Exiles and Expatriates

Grief is a really difficult subject because it is so very different for every person and every situation. In this collection, Dr. Swanson deals the subject delicately and diversely, leaving my own heart aching both for her characters and for the loved ones and loved places missing from my life. The stories inhabit a multitude of personas from teenage girls to Czech musicians resembling Kafka, most of whom are coping in some way with a loss that resonates through their lives and will not be silenced. The Kafkaesque musician from “The Singing Mistress at the Window” is probably my favorite in this collection for the wry humor that overlays the sadness of its narrator. That sarcasm and melancholy (I am no more like Kafka than a giant beetle is like a man!) masking sincerity is an utterly true portrait of so many people in my life.

“The Dream Closet” talks about guilt-imposed exile, another theme which ties in easily with grief. The characters in these stories have made mistakes, lots of them, and they separate themselves because of their guild, sometimes emotionally and sometimes literally. Characters distance themselves by choice or by necessity, and yet roots of their homes continuously reach out to them. I've never visited Prague (though I feel as though I've taken a trip to the Czech Republic in these pages), but I connected strongly with the foreign identity people inhabit abroad. I'm glad I read the stories on a sunny morning to help with the aching sensation echoing out of these pages.

Of course, the collection highlights my favorite parts of Dr. Swanson's writing, including her brilliant manipulation of time and her ability to inhabit so many startlingly different voices. I was especially happy to see “Stray Dogs” appear in this collection because I remember reading this piece during her fiction workshop my sophomore year. The last line where Jamie shakes his head from side to side, demonstrating how he'd caught Kate in his teeth like a dog to pull her in, saving her from drowning in her grief is an image that has stuck with me for a decade now and still one of my favorite lines she's written.

Highly recommended to all lovers of fiction, but especially those who have lost someone recently and need to be reminded of the many faces grief wears and the validity of every tumultuous one.