Self Storage

by Gayle Brandeis

Flan Parker has always had an inquisitive mind, searching for what’s hidden below the surface and behind the door. Her curious nature and enthusiastic probing have translated into a thriving resale business in the university housing complex where she lives with her husband and two young children. Flan’s venture helps pay the bills while her husband works on his dissertation, work that lately seems to involve more loafing on the sofa watching soap operas than reading or writing. The secret of her enterprising unique and everyday treasures bought from the auctions of forgotten and abandoned storage units.

When Flan secures the winning bid on a box filled only with an address and a note bearing the word “yes,” she sets out to discover the source of this mysterious message and its meaning. Armed with a well-worn copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass that she turns to for guidance and solace, Flan becomes determined to find the “yes” in her own life. This search inward only strengthens her desire to unearth the hidden stories of those around her–in particular, her burqa-clad Afghan neighbor. Flan’s interest in this intriguing and secretive woman, however, comes at a formidable price for Flan and her family.

Set during the year following the September 11 attacks, Self Storage explores the raw insecurities of a changed society. With lush writing, great humor, and a genuine heart, Gayle Brandeis takes a peek into the souls of a woman and a community–and reveals that it is not our differences that drive us apart but our willful concealment of the qualities that connect us.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Book Club, Novels, American

283 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Gayle Brandeis is the author, most recently, of Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss (Overcup Press). Earlier books include the memoir The Art of Misdiagnosis (Beacon Press), the novel in poems, Many Restless Concerns (Black Lawrence Press), shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, the poetry collection The Selfless Bliss of the Body (Finishing Line Press), the craft book Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne) and the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), which won the PEN/Bellwether Prize, Self Storage (Ballantine), Delta Girls (Ballantine), and My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt BYR), chosen as a state-wide read in Wisconsin.

Gayle's essays, poetry, and short fiction have been widely published in places such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, O (The Oprah Magazine), The Rumpus, Salon, and more, and have received numerous honors, including the Columbia Journal Nonfiction Award, a Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award, Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2016, 2019, and 2020, the QPB/Story Magazine Short Story Award and the 2018 Multi Genre Maverick Writer Award. She was named A Writer Who Makes a Difference by The Writer Magazine, and served as Inlandia Literary Laureate from 2012-2014, focusing on bringing writing workshops to underserved communities. Gayle teaches in the low residency MFA programs at Antioch University and University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. She currently lives in Highland Park, IL with her husband and youngest child.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story reverberates with compassion. I enjoyed all the quirky characters and how compassion shone through most of them in surprising and touching ways. This book is a quiet page turner. Just when it feels like nothing much is "happening," a design emerges. I loved that. I also loved the weaving of Walt Whitman throughout the book; "Leaves of Grass" is my bible, too.

[Mauoijenn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope.
This book was all over the place.
Couldn't get into it and just barely finished it before I was ready to give up.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Self Storage was one of the best books I have read in a long time. The story had so much meaning on so many different levels that it’s hard to pinpoint what I enjoyed the most about it. Flan Parker, the narrator of the book who buys boxes of people’s stuff from abandoned self storage units, searches for her own answer of “yes” after winning a box that contains only an address and a note with the word “yes” on it. Flan, a mother of two young children (and who loves them fiercely) embarks on a journey that spirals every which way and includes her obsession with her Afghani neighbor, the woman who lives on the top of a mountain who seems to have all of the answers, and her husband, a man who really just wants to abandon his scholarly work and write for soap operas.

The best part of the book is Flan’s voice: Innocent yet extremely strong and determined, I loved the way she viewed her life and her relationship with her kids. Layered over all of this was Flan’s own upbringing, her relationship with her father, and her own desire to find herself. The author has a way with words, scene, story, and dialogue, and I was amazed at how brilliantly she told this unique and addicting story.

[Dorine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rating - I almost quit reading about 3/4 through. I wanted to move on to another book. It was mainly the main character's sexual attraction to EVERYONE that annoyed me. She was also a careless mother that didn't sit well with me.

Something triggered me to continue. I have to admit that I really enjoyed the suspense resolution and the end of the book.

