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Shambles
Debra Moore's second novel is about the aftermath of how people left in the wake of neglect and terror and violence survive. Shambles is about how and why they endure, the trivial and profound rearrangements that necessarily attend loss and inform the shape of a life lived after it.
203 pages, Hardcover
First published July 14, 2004
27 people want to read
About the author
Debra Monroe
20 books49 followersDebra Monroe is the author of four books of fiction, two memoirs, a textbook, a collection of essays.
Her first book The Source of Trouble was acclaimed as a “fierce debut” that presents “ever-hopeful lost souls with engaging humor and sympathy” (Kirkus Reviews). Her second book of stories A Wild, Cold State was described by The Boston Globe as “fine and funky, marbled with warmth and romantic confusion, but not a hint of sentimentality.” The Washington Post called her first novel “rangy, thoughtful, ambitious, and widely, wildly knowledgeable.” Shambles was praised by the Texas Observer as “a novel of graceful ease and substance.” Her first memoir On the Outskirts of Normal was published to national acclaim. Her second memoir My Unsentimental Education was described by the Chicago Tribune as "a heady rush of adventure, optimism, and fearlessness. Her book of essays It Takes a Worried Woman was described by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune as "edgy, nervy, anxious, alloyed by intellect, insight and humor."
Her books have won many awards, including the Flannery O’Connor Award, Borders Bookstore New Frontiers Award, The Barnes and Noble Book Award, and several best book of the season or year citations, including in O Magazine, Elle, Vanity Fair, and Southern Living.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 10, 2016
Delia Arco’s life may appear out of control, if not a shambles, but author Debra Monroe employs vivid, precisely controlled language in her portrait of Delia’s on-the-edge life as a social worker in ramshackle Port Town, Texas. This is a book of compelling characters and the vagaries of lower middle-class life, even if the narrative sometimes seems to meander.
A decade or more ago, it was popular to deride such minimalist accounts of trailer-park, low-rent life as “Kmart fiction,” although, like anything else, such work could be done badly (pick up many literary magazines) or well (Raymond Carver, Bobbie Ann Mason). Make no mistake: Monroe is working this ground, and she often excels at it.
Shambles is full of events, but Monroe’s real interest lies in a careful, almost minute depiction of how Delia keeps trying to shape the fragments of her life into some kind of meaningful whole. She resists the prospect of a conventional family, for example, but she does want a family on her own terms. She has adopted a black infant, Esme, whose care utterly consumes her. I’ve never read such lengthy repeated inventories of food, diaper changes, car seats, portable beds, and other baby paraphernalia every time they travel.
Monroe brings a laconic wit to much of her writing, which makes the novel’s journey quite enjoyable, even if the story sometimes slows and turns back on itself. Here is a sample, toward the end:
It hit me all at once that other people checking fuse boxes, staring into neighbors’ blank, black windows, running around in darkness like serfs, weren’t different. They were probably kowtowing too to a tyrant-idea of what normal is, an idea I’d never seen for real but all the same I gave it the power to keep me lowly. No one had how-to manuals for surviving change.
Along with Esme, we meet Delia’s neighbors and co-workers, including the remarkable Dannie Lampass, a gay woman with a weirdly Western manner (“Howdy, partner!”) and a traumatic past. The principal driver of the story arc, however is Delia’s mother, who dies and leaves her a convertible, a trailer, and a sketchy boyfriend. Delia’s hapless father shows up, as well — down and out, with dreams of living on the water in Belize. (Delia’s meticulous attention to Esme is clearly in sharp contrast to the careless way in which Delia herself was abandoned by her mother and raised by her father.)
Men, predictably, don’t come off all that well in Shambles, although Monroe is too good a writer to make either her boss, Hector, or older boyfriend, Mike, into one-dimensional characters. Both have their attractions and strengths for Delia, but this is not a romance novel with quiet coupledom at the end.
