Like This

by Leo McKay Jr

These superb stories are startling and often disturbing, filled with complexity and power. McKay portrays characters with astonishing depth and dead-on emotional rightness. The world is not fair in these stories. There is pain, abuse, solitude; but somehow there is also hope.

Genres: Short Stories, Canada, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great selection of short stories. My favorites were the ball and something about snow.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

McKay is a former editor of PRISM International. All the stories in this collection use simple, unadorned language in the Hemingway and Carver tradition. Not minimalism, however. “Angus Fell” is one of my favorites, McKay works his character through several emotional states without ever telling what they are, but we know. The character’s awakening is double-edged. “Like This” is a Carveresque story, that runs a little flat, despite the emotional conflict, until the scene where the title comes from, then the story flattens the reader. “Fidelity” has a surprising, but perfect ending, just an amazingly fresh approach to the married-man-meets-old-girlfriend theme. “A New Start” has a horrific scene where a father takes his two small children out at night to dumpster dive. The ending is a bit predictable, but that scene that precedes it, wow! “The Name Everybody Calls Me” is another devastatingly powerful story about a guy that almost runs over a girl and when he stops to help he finds out she’s been tortured. Again, McKay has a fresh approach, a surprise ending, and does so much with such simple language. “A Thing Like Snow” is a story that I didn’t particularly care for, although I can admire the writing. It has all the ingredients and reminds me of the kind of stories that get anthologized in The Best American Short Stories series. That sentimental touch makes it thematically the odd-ball out in this collection. “In My Heart” was the biggest disappointment, it started off like it was going to deliver the goods, but it fails. I think it fails because the first-person narrator’s voice seems off. Still a pretty good story, but it could have been a great one.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good first collection of short stories, largely set in the Maritimes...filled with longing, betrayal and aching beauty.

[Readysetclick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't feel like much effort was put into this.. at all..

[David Hickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A Thing Like Snow" is easily one of the best stories I've ever read.