Overall, a satisfactory read. It will generate an interesting book club discussion.

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flan goes to auctions and buys the contents of abandoned self-storage units. She is looking for things she can sell on e-Bay or at yard sales. She's also looking for meaning in her life. I actually got a lot out of this book without particularly liking the book itself. Flan's lifestyle and her extremely relaxed approach to parenting made me too anxious to go over 3 stars on this one. :)

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is definitely unique. However, the intrigue of the self-storage auctions was the only thing that keep me reading. It was a little too bizarre for my taste but I did finish it. And any book that I am willing to finish deserves at least 2 stars.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was all over the place, and some of those places were much better than others. I loved the sale scenes - they really rang true - and the connections with Walt Whitman, but the 9/11 subplot was just silly.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book tried really hard & I give her credit for trying, but it fell flat in the end.

[Jamie Gender]

Hated it.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to make of this book. It was good though. I was fascinated by Flan and her life. A woman stuck in life with a husband that neglects her for his soap operas and leaves her to basically raise the children. To find extra income she bids on self storage units that the original owners have stopped paying on in hopes to find something that might help her live her dreams a little better. She lives in a close and quirky community where one family is a mystery. One day she finds a unit she bids on with a single box with only an address and a note that simply says "yes". As she goes to find the address and understand the box and it's content her every day hum drum life begins to change in so many directions involving herself, her family and all her neighbors.

The story take place post 9/11 and is very raw about the feelings of the day with middle eastern families in America. I liked the book, I'm not sure I liked how everything was put together but it was a fun read.

[Elizabeth Kennedy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t like this book. I know there will be people who loved it, but the story did not seem as deep as it pretended to be. I feel like the characters scratched the surface of their souls with the events unfolding in front of them, but not one of them figured out the why. The premise of helping the person who hit the child also seems unnatural and almost put on. I didn’t believe it. I also disapproved of the parents Flan and Shea were, vey irresponsible with Noodle, particularly. It was odd how Flan treated her poetry book like an oracle, trying to get it to divine the way forward. That said, there was some excellent writing, with beautiful word choices.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Self Storage" is about Flan and her family. They live in student family housing while her husband avoids completing his PhD. She buys the contents of abandoned storage units and sells them to make an income. A mysterious box from one unit and a mysterious neighbour collide in the one week to turn Flan's life upside down. Chick lit meets mystery with a whole lot of Walt Whitman references thrown in.

[Debdanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a poetry fan, but I loved this book- mostly bc it came into my life at exactly the right moment- days of Covid/two weeks past the 2020 election with Trump throwing temper tantrums in the White House. This book is post 9/11 and reminds me of the hysteria of the time; some of which we have healed from, some of which we haven't. But this is a beautiful reminder to the fact that the best thing we can hope to do with our lives is say 'yes' to what makes our hearts sing.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost three stars. I liked many parts of the story however Flan was such a mess of a character who struggled in most aspects of her life. She felt abandoned as a child and was an inadequate wife and mother. It pained me to read the descriptions of her family's home life. Then as the story gathered some steam, it petered out far too abruptly. I wanted to know what happened with her Afganistan neighbor.

[Jaymie De Frain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting things happened in the story but I wish they were fleshed out more. I also wanted more description of the side characters. The main character treats Walt Whitman as her god and Leaves of Grass is her bible. I have disliked Walt Whitman ever since I wrote a report on him in college. The main character had some weird mini sexual fantasy-things that made me uncomfortable, similar to Leaves of Grass.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever thought about what might be locked inside the thousands of storage lockers we see along the nation’s highways? Gayle Brandeis thought about it and created an engaging novel that looks at what we keep and what we let go of. Our heroine Flan has two small children, a husband who is working on his dissertation forever, and a business buying the contents of storage lockers from which the contents are being sold because the renters didn’t pay the rent. Most lockers contain the usual assortments of clothing and housewares, but this time, she comes upon a box that will change her life. The story takes place in Riverside, California not long after 9/11. Flan is intrigued by her neighbors from Afghanistan. What does the woman look like under the black garments that hide everything, including her face? Why does she never speak to any of the neighbors? Then she discovers an auction listing for her Afghani neighbors’ storage locker and can’t resist going to see what’s in it. Soon she’s involved in international affairs that threaten the safety of her whole family. This book started a little slow for me but soon became an obsession, and I’m wishing there were more pages to read. I love that the subject matter is so original and so intertwined with current events. My only quibble is the constant stream of Walt Whitman lines strewn throughout. Not being a Whitman devotee, I found them annoying, but it’s still a good read.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it a compelling read. I really liked how I could really imagine the protagonist with her kids and husband and best friend and messy house. really liked the book and would have given it a 5 except I found the last part not up to the same quality as the first parts. The plot at the end, it just didn’t ring true to me.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up years ago at a used bookstore and finally cracked it open and read it. It was not quite what I was expecting, but I loved it. I loved the way it was written, flowing easily and effortlessly. About the meaningless of stuff in the end and the hurdles and mountains that pop up in life as we all search for what makes us say “YES”.

