Listening In and Other Stories Shauna Kelley 9781469916569 Books
Download As PDF : Listening In and Other Stories Shauna Kelley 9781469916569 Books
A sick girl lives her life by listening in to her family beneath her. An alcoholic is haunted by music as she mourns the death of her child. A newly dead woman speaks of her demise, and shares a glimpse of what heaven must be like. Shauna Kelley, author of Max and Menna, a Foreword Book of the Year Award finalist, brings these and more stories to life in her first collection of short fiction. From the mentally ill to the destitute to a sort-of prostitute, these stories shed light into the lives and minds of an unusual batch of characters, battling the situations life has thrust them into. With her usual candor and eloquence, Kelley offers you seven tales of seven people trying to find a home, a life, and a place.
Listening In and Other Stories Shauna Kelley 9781469916569 Books
Shauna Kelley’s Listening In and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction that deserves attention. The author weaves a palpable compassion throughout these tales of the marginalized, which include an agoraphobic teen, a mentally challenged 30-year-old man who lives with his mother, and a lonely, passive/aggressive paraplegic. Kelley takes the role of observer as she narrates each tale. Her lack of judgement draws readers into each character’s plight as we see them as the people next door whose stories are rarely told, and the characters are all the more fascinating for their unassuming nature. In the story “Collecting Faces,” the main character remarks, “Man has it all wrong. Men spend time trying to answer the hard questions—the meaning of life, world peace, can we save the planet? To me that stuff is meaningless next to ordinary questions.” Kelley makes a similar statement with this collection; she asks readers to accept these characters at face value and through their stories, to find the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.Kelley is a gifted wordsmith who is as equally adept at third person narration as she is at first person. Often, what she does not tell readers about her characters is every bit as thought provoking as what she asserts about them. Case in point—in the title story “Listening In,” we learn a plethora of details about the main character Mireyah—that she is agoraphobic, that she loves her brother Micah and hates seeing him used by his girlfriend Ella Lynd (who wants him to leave with her to raise another man’s baby she is carrying), and so on. We hardly notice that we are never told how Mireyah became agoraphobic, but when we do raise the question in our minds, we realize that it doesn’t matter; what is important is how she copes with it and attempts to move forward with her life.
This is a most engrossing story collection, and I highly recommend it!
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Tags : Listening In and Other Stories [Shauna Kelley] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A sick girl lives her life by listening in to her family beneath her. An alcoholic is haunted by music as she mourns the death of her child. A newly dead woman speaks of her demise,Shauna Kelley,Listening In and Other Stories,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1469916568,FICTION Short Stories (single author)
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Listening In and Other Stories Shauna Kelley 9781469916569 Books Reviews
I found "Listening In and Other Stories" by Shauna Kelley to be a brilliant collection of short stories. I wish that I could go into a deep dive of praise and analysis of each piece, but I don't want to do these great stories the injustice of giving spoilers to future readers. All of the stories are so well-written. My other favorite aspect of Kelley's writing is that she imbues each story with such raw emotion, including love, loneliness, joy, guilt, and regret. I must also say that I never found myself to be disappointed with the length of any of the stories, in terms of feeling like a story was too short and ended abruptly, or that a story was too long and became uninteresting. Each piece felt just the right length, which I believe is the true mark of a well-written and powerful short story. In summary, I highly recommend "Listening In and Other Stories" to readers who are looking for a fulfilling, well-written, and emotionally powerful set of short stories.
Different stories about a variety of persons that only have one thing in common-they are suffering in some way. This compilation of short stories is somehow depressing but, at the same time interesting, because they show how different people cope with the. difficult situations they're in. Besides being quite different situations, like the mother who it's taking care of her disabled son all alone, the girl who had a strange disease that makes her incapable of the simplest tasks like getting out of her room and join her family, or the woman who tried to commit suicide and sees herself and her loved one in a species of out of body experience- they all have in common that they're conscious about what's happening to them, in most cases even why, and in some stories they clearly make the decision to dip better towards themselves and their loved ones.
This book is very sensitively written, so the reader could almost put herself into their shoes. It abounds in emotions, which is very appropriate for the type of stories shared here. The stories are short and precise, finding just where the main characters make an important decision, which makes the reader think about the possible outcomes. It has been a depressing but moving and interesting read.
This book was provided to me by the author via a PDF file in exchange for an honest review through Booktasters.
Listening In and Other Stories is a set of short stories that center around dark themes and features intimate character exploration. Each story is very raw and heartbreaking. The book is written in a very literary style yet also takes on it's own identity. As I read, I was reminded of another short story author, Kristen Arnett.
Several stories in this collection really moved me. The characters felt tangible and very well explored. What I appreciate about this set of stories is the all too apparent exploration of the darkness in everyday life. What may come across as normal in a story by a different author is flipped by Kelley. We see a mother who is too concerned with her own expectations rather than her daughter's mental health. Had this character been in another story, it would center around the mother's inability to help and it would heroicize her for her constant efforts. Many of the characters these stories centered around felt very real and had understandable motivations. On top of this, some stories really affected me. At times I was left feeling disturbed, but in a good way.
All of that being said, several the stories fell a bit flat. While there were many that moved me, others left me wanting, and felt very blah. As mentioned, the book is very literary, but there are many points when it seems to merely imitate the literary sophistication that it is going for. There were several points when it was obvious what the story was trying to go for, but it felt contrived and tiresome.
Overall, this is a good collection. While it is unable to pack a punch with every narrative, it manages to provide thought provoking stories that haunt you long after you have put this book down.
Shauna Kelley’s Listening In and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction that deserves attention. The author weaves a palpable compassion throughout these tales of the marginalized, which include an agoraphobic teen, a mentally challenged 30-year-old man who lives with his mother, and a lonely, passive/aggressive paraplegic. Kelley takes the role of observer as she narrates each tale. Her lack of judgement draws readers into each character’s plight as we see them as the people next door whose stories are rarely told, and the characters are all the more fascinating for their unassuming nature. In the story “Collecting Faces,” the main character remarks, “Man has it all wrong. Men spend time trying to answer the hard questions—the meaning of life, world peace, can we save the planet? To me that stuff is meaningless next to ordinary questions.” Kelley makes a similar statement with this collection; she asks readers to accept these characters at face value and through their stories, to find the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.
Kelley is a gifted wordsmith who is as equally adept at third person narration as she is at first person. Often, what she does not tell readers about her characters is every bit as thought provoking as what she asserts about them. Case in point—in the title story “Listening In,” we learn a plethora of details about the main character Mireyah—that she is agoraphobic, that she loves her brother Micah and hates seeing him used by his girlfriend Ella Lynd (who wants him to leave with her to raise another man’s baby she is carrying), and so on. We hardly notice that we are never told how Mireyah became agoraphobic, but when we do raise the question in our minds, we realize that it doesn’t matter; what is important is how she copes with it and attempts to move forward with her life.
This is a most engrossing story collection, and I highly recommend it!
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