We reach a climax of sorts with a forced evacuation of the school where Delia works with at-risk children, just as Esme gets misplaced in exchanges between babysitters and friends. By then, the novel seems to rush toward its conclusion, in part because Monroe appears unsure about what to do with the Delia-Dannie relationship.
Shambles, like life, has no neat endings, but it does arrive at a precarious moment of peace and insight. Whatever else happens, Delia and Esme will survive.
A decade or more ago, it was popular to deride such minimalist accounts of trailer-park, low-rent life as “Kmart fiction,” although, like anything else, such work could be done badly (pick up many literary magazines) or well (Raymond Carver, Bobbie Ann Mason). Make no mistake: Monroe is working this ground, and she often excels at it.
Shambles is full of events, but Monroe’s real interest lies in a careful, almost minute depiction of how Delia keeps trying to shape the fragments of her life into some kind of meaningful whole. She resists the prospect of a conventional family, for example, but she does want a family on her own terms. She has adopted a black infant, Esme, whose care utterly consumes her. I’ve never read such lengthy repeated inventories of food, diaper changes, car seats, portable beds, and other baby paraphernalia every time they travel.
Monroe brings a laconic wit to much of her writing, which makes the novel’s journey quite enjoyable, even if the story sometimes slows and turns back on itself. Here is a sample, toward the end:
It hit me all at once that other people checking fuse boxes, staring into neighbors’ blank, black windows, running around in darkness like serfs, weren’t different. They were probably kowtowing too to a tyrant-idea of what normal is, an idea I’d never seen for real but all the same I gave it the power to keep me lowly. No one had how-to manuals for surviving change.
Along with Esme, we meet Delia’s neighbors and co-workers, including the remarkable Dannie Lampass, a gay woman with a weirdly Western manner (“Howdy, partner!”) and a traumatic past. The principal driver of the story arc, however is Delia’s mother, who dies and leaves her a convertible, a trailer, and a sketchy boyfriend. Delia’s hapless father shows up, as well — down and out, with dreams of living on the water in Belize. (Delia’s meticulous attention to Esme is clearly in sharp contrast to the careless way in which Delia herself was abandoned by her mother and raised by her father.)
Men, predictably, don’t come off all that well in Shambles, although Monroe is too good a writer to make either her boss, Hector, or older boyfriend, Mike, into one-dimensional characters. Both have their attractions and strengths for Delia, but this is not a romance novel with quiet coupledom at the end.
We reach a climax of sorts with a forced evacuation of the school where Delia works with at-risk children, just as Esme gets misplaced in exchanges between babysitters and friends. By then, the novel seems to rush toward its conclusion, in part because Monroe appears unsure about what to do with the Delia-Dannie relationship.
Shambles, like life, has no neat endings, but it does arrive at a precarious moment of peace and insight. Whatever else happens, Delia and Esme will survive.
July 26, 2012
A wonderful book by one of my favorite writers. Its narrator, Delia Arco, is living a harried life, and Monroe adjusts her narration accordingly, with lots of interrupted scenes, narrative asides, characters entering and exiting, until the end, when everything crashes and we get a well-earned epiphany of sorts. It's all centered on Delia, and it's hard not to feel protective of her, silently hoping she won't marry the wrong guy or live in the wrong house or push away the wrong family member. A good read.
Read
August 19, 2024I loved Delia and Dannie and all the characters and the world so so much. Think some of the asides of Delia's inner voice were overdone, and also think the ending gave away too much. Lovely, quick, (frantic in some places!) read.
There is some overlap between this and her memoir when it comes to the child, but I think it might have added to the experience.
There is some overlap between this and her memoir when it comes to the child, but I think it might have added to the experience.
Read
August 29, 2012Two weeks away and still not sleeping properly, I hold Debra Monroe's newest for a clear headed day so I can read it in one sitting. I expect the same rush as I have experienced for her other fictions. Oh, boy!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews