Call Up the Waters: Stories

by Amber Caron

A magnetic debut collection of stories about the daily lives and labors of girls and women in rural America.

In Call Up the Waters, the natural world is an escape hatch, a refuge, a site of work, and an occasional antagonist. In the title story, a devastating drought leads a mother of two deep into the Colorado Rockies in search of water. In “The Handler,” a woman leaves her boyfriend for the New Hampshire woods and fifty-seven sled dogs. A distress call from a boat in Massachusetts Bay compels a mother, in “Sea Women,” to plumb her daughter’s secrets. A girl torn between truth and expectation shows her courage in a funereal performance in “Barn Burning.” And in “Bending the Map,” a woman turns the tables on her obsessive, would-be lover after a powerful storm ravages her canyon home.

The characters in these nine stories―search-and-rescue workers, dog trainers, naturalists, archaeologists, and dowsers―are each fundamentally shaped by the environment in which they live and work. They seek meaning through labor, connection through jobs. But in that searching they often find themselves far from their destination. Familiar landscapes suddenly feel strange. Unfamiliar spaces offer something like hope. Off the map and off the grid, these characters, and their regrets and devotions, are nevertheless immediately, intimately recognizable.

Sharply observant but steadily elegant, textured with empathy and grit, Call Up the Waters marks the arrival of a remarkable new talent.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Poverty

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 11, 2023

Reviews

[Elizabeth George]

In the interests of full disclosure: Amber Caron was given a grant by the Elizabeth George Foundation. She went on to complete this book of short stories, which was then published. And it is well worth your time. The first story alone--"The Handler"--knocks it out of the park and from then onward, the stories are excellent. I say this as a reader who doesn't particularly like books of short stories (despite having written one myself) because I like to sink into a novel for a fuller experience of time, place, and character. However, this is one heck of a short story collection with memorable characters, heart-felt conflicts, fatal decisions that lead to tragedy, and a strong sense of the places in which the stories occur. I was truly impressed with the author's command of every element that goes into the creation of a short story.

[Katrinka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update: I tried to say a bit more in a fuller review here: https://walkingthewire.substack.com/p...

(4.5) I need some time to let it all sink in before I say anything useful—but some of these stories so powerfully brought to life the tension involved in everyday situations, big or small, that you suspect the reason we veer off into fantasy and so forth is the fact that we often just don't have the words or narrative skills to face up to the realities of actual life. More to follow when I can articulate it better.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this collection and how rich and complicated the inner lives of these characters are.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story in this collection, "The Handler," is one of my all-time favorites and should be considered an American classic. The rest in the collection echo the same themes of resilience, self-sufficiency and survival as they explore gender and class in the margins of American rural life. I LOVED THEM. Caron's writing is clear and crisp as a mountain lake, wonderfully creative and deeply emotionally resonant. Highly recommend.

[Jeanne Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new favorite collection of short stories.

[Mollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. I can’t pick a favorite. So many of these stories will stay with me. I was completely immersed into each one.

[Fernanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories can be simple and short stories can be thought provoking. This debut collection of stories is captivating and thought provoking. Each is told from a different voice and each had purpose. I could not put this book down and have already encouraged friends to read it. Caron is a good writer and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

[Marieke Brouwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I typically don't read short stories, but this book stood out to me because all of the stories had an element of the natural world tied into it. Each story grabbed me from the very beginning and by the end I wanted to read more about each particular character. The story of the mother who's daughter was missing for 3 hours (before she found out the daughter was safe) was especially intriguing because I wanted to know what was in those boxes! Each story had a very real and raw human emotion wrapped into each character's journey which kept me thinking about it after I finished the book. I recommend!

[Dia Chawla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching, sharp, and to-the-point. This was my first collection of short stories that I’d read in a while, and Caron showed exactly how that type of literature should be written. Stories of labor, love, hardship, and rural living. Although they were experiences I could not relate to or explicitly pinpoint to individuals I know, Caron’s characters were familiar. I absolutely loved this collection and hope to find more literature with similar themes.

[b bb bbbb bbbbbbbb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of stories. The writing is well crafted and graceful in a low key way. There are a couple places where it feels a little overdone, but that is more noticeable just in contrast to how effortless the rest of the book feels.

[Faith Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the stories in this book absolutely floored with their whimsical but somber writing style. I felt connected to each new character and enjoyed their varying experiences of life and nature, HIGHLY recommend!

[Ariel Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of short stories was pretty good, but most of the stories didn't resonate with me. They seemed a bit random and aimless. There were some stories that intrigued me and I really would like to see them turned into full-fledged novels.

[Lettie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. The pieces I loved in this collection are: (the smaller the number the more I liked)
1). Bending the map
2). barn burning
3). call up the waters
4). didi
5). what the bird's knew
I'll definitely read more about Caron's story, should she provide more.

[AJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last two stories are stunning

[Lea]

Read the first story The Handler and enjoyed it. Will have to get it back from the library to finish the essay collection.

[Kaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Steph Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of stories will stay with me for a long time. Thinkers, for sure. Powerful and touching. Funny and touching.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection. These stories, mostly centering on rural, lower-class women in situations that placed them in interaction with the natural world. were spare and moving.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved!

[fire_on_the_mountain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a wonderful collection of short stories, full of humanity and deeply-felt themes of compassion, sacrifice, and connection with a complexity that exceeds the format. How can I be stirred to such feeling in so little time? I guess that's a testament to the strength of the writer. Very glad I picked this up, and definitely invested in whatever comes next.