[Andi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I keep thinking about it after I finished. Did I like it? Not sure, I know I didn't NOT like it. I didn't "get" all of the characters or plots, and the ending seemed a bit rushed. But I kept on reading and now want to find a copy of Leaves of Grass.

[CAROL · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really lovely story of love and friendship. I found it Charming. Flann Parker loved Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and had a real talent for relationships. I plan to recommend this to my book love.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "The Art of Misdiagnosis..." I found this lovely story while searching library for "The Book of Dead Birds". Easy to read in snippets or all at once. Fun way of using Walt Whitman works within the story.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Self Storage Brandeis, Gayle 3 F gritty+characters hippie Mom happy w/ life in complex & yd. sales from storage containers until woman in burka next door after 9-11 accidentally hits her daughter & reaches out to Afghan woman. she is only person can save Afghan woman 2015 9/9/2015

[Marcy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected. I liked the story idea but the story was too unreal for me.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing seems OK, but did not care for the subject.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved Brandeis’ writing style and the tying of her story with Whitman’s. I found this to be a very clever and human novel. I feel that it came to me at the perfect time in my life.

[Leeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel had so much potential and unfortunately I think it missed the mark. As I was falling in love in Flan, a flawed but like able mother, friend and wife I found myself wanting more out of her and her relationships throughout the story. Flan attends storage auctions with her two young kids while her husband sits at home and "works". Flan and her family live in university housing surrounded by many interesting characters. I really wanted the author to dive deeper into Flan's relationships with her neighbors because I feel like there was a lot of potential there, this did not happen. I was especially interested in Flan's neighbors who were from Afghanistan and how their lives would become intertwined. At first the characters and the plot seemed reasonable and completely believable but as the story went on that quickly changed. The whole "drama" with the Afghan neighbor was short lived and poorly thought out. On top of it the whole ending with Flan and her family had me extremely disappointed. All in all the ending just didn't seem plausible and fell flat. I would recommend this book with some reservations. It was an easy read and entertaining for the most part however the plot and ending just wasn't as strong as I would have hoped.

[Elizabeth Earley · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I finished my reading of Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis, it was with an exhaled “ah,” a quickened pulse, and the word, Yes, whispering in my mind. The story poses the question to its protagonist, Flan Parker, as well as to its reader, “what makes you say ‘Yes’ inside?” Answers seep through odd, bright paintings, intimate haircuts, and the words of Walt Whitman. The adventure of finding what makes you say ‘Yes’ to your life is the theme which threads together many different simultaneous and interwoven stories: the mysterious Afghani couple draped in black, the threatening anti-terrorist protestors armed with eggs to throw and signs to wave in a frightening, post 9/11 political climate, the supportive and co-conspiratorial best friend’s dying mother saga, the husband’s stack of televisions perpetually displaying a pyramid of soap operas, the eccentric, blue-haired artist contemplating a life of meditation, an unexpected tragedy involving the children, and the surprising ways in which all of these characters and events pose the question to the reader and to Flan Parker. The story is told in a captivating first person narrative voice, that of Flan, who is an engaging, entrepreneurial mother and wife trying to find her place in the world. With a mother who died of cancer when Flan was young and an ostracized father, she floats around to Self Storage auctions to purchase odds and ends for her yard sales and consults her well-read, heavily underlined, greatly memorized copy of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, both an heirloom and a talisman, for guidance in every situation.

