When this collection of short stories was recommended to me, the writing was described as gritty and humorous, and it truly is that, and so much more. There are a total of twelve stories, each one composed of raw and real characters that bent my perspective on a variety of issues to new angles. I was immediately drawn in by the first story "Guts", in which the main character is in a relationship with a doctor and is completely obsessed with anatomy, illness, and brokenness - all while she fights the battle of her own overweight body image. I found myself questioning my own perceptions and assumptions while reading this story. Is the main character actually overweight, or is she an unreliable narrator with body dysmorphia? The writing both connected me to the character, and made me question her motives - mirroring real life filled with subjectivity and misperceptions.
Two other stories I'd like to highlight are "The Soft No" and "Into the Fold". Both of these stories are told from the perspective of childhood or adolescence, dealing with themes of mental health and rejection.
In "The Soft No", two children are away from their house, playing with others, exploring the world, always aware of the realities of their mother's emotional stability upon returning home. "My spirit is swinging,' is what Mom said when she sent us out this morning. Maybe it is swinging way up high or maybe not, but Chip and me need to get a feel for things before we start bringing people indoors."(95).
I lived inside these children as I read this story, experiencing their fear and trepidation, noting the unfairness of the world that they had to navigate at much too young an age. The world is full of real children who face these very challenges every day, and Parsons writing adds an element of empathy for any reader who seeks it.
I also was deeply touched by "Into The Fold", a story about a group of girls at a boarding school, steering their way through the complexities of friendships, rejection, being on the inside, and pushed to the outside of social circles. The whole story is engaging and real, but the twist at the end, both surprising and (in a sense) not, will make me remember these characters for a long time to come.
Parsons has a clear talent for getting to those underlying truths that are hard to capture, a feeling or experience often simplified or overlooked or dismissed by society, but illuminated by these poetic prose. For me, it was especially the stories of youth, when we are figuring things out the best we can, that spoke the loudest.