It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories

by Ramona Reeves

Winner, 2023 Sergio Troncoso Award for Best Book of Fiction, Texas Institute of Letters
Happiness and connection prove fickle in this debut collection of eleven linked stories introducing Babbie and Donnie. She is a thrice-divorced former call girl, and he is a sobriety-challenged trucker turned yogi. Along with their community of exes, in-laws, and coworkers, Babbie and Donnie share a longing to reforge their lives, a task easier said than done in Mobile, Alabama, which bears its own share of tainted history. Despite overwhelming challenges and the ever-looming specters of status, race, and class, the characters in It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories strive for versions of the American dream through modern and often unconventional means. Told with humor and honesty, these stories remind us not only about the fallibility of being human and the resistance of some to change but also about finding redemption in unlikely places.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

221 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2022

About the author

Ramona Reeves' interconnected story collection, It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories, won the 2022 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. It also won the 2022 Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. The Washington Post highlighted it as one of 10 award-winning collections to read. Reeves has been awarded an AROHO fellowship, a residency at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the Nancy D. Hargrove Editors’ Prize. Her writing has appeared in The Southampton Review, Bayou Magazine, Pembroke, New South, Superstition Review, Texas Highways and others.

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this collection of linked stories so much. Ramona Reeves gives us a round robin of interlocked lives in a small Southern town, mostly people on the slide and people who were born at the bottom. the stories address, among other things, the questionable nostalgia of the Old South and the absurdities of the New. This is a stunning intermeshing of class, race, history, and fate among people who undervalue their own lives in favor of other impossibilities. The author works the line between the mundane details of life and its moments of heady insight like an Olympic gymnast on a balance beam. She plunges into great truths, only to surface in the gritty, funny and humble details of ordinary life--grounds it all in a fabulously wry comic sensibility. Pure magic, an auspicious debut.

Winner of the Drue Heinz prize for fiction in 2022.

[James Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishing collection.
The prose, setting, and stories are all admirable, but it’s the character work that steals the show. Well-drawn Southern voices, real emotion, real experiences.
Envious of Reeves and her steady, confident control of the craft.

[Zoé · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book! My favourite book of 2024 so far. The character development is fantastic and I loved the different stories.

"It was then that Corrine realized how people who'd once meant so much to each other could become strangers in no time at all" p.106

"The autopsy blamed it on a bad heart, but Donnie knew no one had a better heart than the man who'd stuck with him through every misstep" p. 208

[Sunny Patpatia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful example of how a linked short story collection should work. The stories stand on their own, but taken together the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. You come to really know and love these characters and their deep south setting.

[Mona Frazier · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb: "A debut collection of eleven linked stories introducing Babbie and Donnie. She is a thrice-divorced former call girl, and he is a sobriety-challenged trucker turned yogi. Along with their community of exes, in-laws, and coworkers, Babbie and Donnie share a longing to reforge their lives, a task easier said than done in Mobile, Alabama, which bears its share of tainted history."

I enjoy reading interlinked short stories when they are done well. These are exceptional. The author is a keen observer of people's personalities, relationships and has an original way of describing the characters. (See my Kindle highlights for examples).

The characters' lives say a lot about Alabama's history, classism, and race. There are humorous parts and poignant scenes. All of them are written beautifully. I'll read whatever this talented author writes in the future.

[Ramona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope readers enjoy getting to know the characters in this community. I enjoyed connecting their stories as I wrote and arranged this book. And after years spent writing it, it’s my great pleasure to recommend it!

[Liz Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book was written beautifully. Characters were so well described that I felt as if I knew them. I have purchased copies of this book for friends to read. I think about the characters when someone reminds of me of them. Would love to read a sequel.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this book is not John Updike. Why (you may ask) are you bringing up John Updike. Well, I have read more books by John Updike than any other author -- no other author is even vaguely close -- and early on in reading this book, I thought of Updike's books. "Updike is known for his well-crafted prose that explores the hidden tensions and problems of middle-class American life." Most were novels and short stories set in America's Northeast. I saw this book --early on -- as sort of a somewhat lower class study of life in the American South. Alabama in this particular case. An interconnected set of characters, in stories spaced apart in time, ebbing and flowing (and mostly very depressed and disappointed in their lives and often very willing to think lesser of those around them. You know. Typical human stuff. At least that's apparently how the author sees it. Then, about two-thirds through the book, after only a couple slight hiccups, the wheels started to come off the cart. What were major character traits soon became less convincing, as if the author had never been expecting to have to flesh them out all the way, and failed to know people with those characteristics well enough to flesh them out, so apparently there was some guessing going on, or, at the every least, some unfounded assumptions. Patterns of behavior shifted without rational explanation. I wondered why the "logic" of the narrative veered off the road it had been on, so much toward the end. It seems that most of the earlier stories (or chapters, which ever you prefer in this case) were written earlier and published as short stories, while the bulk of the last third was not, implying that someone convinced the author to elaborate on the connected narrative of the earlier works wrap every thing up into a nice ending. If that is so, I'm not sure if the author was rushed to finish or never saw its ending as clearly as what came before, but I lost all association with John Updike in the end. I've grown weary of fictional writers that can't research their own characters and their surrounding as extensively as good non-fiction writers have no choice but doing. Throwing out the argument that something is fantasy or science fiction does not make it acceptable for covering up simple ignorance and misunderstandings about how life works in reality, especially when the writing is marketing itself as just that.

[LLJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say enough about this stunning collection of intensely memorable and interconnected characters, all navigating within and around Mobile, AL. The city, itself, is also a major character because of its vast history - some of which is a treasured present for many who reside there. For others, it's a continuous reminder of the division - between race, money, religions, etc. It's an amazing debut novel from a down-to-earth and talented author.

Babbie, a beautiful, quirky, hilarious, and entirely likable character, is a mainstay throughout these linked stories (as is, for the most part, the very flawed, but always "trying" Donnie). The collection - which reads as a novel - jumps forward and back within chapters/stories and is so intelligently and beautifully crafted, each story informs aspects of another. It is a favorite genre (linked short stories) and this is about as well-done as it gets. No surprise that Ramona Reeves won the Drue Heinz Prize in Literature for this collections (and is in the process of winning other awards)! Fay, Sammie Jo, Marti, Michael and Patrice - these are real characters, easily conjured thanks to the talent of the writer. The stories depict interwoven lives and the power of choice (leading to consequences, for better or worse). I dogeared so many pages to quote I can't list them all here, but this is a must-read, especially if you love well-written prose and interconnected. unforgettable character.

Life is, to me, just a collection of linked stories. This author absolutely nails that in her first attempt with this book! Amazing work.

[Colin Brightwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunningly gorgeous literary debut. One of the best short story collections I have ever read, and I don’t say that lightly (I’ve read a lot. I love A LOT).

IT FALLS GENTLY ALL AROUND has immaculate prose that has intense moments of beauty among the sad lives the stories navigate. What Reeves does as a writer is offer humor, tenderness, and honesty to her characters and setting. What results is a living, breathing collection of intertwined stories that make up one hell of a whole. When a short story collection can pull off being a sequence, without coming off as gimmicky, I’m impressed. And this collection does so incredibly well.

Writing comes down to this simple thing that separates great writing from good: choices. And Reeves gives her characters so many interesting choices. For example, one of the main characters, Donnie, is a recovering alcoholic ex-truck driver. Okay cool, but that could veer into cliche. But on top of that, he finds solace and meaning in yoga and aspires to be a yogi. OKAY. What a choice!! I’m here for it!!

Babbie and Donnie are two incredibly fleshed out characters, as are the side characters and characters that get their own stories (which totally works as a way to fully flesh out the world Reeves captures here, her own little postage stamp of earth, Mobile, Alabama).

“The Right Side of the Dash,” “The Balanced Side,” and “Anniversary” were standouts for me.

[Monica Comas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. This author...wow, what a talent. Others cover the plot so well, I'm not going to extend that discussion. What I like sharing is how a book makes you feel. When I read it, I felt the pulse of the setting, of every character. And, my goodness, these characters are rich and complex. They come from different walks of life, and the collection of these voices was so compelling that any time I put the book down, I couldn't wait to get back to them to see not only what happened in their complicated lives, but also how they were all interlinked. This book has a cohesiveness that is rare and special. These aren't individual stories sitting each in their own silo. They're all deeply connected and feel freshly carried along as the book progresses. The dimension of this world builds as you read. And the writing? It's simply sublime. I don't know how else to describe it. You read a sentence that has such a dry fantastic wit to it that you laugh, and then, like some expert trapeze artist, the author swings you to a scene so poignant you need to take a breath. It's rare that you read something that's wrought with so much pathos and humor. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a propulsive read that's beautifully written, a book that you can fall into and really lose yourself in. I've recommended it to friends and family--it's one of my go-to book recommendations!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book! This author...wow, what a talent. There are no spoilers in this review, and I'm not going to discuss plot (that's covered so well in so many other reviews). What I want to share is what this book makes you feel. When I read it, I felt the pulse of setting, of the characters. And, my goodness, these characters are rich and complex--the kind that when I put the book down, I couldn't wait to get back to them to see not only what happened in their complicated lives, but also how they were all interlinked. This book has a cohesiveness that is rare and special. These aren't individual stories sitting each in their own silo. They're all deeply connected and feel freshly carried along as the book progresses. The dimension of this world builds as you read. And the writing is sublime. I don't know how else to describe it. You read a sentence that has such a dry fantastic wit to it that you laugh, and then, like some expert trapeze artist, the author swings you to a scene so poignant you need to take a breath. It's rare that you read something that's wrought with so much pathos and humor. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a propulsive read that's beautifully written, a book that you can fall into and really lose yourself in. Really looking forward to reading whatever Ramona Reeves writes next!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are linked short stories populated by an ensemble of characters so engagingly depicted I didn’t want to leave them when I arrived at the last page. A down-on-her luck woman and her down-on-his luck boyfriend. An ex-husband and his second wife. A best friend and her wife. The truck-driver boyfriend is just one of the characters who will draw you into life in Mobile, Alabama, during the first two decades of the current century. A philanderer given to drink, Donnie bottoms out in this collection’s second story. But goofy dreams keep him afloat. He wants to be a yoga instructor; he wants to own his own business; he wants to hold up his end of a relationship. Circumstances conspire against him – against the others you’ll encounter here. But they persist. Something in them makes you want them to endure. Put your hands on a copy of this wonderful story collection . . . and root for the characters Reeves has breathed life into.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first experience with interlocked short stories was Winesburg ,Ohio when I was a freshman in college many moons ago. This book made me think back on it fondly, and added to the experience with deep contemplations on race and class. The pleasure of both books is the nuance and gentle prodding each story offers to contemplate the lives around you that seem familiar, but whose intimacy we are often failing to see. I love a good, quiet read that builds and these story do that. I will definitely be adding this collection to my teaching list of short stories. Beautiful.

