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Safe as Houses
Safe as Houses, the debut story collection of Marie-Helene Bertino, proves that not all homes are shelters. The titular story revolves around an aging English professor who, mourning the loss of his wife, robs other people's homes of their sentimental knick-knacks. In "Free Ham," a young dropout wins a ham after her house burns down and refuses to accept it. “Has my ham done anything wrong?” she asks when the grocery store manager demands that she claim it. In "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph," a failed commercial writer moves into the basement of a convent and inadvertently discovers the secrets of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. A girl, hoping to talk her brother out of enlisting in the army, brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner in the quiet, dreamy "North Of." In “The Idea of Marcel,” Emily, a conservative, elegant girl, has dinner with the idea of her ex-boyfriend, Marcel. In a night filled with baffling coincidences, including Marcel having dinner with his idea of Emily, she wonders why we tend to be more in love with ideas than with reality. In and out of the rooms of these gritty, whimsical stories roam troubled, funny people struggling to reconcile their circumstances to some kind of American Ideal and failing, over and over. The stories of Safe as Houses are magical and original and help answer such universal and existential questions How far will we go to stay loyal to our friends? Can we love a man even though he is inches shorter than our ideal? Why doesn’t Bob Dylan ever have his own smokes? And are there patron saints for everything, even lost socks and bad movies? All homes are not shelters. But then again, some are. Welcome to the home of Marie-Helene Bertino.
143 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2012
35 people are currently reading
3657 people want to read
About the author
Marie-Helene Bertino
12 books1,038 followersMarie-Helene Bertino was born and raised in Philadelphia. She is the author of the novels Beautyland (Best Books of 2024 (So Far) NYTimes, TIME Magazine, Esquire, Elle)), Parakeet (NYTimes Editor's Choice) and 2 a.m. at The Cat's Pajamas, and the short story collection Safe as Houses. Awards include The O. Henry Prize, The Pushcart Prize, The Iowa Short Fiction Award, The Mississippi Review Prize, The Center for Fiction NYC Emerging Writers Fellowship and The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Fellowship in Cork, Ireland. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, Electric Literature, Granta, Guernica, BOMB, among many others. She is the recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook Writers Colony, The Center For Fiction NYC, and Sewanee Writers Conference, where she was the Walter E. Dakin fellow. In June 2021, "Disrupting Realism," an online master class and panel she designed to make graduate level resources available at no charge, was attended by 1,300 people. She has taught in the Creative Writing programs of NYU, The New School, and Institute for American Indian Arts. She currently teaches in the Creative Writing Department at Yale University. More info: www.mariehelenebertino.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
November 17, 2018
From the author of the delightful novel
2 a.m. at the Cat's Pajamas,
this is another of those lyrical story collections written by a poet-turned-
How else to explain the story where a young woman's old college flame announces his presence by sending a flock of hummingbirds to dive-bomb her obnoxious new husband? The story of R.E.M.-loving rebels stuck attending Vanilla University, where the prized monument to blandness is Saint Vanilla Cathedral? The story "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph" where a 24-karat smartass finds her rightful niche among nuns? Really.
And consider a few of my favorite snippets of dialogue:
fabulous-fictioneer. And I mean that purely as a compliment.
Looking for a few Good Boys
How else to explain the story where a young woman's old college flame announces his presence by sending a flock of hummingbirds to dive-bomb her obnoxious new husband? The story of R.E.M.-loving rebels stuck attending Vanilla University, where the prized monument to blandness is Saint Vanilla Cathedral? The story "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph" where a 24-karat smartass finds her rightful niche among nuns? Really.
And consider a few of my favorite snippets of dialogue:
“You rewarded him for being bad.”That last one is because everyone in the narrator's life who sees Stanley (her brand-new, rather nice dachshund) immediately and reproachfully asks "What's that?" To which our narrator imagines answering, "Duh, a dog."
“I certainly understand,” I say, “how you could see it that way.”
Corrina rescinded Marigold’s nickname when things were dire. [She calls him by his "real" name, Samuel, only as a punishment.]
. . . A mall paramedic demand[s] to know what year it is, who is president, what my husband’s name is, what my name is.
My husband’s name is Ian, I say.
It is the wrong answer; their faces make this clear.
In the backseat on an underweight ham sleeps Stanley, the world’s least identifiable dog.
October 5, 2012
This book is a prime example of why I love short stories--they are bizarre, funny, and devastating. You can't get them out of your head for days after reading them. Highly recommended.
January 7, 2013
The last story made me tear up and made me want to go live in a convent with a bunch of nuns. I don't know how it did that. Each one of these is a little bleak, a lot funny, and pulled at my heart in different ways. Several of them are about depression. I almost never love short stories the way I loved these.
January 15, 2021
I'm very grateful to have discovered Marie-Helene Bertino this year. The best of these stories are insanely charming and sweet. (The best stories, btw: "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph," "Great, Wondrous," "Free Ham," and "Safe as Houses," in that order. My life would be noticeably worse if I hadn't read these stories.) Bertino has a soft spot for heartwarming "aww" moments and downtrodden protagonists with hearts of gold--which could be annoying, but she's also a really funny and exciting and inventive and silly writer on a sentence-by-sentence basis--she used to be a poet, apparently--and she obviously finds words very strange and thrilling, and everything is accessible and wholesome and fun. (It feels like "wholesome" is just a part of Bertino's essence, like Winnie-the-Pooh or Avatar: The Last Airbender.)
Speaking of which, she actually reminds me a lot of George Saunders: a big softie with a heart of gold and a sharp sense of humor who likes playing around with language but can't resist a Hallmark ending. I mean that in a good way. Families should read Bertino on holidays around a fireplace.
Some of these stories I cared less about: I shrugged a little at "The Idea of Marcel," "North Of," and "This Is Your Will to Live." But the rest of these are a blast. From a writing perspective, Safe as Houses is inspiring, not only because it's great but also because Bertino seems to have had so much fun while writing it. (I probably said the exact same thing in my reviews of her other books--but it bears repeating!)
Speaking of which, she actually reminds me a lot of George Saunders: a big softie with a heart of gold and a sharp sense of humor who likes playing around with language but can't resist a Hallmark ending. I mean that in a good way. Families should read Bertino on holidays around a fireplace.
Some of these stories I cared less about: I shrugged a little at "The Idea of Marcel," "North Of," and "This Is Your Will to Live." But the rest of these are a blast. From a writing perspective, Safe as Houses is inspiring, not only because it's great but also because Bertino seems to have had so much fun while writing it. (I probably said the exact same thing in my reviews of her other books--but it bears repeating!)
November 30, 2025
Marie-Helene Bertino is so weird (complimentary). I’m so not a short story person, but I love her writing, so I’m glad I checked this one out! Mini reviews of each story below:
* FREE HAM 3/5
* I feel like I don’t get this one? House burns down, she wins a free ham from grocery store, fights with dad. The relationship with her mom was sweet and trying to find humor in the bad.
* SOMETIMES YOU BREAK THEIR HEART, SOMETIMES THEY BREAK YOURS 5/5
* This is very clearly the inspiration of Beautyland so I obviously loved it. All about the weirdness of humanity and how people can be so kind it makes you cry.
* THE IDEA OF MARCEL 4/5
* I liked this one. We all have ideas and ideals of who we are/want to be and that’s different from how we view others. At the end I like how she tells the real past Emily and Marcel to “let them talk” — just let them be themselves bc the ideals really don’t exist.
* NORTH OF 3.5/5
* This is why I struggle with short stories — it was so good, and I really felt for her trying to connect with her brother, and then it just ended way too abruptly.
* YOUR WILL TO LIVE 2.5/5
* Not my fav — a little too odd and also sad and confusing?
* GREAT, WONDROUS 4/5
* Friendship, what we do with the “powers” we have, regrets… so good.
* SAFE AS HOUSES 3/5
* Fine? Interesting idea but ultimately nothing too revolutionary.
* CARRY ME HOME, SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH 5/5
* A perfect short story, imo. Incredible characterization, humor, heart. I love it so much.
* FREE HAM 3/5
* I feel like I don’t get this one? House burns down, she wins a free ham from grocery store, fights with dad. The relationship with her mom was sweet and trying to find humor in the bad.
* SOMETIMES YOU BREAK THEIR HEART, SOMETIMES THEY BREAK YOURS 5/5
* This is very clearly the inspiration of Beautyland so I obviously loved it. All about the weirdness of humanity and how people can be so kind it makes you cry.
* THE IDEA OF MARCEL 4/5
* I liked this one. We all have ideas and ideals of who we are/want to be and that’s different from how we view others. At the end I like how she tells the real past Emily and Marcel to “let them talk” — just let them be themselves bc the ideals really don’t exist.
* NORTH OF 3.5/5
* This is why I struggle with short stories — it was so good, and I really felt for her trying to connect with her brother, and then it just ended way too abruptly.
* YOUR WILL TO LIVE 2.5/5
* Not my fav — a little too odd and also sad and confusing?
* GREAT, WONDROUS 4/5
* Friendship, what we do with the “powers” we have, regrets… so good.
* SAFE AS HOUSES 3/5
* Fine? Interesting idea but ultimately nothing too revolutionary.
* CARRY ME HOME, SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH 5/5
* A perfect short story, imo. Incredible characterization, humor, heart. I love it so much.
May 5, 2022
“the idea of marcel” is literary excellence BERTINO IS SUCH AN UNDERRATED AUTHOR??
September 12, 2015
best short stories i've read in ages.
Read
January 4, 2023Such a stylish writer. The voice in these stories is young, fierce, and out of sync with the world— but even in surreal moments, there is softness. (Kids and dogs welcome here.) My favorite: “North Of” - a young woman brings Bob Dylan to Thanksgiving to please her brother.
July 29, 2016
Book: Safe as Houses
Author: Marie-Helene Bertino
Published: October 2012 by University of Iowa Press, 164 pages
First Line: "Growing up, I have dreams that my father sets our house on fire."
Genre/Rating: Short stories; 5/5 little boys lugubriously printing the names of his classmates on their valentines, only to be sent to the office for misbehaviour and miss the entire celebration
Recommended if you like: Amy Hempel, Kelly Link, magic realism, female heroines who are just a little lost, prose so juicily poetic you're stippled with it when you lift your head from the pages
Review: I get my book recommendations from a variety of sources. Word of mouth. Goodreads. Newspaper and magazine articles. Social media. Love of the author (so I just read everything they publish, sight unseen.) And, more and more lately, book review blogs - more specifically, the blogs of people whose taste I trust implicitly.
Cassie at Books and Bowel Movements is one of those people. When I read her review of this book, I knew it was an Amy-book, and was pleased to see the library had it.
I'm not always a short-story person. It has to be a stellar collection to draw me in. Something about short stories makes them easier for me to discard if they're not perfect little gems. (I think I'm always looking for the next Raymond Carver. Raymond Carver, you have spoiled me for all other authors.)
This collection - you know, I've been sitting on this for days, wondering how to convince each and every one of you reading this review to immediately drop what you're doing (even heavy things, even hot things, even children) and rush out and get this book and not just wade into it, but dive; completely immerse yourself in, and don't come up until each and every story becomes part of you, is flowing out of your fingertips and toes and the ends of your hair and through your eyes like flashlights in the dark. And I just don't think I have the words to do a collection like this justice.
There are eight stories, running the gamut from an alien sent to earth to take notes on our behavior to a young woman who brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner as a peace offering for her brother who's about to leave for war to a woman sitting in her beat-up college clunker of a car, remembering her friends who could make entire buildings disappear just by wanting it badly enough.
There is magic realism (which, if not done well, is terrible; I'm very tough on magic realism. This is magic realism done well. You can't see the rabbit concealed in the false bottom of the top hat, not in Bertino's work.) There is love, and loss, and regret, and that small glimmer of hope you keep way down at the bottom of your rib cage, that you don't tell anyone about in case they laugh at it and put it out, but that you feel burning, every time you take a breath; it's that glimmer of hope that, some days, keeps you alive.
And when you get to the end of the book, there are the nuns. There are the nuns that take in a lost girl who is replacing her heart with cigarette smoke and apples, and who finds meaning in rainbow stickers and talking to tomatoes and satin slippers.
If I won the lottery tomorrow (a fine feat it would be, since I don't play the lottery) I would buy you all a copy of this book. I would send it into the world so each of you would wake up to it tomorrow, so you would start reading about women who are lost but are not hopeless, who are bent but not broken, who are at the end of their rope but who are not letting go, who are clinging to that one last little glimmer of hope, sinking their fingernails in and gritting their teeth and hanging the hell on.
The houses in the title aren't real houses. They are the heart.
Author: Marie-Helene Bertino
Published: October 2012 by University of Iowa Press, 164 pages
First Line: "Growing up, I have dreams that my father sets our house on fire."
Genre/Rating: Short stories; 5/5 little boys lugubriously printing the names of his classmates on their valentines, only to be sent to the office for misbehaviour and miss the entire celebration
Recommended if you like: Amy Hempel, Kelly Link, magic realism, female heroines who are just a little lost, prose so juicily poetic you're stippled with it when you lift your head from the pages
Review: I get my book recommendations from a variety of sources. Word of mouth. Goodreads. Newspaper and magazine articles. Social media. Love of the author (so I just read everything they publish, sight unseen.) And, more and more lately, book review blogs - more specifically, the blogs of people whose taste I trust implicitly.
Cassie at Books and Bowel Movements is one of those people. When I read her review of this book, I knew it was an Amy-book, and was pleased to see the library had it.
I'm not always a short-story person. It has to be a stellar collection to draw me in. Something about short stories makes them easier for me to discard if they're not perfect little gems. (I think I'm always looking for the next Raymond Carver. Raymond Carver, you have spoiled me for all other authors.)
This collection - you know, I've been sitting on this for days, wondering how to convince each and every one of you reading this review to immediately drop what you're doing (even heavy things, even hot things, even children) and rush out and get this book and not just wade into it, but dive; completely immerse yourself in, and don't come up until each and every story becomes part of you, is flowing out of your fingertips and toes and the ends of your hair and through your eyes like flashlights in the dark. And I just don't think I have the words to do a collection like this justice.
There are eight stories, running the gamut from an alien sent to earth to take notes on our behavior to a young woman who brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner as a peace offering for her brother who's about to leave for war to a woman sitting in her beat-up college clunker of a car, remembering her friends who could make entire buildings disappear just by wanting it badly enough.
There is magic realism (which, if not done well, is terrible; I'm very tough on magic realism. This is magic realism done well. You can't see the rabbit concealed in the false bottom of the top hat, not in Bertino's work.) There is love, and loss, and regret, and that small glimmer of hope you keep way down at the bottom of your rib cage, that you don't tell anyone about in case they laugh at it and put it out, but that you feel burning, every time you take a breath; it's that glimmer of hope that, some days, keeps you alive.
And when you get to the end of the book, there are the nuns. There are the nuns that take in a lost girl who is replacing her heart with cigarette smoke and apples, and who finds meaning in rainbow stickers and talking to tomatoes and satin slippers.
If I won the lottery tomorrow (a fine feat it would be, since I don't play the lottery) I would buy you all a copy of this book. I would send it into the world so each of you would wake up to it tomorrow, so you would start reading about women who are lost but are not hopeless, who are bent but not broken, who are at the end of their rope but who are not letting go, who are clinging to that one last little glimmer of hope, sinking their fingernails in and gritting their teeth and hanging the hell on.
The houses in the title aren't real houses. They are the heart.
I thought of my own heart, which has always been a traitor. Abandoning me at night to lay bets on cockfights and smoke filterless cigarettes. Hoisting me up the legs of whatever man was nearby. Holding in itself dangerous canals and thruways.
The heart is never safe, but it's the first house we know, and it's the only house we live in until the day we die, no matter how far we run, no matter where we escape to, no matter where we make our home.
Maybe all I need to say to get you to read it is this: when I got to the end of the very last story, I closed the book, put my head down on the table, and cried until the slight concaves of my glasses were shallow bowls of tears.
I then went online and ordered two copies: one for me to own, and one for someone I love, because I know they'll love it as much as I did.
My heart may not always be safe, but it's the only house I know.
Previously published at Insatiable Booksluts
December 28, 2023
Compact volume of clever stories with delightfully unusual plots and great dialogue. There's a story about a bringing Bob Dylan home to meet the family; another follows a college friend group with unusual talents and unexpected outcomes. Another has been fleshed out into a full length novel forthcoming in January 2024 called Beautyland and centers around a young woman who also happens to be an alien who faxes her wry observations of humans and earth back to her alien superiors. Loved everything about this book.
May 2, 2022
A collection of eight fun short stories, all centered on houses of the heart. I loved the author’s style, I liked the stories, but I’ve read too many short story collections for this one to leave a mark. Many reviewers rave about Bertino's spectacular debut novel, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas, which I’m excited to read for more of her quirky and poetic writing.
February 1, 2019
YES to every single one of these stories, yes for simultaneously making me feel wildly lost and holding me in a warm embrace as I reached the end. Stories that each made their own unique little mark on my heart and which I'm already looking forward to revisiting one day.
June 5, 2022
"I want to go back to when I was eating oranges and saying yes to things."
&
"She asks me if I still love Clive. I say, I love cigarettes, they are my only, truest love. Sometimes I am still in the middle of smoking one when I already long for another. You tell me what is more love than that."
&
"She asks me if I still love Clive. I say, I love cigarettes, they are my only, truest love. Sometimes I am still in the middle of smoking one when I already long for another. You tell me what is more love than that."
December 30, 2025
Really interesting ideas
I think if these stories were published today some things would be rewritten or edited differently, but still enjoyed getting to see how Bertino's writing was more than a decade ago
(also glad to see the little tidbits of Beautyland ideas before they become the novel)
I think if these stories were published today some things would be rewritten or edited differently, but still enjoyed getting to see how Bertino's writing was more than a decade ago
(also glad to see the little tidbits of Beautyland ideas before they become the novel)
August 9, 2019
Quirky, inventive, utterly unique and delightful debut collection.
March 11, 2021
When I saw that this collection has a story about the Sisters of Saint Joseph, I knew I had to read it. What a beautiful collections of stories. I'm still trying to decide which is my favorite.
April 22, 2025
Some hits, some misses
October 12, 2025
stunning and bold writing, observant and hilarious
December 29, 2024
A nice little book of short stories...nothing more and nothing less.
July 2, 2025
I don't know why it took me so long to circle back and read this collection, but I am *officially* a Marie-Helene Bertino completist. I mean, I've been a Marie-Helene Bertino completist in my heart fo years now, but now it's real.
I read this collection immediately after reading Exit Zero, and it's soooo good. Sometimes Bertino has a tendency to get a little too cute and nice and tied up in a bow. I love her and her sparkly unicorn soul, but I'm too much of a cynic to not roll my eyes a little at the awww-moments in Exit Zero and Beautyland.
The stories in Safe as House strike me as a little grittier. Yes, they're still Bertino stories and everyone gets a sticker in the end, but the sticker is such a little thing against the massive wall of realism in these stories. But that makes the glimmer of hope feel that much more important and, like, brave. I don't know. I'm not explaining it well. But I want to teach the Bob Dylan/post-9/11 story "North Of" in one of my high school English classes. It's a masterpiece. And it maybe wasn't even my favorite? I think my favorite was the last one, "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph." But also "North Of." And "Free Ham." And the Beautyland precursor, "Sometimes You Break Their Hearts, Sometimes They Break Yours." And the titular "Safe as Houses."
Basically, while there are four or five stories in Exit Zero that didn't stick with me very long and that I'd have to go back skim through to have anything specific to say about them, all eight stories in this collection are stand-outs. Brilliant. I hope more people find it.
I read this collection immediately after reading Exit Zero, and it's soooo good. Sometimes Bertino has a tendency to get a little too cute and nice and tied up in a bow. I love her and her sparkly unicorn soul, but I'm too much of a cynic to not roll my eyes a little at the awww-moments in Exit Zero and Beautyland.
The stories in Safe as House strike me as a little grittier. Yes, they're still Bertino stories and everyone gets a sticker in the end, but the sticker is such a little thing against the massive wall of realism in these stories. But that makes the glimmer of hope feel that much more important and, like, brave. I don't know. I'm not explaining it well. But I want to teach the Bob Dylan/post-9/11 story "North Of" in one of my high school English classes. It's a masterpiece. And it maybe wasn't even my favorite? I think my favorite was the last one, "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph." But also "North Of." And "Free Ham." And the Beautyland precursor, "Sometimes You Break Their Hearts, Sometimes They Break Yours." And the titular "Safe as Houses."
Basically, while there are four or five stories in Exit Zero that didn't stick with me very long and that I'd have to go back skim through to have anything specific to say about them, all eight stories in this collection are stand-outs. Brilliant. I hope more people find it.
March 25, 2013
It's not that this book is just well written (it is, extraordinarily), walks a tight line between comedy and tragedy (it does to a beautiful and profound extent), or has an consistently fresh bent on reality (the rules of which are, in fact, very much bent in this collection), but this book is magical. It is a rare, rare book that has this sort of magic, though its effect is simple. It makes you want to read more. It makes you want to read the stories in this book again, it makes you want to read stories that haven't been written yet, and all the books that you have ever wanted to read. I have always loved to read, and do so compulsively, but there is a different feeling that comes over a reader when s/he is charged with this sort of magic. It's a genuine excitement that allows for the blurring of priorities and particulars and reengages a true interest in the imagination and its emotional landscape.
