The Invisibles

by Hugh Sheehy

Though Hugh Sheehy’s often tragic, sometimes gruesome stories feature bloodied knives and mysterious disappearances, at the heart of these thoughtful thrillers are finely crafted character studies of people who wrestle with the darker aspects of human nature—grief, violence, loneliness, and the thoughts of crazed minds.

Sheehy’s stories shine a spotlight on the bleak fringes of America, giving voice to the invisibles who need it most. A dismal assistant teacher spiking her coffee after school is suddenly locked in a basement with a student who has just witnessed his father’s murder. A seventeen-year-old girl at a skate rink whose name no one can remember is motherless, friendless, and sure she will be the next to go. The heartbroken victim of a miscarriage dreams of her fetus’s voyage through the earth’s plumbing. The estranged addict son, certain of his innate goodness, loses himself in a blizzard and fails his family again. Sheehy’s characters learn that however invisible they may feel and whatever their intentions, their actions incur a cost both to themselves and those around them. They struggle to tame or come to terms with the forces they meet—the tragedies—that are far larger than their small existences. In this debut, Sheehy illuminates the all-but-silent note of adult loneliness and how we cope with it or, perhaps, just move past it.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2012

Reviews

[Cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is driving me nuts that I can't remember how or where I heard about this book. I can't ask anyone either, because only 13 people on GR have rated it. That's why I'm thinking I must have seen it on a "criminally overlooked books of 2012" list or something. Seriously, only 13? How is that even possible?! At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, it is a fucking travesty that Hugh Sheehy's gem of a short story collection barely registered as a blip on our collective reading radar, while certain Shades of Shit continue to blow up the bestseller list. If I think about it for too long, I'm in danger of giving myself an aneurysm.

I feel like kind of a jerk only giving this 4 stars. When I thumbed back through the book to note which stories were my favorites, I realized that I had enjoyed every single one. There were a few times where I felt the ending of a story was a bit more abrupt than I would have liked, but even that was more of a fleeting afterthought. Mostly I was just enamored and completely enveloped in the lives of these "Invisibles". Maybe 4 stars is my way of saying READ THIS BOOK without completely over inflating your expectations.

Oh, and my (hard to pick) favorites:

Meat and Mouth
The Invisibles
Smiling Down at Ellie Pardo
Ghost Stories
Variations on a Theme

[Johnny B3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book exhibits the best of both reading worlds. A sensitivity to language but also to lived experience. Nuanced, brutal and tender all in a paragraph. great stories that deserve a wide audience!

[James Hemby]

2012 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction

[PLOP! · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collection revolves from one “invisible” to another and stories pronounce, with a terrific thrill, the darker and more dreaded turns in life that leave the reader falling “through the cracks” and forever wanting to be seen. Sheehy makes his mark in fiction with a vast range of characters – missing and invisible, disconsolate and notorious in their longing for revenge; near addicts and the unborn – calling out from the most conventional and hapless Americana. This is Sheehy’s gift: balancing the horrific and the humane in stories that exfoliate the more painful triumphs of American adulthood.

[Aaron Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories was fascinating. I recently read some academic works regarding minor characters and a statement that stuck with me read something along the lines of the importance of minor characters arises from their disappearance. But this is interrogated here. The minor characters are transmuted to major in each story. Many stories eschew a beginning and end or focus on the events in the periphery.
The writing is also riveting. I’m sure, with another read, I could find so much to hang onto and study. But, I did find myself underlining the wonderful writing every other page…

[Christopher Bundy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read many of these stories in various journals before they were collected, including the title story, which I found in Best American Mystery Stories. I liked them then but here side by side as one the stories take on new meaning, echoing and complementing each other. I read these almost like I read chapters in a novel and enjoyed the book more for it.

From "The Invisibles" - "For weeks I felt like a unit of space in which a sign floated: 'Cynthia invisible here.'"

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are so good. There isn't a weak one in here. Each contains everything I read for in short fiction. I love the way Sheehy incorporates mystery/suspense/crime elements into the straightforward and poignant realism of literary fiction, making small, intimate scenes filled with all the more urgency and tension. I love them and could re-read them over and over.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literary thrills and chills.

[Patricia Geller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed group of short stories that offer me a new pperspective on lives unlike my own.