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If the Sky Falls
If the Sky Falls is the debut short-story collection from award-winning fiction writer Nicholas Montemarano. These eleven stories show why Jayne Anne Phillips has called Montemarano an American stylist capable of redeeming our darkest dreams.
Redemption in these intense and sometimes violent stories is found in the lyrical prose, in the act of storytelling itself. A young man tries to rescue his sister from her abusive lover, and in the process must revisit his own family's violent history (Note to Future Self); a home healthcare worker pops pills and takes two men with cerebral palsy to a strip club (The Usual Human Disabilities); a man has a breakdown years after witnessing a brutal murder and doing nothing to help the victim (The Other Man). In The November Fifteen, a man is taken from his home and tortured, though he has no idea why; when he returns home he finds a different kind of torture awaiting him.
Two of the stories -- Shift and the Pushcart Prize--winning The Worst Degree of Unforgivable -- are stylistic tours de force. But style in this collection is always at the service of story. Montemarano's fiction maintains that rare balance between traditional storytelling and experimentation: his work is innovative without being flashy, sincere without being sentimental. In an age of hype, If the Sky Falls truly is the real thing -- an original and important achievement in the short-story form.
Redemption in these intense and sometimes violent stories is found in the lyrical prose, in the act of storytelling itself. A young man tries to rescue his sister from her abusive lover, and in the process must revisit his own family's violent history (Note to Future Self); a home healthcare worker pops pills and takes two men with cerebral palsy to a strip club (The Usual Human Disabilities); a man has a breakdown years after witnessing a brutal murder and doing nothing to help the victim (The Other Man). In The November Fifteen, a man is taken from his home and tortured, though he has no idea why; when he returns home he finds a different kind of torture awaiting him.
Two of the stories -- Shift and the Pushcart Prize--winning The Worst Degree of Unforgivable -- are stylistic tours de force. But style in this collection is always at the service of story. Montemarano's fiction maintains that rare balance between traditional storytelling and experimentation: his work is innovative without being flashy, sincere without being sentimental. In an age of hype, If the Sky Falls truly is the real thing -- an original and important achievement in the short-story form.
- GenresShort Stories
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2005
About the author
Nicholas Montemarano
11 books77 followersNicholas Montemarano's most recent novel, The Senator's Children, was published by Tin House Books. He is the author of two previous novels and a short story collection. His first memoir, If There Are Any Heavens, was published in 2022. He has received a Pushcart Prize and an NEA fellowship. He grew up in Queens and now lives in Lancaster, PA, where he is the Alumni Professor of Creative Writing and Belles Lettres at Franklin & Marshall College.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 28, 2022
There are a couple of stories in here I will NEVER forget
January 20, 2010
These stories are sad, sweet, dark, redemptive. Several (To Fall Apart, Shift, The November Fifteen, and The Beginning of Grief come to mind) were intense enough to warrant a breather after finishing them, not recommended for back-to-back reading. In fact, placing The November Fifteen and The Beginning of Grief next to each other in the collection may border on unnecessary reader cruelty.
Here's the thing, though: regardless of how many times I had to step away from the ends of these stories, I kept coming back for more. There is beauty in their darkness, hope in their sadness, humanity in their brutality. This gives these stories a complexity (and me a complex reaction to them) that they wouldn't have otherwise, which I appreciate as a reader and admire as a writer.
Something else: there are a few stories in here which Montemarano structures as true stories being told by himself/an authorial narrator, and in which he talks about the challenges of writing a compelling story--do we want to know more about this character? Is he telling it in the right order? Wouldn't it be more interesting if this had happened instead of that? This strikes me as a risky love-it-or-hate-it move (although exploration in a similar vein of how truth and storytelling relate worked well for O'Brien in several of the stories from The Things They Carried, which kicks ass, so it's not like it can't be done, maybe just that it could easily be overdone or done wrong). I personally liked seeing these moments of narrative indecision, although the stories where this features heavily are also not the ones I would vote most likely to reshape my nightmares.
Lovely and terrible stories. I would recommend this book to anyone who isn't between prescriptions on their antidepressants.
Here's the thing, though: regardless of how many times I had to step away from the ends of these stories, I kept coming back for more. There is beauty in their darkness, hope in their sadness, humanity in their brutality. This gives these stories a complexity (and me a complex reaction to them) that they wouldn't have otherwise, which I appreciate as a reader and admire as a writer.
Something else: there are a few stories in here which Montemarano structures as true stories being told by himself/an authorial narrator, and in which he talks about the challenges of writing a compelling story--do we want to know more about this character? Is he telling it in the right order? Wouldn't it be more interesting if this had happened instead of that? This strikes me as a risky love-it-or-hate-it move (although exploration in a similar vein of how truth and storytelling relate worked well for O'Brien in several of the stories from The Things They Carried, which kicks ass, so it's not like it can't be done, maybe just that it could easily be overdone or done wrong). I personally liked seeing these moments of narrative indecision, although the stories where this features heavily are also not the ones I would vote most likely to reshape my nightmares.
Lovely and terrible stories. I would recommend this book to anyone who isn't between prescriptions on their antidepressants.
June 25, 2008
Montemarano is what I call a writer's writer. He's not for everyone but anyone who calls themselves a writer or wants to be a writer can appreciate his prose (not that readers can't, just sayin' more for writers). His stories are thought provoking. He's been called a "dark" writer but I don't think I would call him that. Life isn't easy and is rarely pretty. He captures the ugliness that is out there. A true storyteller. The one thing I disliked the most is the use of the long paragraph. I'm more of a get in and get out with no time for cuddling kind of girl.
April 28, 2014
Overly stylistic and completely depressing to the point of comedy...if you can find a way to laugh about stories involving dogs thrown from windows, torture, witnessing a stranger being stabbed, spousal abuse, abusive home care workers, being shot for fun, the death of a daughter. This is not a tear jerker, it's a gut wrencher. Hopefully the author feels catharsis after writing this but I just feel drained.
August 23, 2016
I read Nicholas Montemarano's short story "Man Throws Dog Out Window" a couple years ago, and based on the strength of that one story, I sought out his collection of short stories. The other stories I've read in his collection are strong and well written. I must say, though, that I still think "Man Throws Dog Out Window" is his best so far; it's worth buying the collection for that one story.
June 3, 2011
IF THE SKY FALLS culls together instances where our human capacity for survival, especially amidst great emotional turmoil, is both astounding and heartbreaking. Many times I finished a story from this collection and simply closed the book. Not because I didn't want to continue, but because I needed to hold the book closer to me. I needed to embrace it.
October 13, 2011
2x readthrough 10/13/2011
August 2, 2012
Well crafted but deeply unsettling stories about people coping (poorly) with certain mundane but relentless challenges presented by modern life.
November 23, 2014
This book is phenomenal.
January 25, 2025
Totally depressing. These stories are about people one would hope to never meet, and certainly there is nothing in them to care about. I finished them to say I had, but I did not enjoy a moment.
March 10, 2012
Most amazing writer out there. His metafiction is outstanding; cannot be beat.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews