whole didn't blow me away -- Swick has a good sense of structure and strong descriptions, but the characters are often a little too obvious and the dialogue a little unreal. Too many times something unambiguous happens where it would have been better to keep things a little more mysterious. The exception is the final story in the collection, "Crete," which builds to a perfect, tragic conclusion when a husband follows his distraught wife back to her Nebraska hometown after the sudden death of their young daughter. There is some good variety here and parts of every story are rewarding, I just wish the collection as a whole had been a little stronger.… (mere)

Very readable book about a young boy who accidentally shoots his baby sister while playing with a loaded gun. The story has a potentially strong and intens...e plot but the beginning does not ring true to me....the parent's grief in the first few days after the shooting does not seem honest enough. To me, if I lost a 2 year old daughter to an accidental shooting, I would be inconsolable, out-of-my-mind with grief. I found the parents reaction too benign, not emotionally demonstrative or agonizing enough...therefore, I can't give this book a higher score. It did hold my interest, but just not "real" enough to make this a truly moving story.… (mere)

An earlier book by the author of the shattering "Evening News", which struck me as powerfully as few books have. This is a worthy read, well-written and promising, about a young girl's observation of her family against the backdrop of JFK's assassination, and how it seemingly provides the nudge that propels Suzanne's mother, Helen, into emotional withdrawal and the family into divorce, unheard of in these Beaver Cleaver times. My only quibble is that the author seems to have sort of stumbled into a vague and unsatisfying conclusion of the storyline, loose ends everywhere - although she does nearly redeem the book in the moving epiphany of the final paragraph.… (mere)

It has been a long time since I have read a novel of such power and depth, and about a topic that has so moved me: How does a blended family cope, when the 9-year old son accidentally shoots and kills his 2-year old sister? How does a mother forgive something like this? How does the stepfather ever look at the boy again without hatred in his heart? How does the family face their grief and do what must be done for the stricken boy? This is an honest, real and courageous novel, without pat answers, but in the end as redemptive as it is probably possible to be. This may have been the hardest book I have ever read; I have children close to the ages of Teddy and Trina, and it was as though I knew intimately the family as they struggled to repair the fault lines. Or as though the family was mine. I'm not sure I can ever read it again, but this book is a must read for any parent struggling to recognize what is important in life.… (mere)