Little Houses

I've been wanting to read this for some time and finally managed to snag a copy at Dr. Swanson's last reading. I am a huge fan of her poetry, but I don't think I've been able to read any of her short stories since I was in college. This collection reminded me that A) I don't read enough short stories and B) I was very lucky to have been her student.

During the last reading, people commented on her ability to grasp such a wide range of voices in a very few pages. This is absolutely accurate, but not the element that struck me most about this particular collection. Instead, I found the most fascinating trick the way she manipulates time in these stories. It reminded me a lot of Ted Chiang's “Story of Your Life” which deals with an alien language where written words are created with single branching characters which defy the very idea of linear reading. The stories work like memories or like dreams with scenes and thoughts rising and falling as they occur to the characters. Stories trigger further stories which at first appear disconnected, but taken as a whole, enrich and build on each other.

My favorite story in the collection is probably “Lucia on Fire” in no small part because it is set in my home-state of Minnesota within a community of Swedish immigrants and enthusiasts. It's a story about sisters and identity that resonated strongly with my own child. I also loved “Memory” which also deals with identity and exactly how little it takes to destroy such a fragile concept. I've listened to other speakers talk about just how little it takes to become homeless, and this story explores that strikingly fast descent.

Highly recommended for fiction lovers, especially those of us in need of a reminder of the joy of short stories.