In the book’s 50-page introduction, Brandeis teases us with a short paragraph describing the haunting image of an Afghani woman in a burqa hunched in a dark storage locker with hair plastered to her cheeks and presents a place and a mix of characters so intriguing and unusual that you have to read on to find out what happens among them. In the second part, when a strange note bearing the single word: “Yes,” turns up in one of her auction finds, Flan follows the return instructions on the strip of paper to the “blue house on the hill,” her kids in tow, and ends up shaving the head of the dynamic stranger, an act that results in a powerful, intimate moment that lingers in the mind of the reader long after the scene ends. In the subsequent three sections, the pace picks up until one thing after another slams into our beloved Flan mercilessly, each forcing her to make an even more difficult decision than the last, each threatening her very safety if not her life.

It is a difficult task to write about saying yes to life; one risks being viewed as naïve, sentimental, overly optimistic. Brandeis has overcome this risk, however, with clear, vivid writing, serious political tensions, tragic events, and weighty consequences that escalate, pile up, and blend with the positive undercurrents to reveal disturbing truths that are anything but sentimental. The final result, simultaneously fantastical and believable, leaves you with a smile, an excitement, and a longing for more.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

sandy sent this to me via a care package a couple of weeks ago. i picked it up this week off a pile of books on my desk when i was quickly transitioning into the "recovery room" with valentine for the night. valentine was agitated, calliope was agitated, and both lena and were exhausted. i wasn't really thinking about what book to grab, but was very thankful when i opened the pages to find this novel...
i spend about 12 hrs a day with our little guy in a small, empty bedroom, both of us curled up on the floor with a blankie, as he heals and i try to keep myself occupied and awake-- self storage was a divine comfort for two of those nights! it was a very quick read and while it was not life shifting, it was lens torquing...okay, so that sounds silly, but brandeis' gentle voice pulled numerous threads together as culture and community and identity flowed through flan's world and the many storage units she visited...
plus i'm a bit of a sucker--how could i not adore this novel with walt whitman's poetry sprinkled throughout?
and speaking of valentine, he's settling in right now for the evening with me...night 6 at home post op and he's getting stronger everyday!

[Writer's Relief · Rating 5 out of 5]

SELF STORAGE is a quirky, complex, and unusual story that is well worth a read...and was published years before any storage auction reality shows aired on television. The story takes place in 2002 after the terrible events of 9/11. Flan Parker subsidizes her family's income by finding treasures at abandoned storage locker sales to resell in her community of Riverside, California. Flan is thrilled to find that she has a knack for choosing lucrative lockers. Attending these storage auctions also helps to take Flan's mind off her husband's lack of focus and interest in completing his dissertation. At an auction that Flan wins, the storage unit holds only one box. Inside the box is a note with an address and the word "YES" written on it. With the note in one hand and a beloved copy of Walt Whitman's LEAVES OF GRASS in the other, a curious Flan sets out on a road trip to discover just what this cryptic note means and who wrote it. This impromptu adventure also leads Flan on an internal road trip, as she discovers more about herself and her own life. When she finally meets the author of the letter, Flan discovers what “yes” means for the letter writer and for Flan herself.

[The Book Maven · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the hot, smoggy, dusty land of the Inland Empire, in the bustling, semi-countrified city of Riverside, Flan Parker is living her life, trying to keep her family afloat as her husband Shake works on his PhD, Housing Authority tries to shut down her business, and her slippery toddler daughter gets run over by the persecuted next-door Afghani neighbor, a quiet woman who is being harassed by disgruntled people and unfriendly FBI agents.

With Walt Whitman as her guide, as well as her long-suffering friends and well-meaning husband, Flan has to make some tough decisions and learn how to navigate the ominous political climate which is curtailing everyone's freedoms and promising trouble for all.

This will make a good book for a book club discussion, as well as a good candidate for an "Inland Empire" themed booktalk or booklist.