[Mark O'brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seldom read collections of short stories, but I loved this book. While it's set in Mobile, Ala., the themes are universal -- love, money, hard luck and bad decisions, children, class, friendships and more. Babbie, Donnie, Rowan and the others are great characters; we can see ourselves or friends in them.
And Reeves set the stage well with sharp writing like, "Mobile was always knocked up with rain, especially in August, when clouds hung round and low for hours until their water broke in the early afternoon."

[Esther Gulli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. The writing was exquisite - her characters were a mash up of Flannery O’Connor and Lee Smith. I found myself rooting for these societal cast outs as they clawed their way through a grab bag of bad choices.

I loved the linked stories format. I couldn’t wait to see which characters might slide in and out of the scene from the previous stories. Ramona Reeves has proven herself on the page. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this writer. Give us more, please!!

[Cynthia Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book--the writing; the southern setting of Mobile, Alabama; the characters and their stories. My favorite story was "The Right Side of the Dash," and my favorite character was Fay, the star of this story. On its first page, we learn that Fay's husband of more than 50 years has died. "She was sixty-nine and single. Not widowed. The difference was a question of attitude. The difference kept her sane. Endings were just endings she'd decided." And it's now available in paperback!

[Brooke Phelan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of fictional short stories that weave together the overlapping lives of vulnerable people wrestling with things like addiction, generational poverty and fixed stereotypes of the South.

I happened upon this signed copy at a quaint bookstore/co-op (Pandora’s) in San Antonio, Texas. A pleasant surprise. I’d forgotten how fun it is to read local authors and short stories to boot!

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely rate a book five stars, but this book! Made up of short stories or chapters, they tell of the hard knocks lives of several people intertwined. Living in current times in Mobile, they each struggle with their choices, their paths & their relationships. So beautifully written. Just a joy to read!

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's so much wisdom, humor and tenderness packed into these linked short stories, any of which could stand on their own or read together as a novel. The characters are bruised but trying their best; and the sentences really shine for their beauty and insight. I usually read short stories very slowly, but tore through this collection. One of the best books of the year for me.

[Chaitali Sen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this collection back in October for a panel of authors of recent short story collections, and I was immediately taken with Babbie and Donnie. Great linked stories, complex, raw, unsentimental, whip smart and funny, about a very American community. Highly recommend this collection, and Ramona Reeves is definitely a writer to watch.

[A Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at a used book store in Miss. it turned out to be well written and the stories interlocked. Most characters were on the down slide, but the stories were so well written you felt the heat and heartaches every step of the way. Since they are short stories, don’t look for a happy ending or conclusion. It just kind of ends, but not in a bad way.

Read this for great storytelling.

[Sheena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not usually big on short story collections as many do not offer the depth and character development that I enjoy reading. This one did. I loved seeing the character development shown through different perspectives and throughout several connected characters’ life events. So well done.

[Tony Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A linked story collection is difficult to do without it feeling forced. Reeves puts this together without any bumps or bruises. You will have a hard time putting it down. Once you finish it you'll read ir again to try and discover how she pulled it off.

[Jess Hagemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A completely unassuming collection of stories about small moments in “small” characters’ lives. I was caught off-guard by how deftly the stories build on each other to reveal essential truths about life and human nature.

[Erin Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got more wrapped up in this than I expected. I had to do a little flipping back when I realized all the stories featured the same circle of people but not too much

[Toni Ann Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this gorgeous book from beginning to end. The writing is sublime.

[Lisa Heinsohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the book disheartening as I read about people who were basically enduring lives and relationships they didn’t want.

[Karen Bachmeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

great characters!

While billed as short stories, it reads like a novel. Really enjoyed it and would recommend it. Suggest you read in order but stories do standalone