You feel like a kid again. It's incredible.
As striking a book of short stories, let alone a debut, that I've ever read.
You feel like a kid again. It's incredible.
As striking a book of short stories, let alone a debut, that I've ever read.
December 28, 2012
Looking through the catalog online at www.uiowapress.org, the photo of Marie-Helene Bertino's 'Safe as Houses,' caught my attention right away. Abstract in a way, and with bold, yet normal font, 'Safe as Houses,' is anything but plain or normal.
Bertino takes life situations, everyday life situations that we might overlook, and even more, might just push aside, and punches them up, glitters them and the end result are a pack of stories that bring a smile to your face, a giggle to your mind and at the same, can cause you to get mad, sad and be surprised.
Much like life, huh?
A short story can bring more powerful a punch than a well-crafted 300 page novel. And with her stories in 'Safe as Houses,' Bertino deserves the awards she has received.
She weaves each character and each plot so intricately, and gets to the point so quietly that when you end that story, you are flipping through pages wanting more.
What a success!
Bertino takes life situations, everyday life situations that we might overlook, and even more, might just push aside, and punches them up, glitters them and the end result are a pack of stories that bring a smile to your face, a giggle to your mind and at the same, can cause you to get mad, sad and be surprised.
Much like life, huh?
A short story can bring more powerful a punch than a well-crafted 300 page novel. And with her stories in 'Safe as Houses,' Bertino deserves the awards she has received.
She weaves each character and each plot so intricately, and gets to the point so quietly that when you end that story, you are flipping through pages wanting more.
What a success!
June 8, 2013
My review is at the following link: http://booksandbowelmovements.com/201...
This book was amazing and the stories are brilliant. Read READ READ!!!! There are also links online to some of the stories so that you can test them out before you buy the book.
This book was amazing and the stories are brilliant. Read READ READ!!!! There are also links online to some of the stories so that you can test them out before you buy the book.
Read
January 15, 2022Both imaginative and grounded. "Great, Wondrous" and "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph" are two of the best stories I've read in recent memory. I will probably recommend this to everyone all the time forever.
January 2, 2013
Worth reading for the story "Great, Wondrous" alone -- though the collection as a whole is quite good, and the final page of the last story pretty much crushed me.
August 15, 2014
Beautiful. Funny and quirky and clear-eyed and hopeful.
March 27, 2018
the best thing I've read in a very very long time
April 21, 2018
I was absolutely delighted by this collection, but the final three stories are real standouts. Great, Wondrous and Carry Me Home... were stunning.
December 27, 2019
Bertino's debut novel, 2AM at the Cat's Pajamas, was a favorite the year I read it. I pretty speedily hunted down Safe as Houses, her previous short story collection, just to get more of her voice. It took a while to get back around to it. Something about feeling like there should be distance between an author's work? Wanting to not overdose on a voice? Hard to say. Point is, three years later, I finally cracked open the short story collection.
These stories show what a difference time can make, or perhaps what a difference format can. There are a number of stories here which feel early, in that hard to describe way. Perhaps it is the way that some feel like they hinge on an intentionally constructed conceit. One narrator is maybe-an-alien, one has brought Bob Dylan to Thanksgiving, one is going deep-meta by dating their idealized idea of their ex while he is dating the her that he wishes she'd been. There are realities being casually twisted and not always successfully. The writing in these places often feels in service to the Very Clever Idea instead of the story and the writing itself. Not to say there is no strength in these exercises: "North Of," the aforementioned Dylan fantasy, says a lot about family, about the divisions between the small town and the city, the rifts we feel, quite rightly, when our values seem to no longer be shared (I, as a city boy, side with the Dylan-toting sister here). It also paints an amusing picture of a petulant caricature of Dylan, still unreal and rarified, but now also given humanizing foibles, both the focus of the story and little more than a bit of window dressing at the same time.
On the other hand, there are times when bizarre premises build entirely charming wholes. We can start at "Free Ham," which in some ways tries to do too much in one story, but does so in an endearing and heartbreaking way, with that almost ominous title looming in the background. Free. Ham. It's indicative of both the best and the most difficult parts, the humor through emotionally trying times, the artifice around which a whole world is created being something trivial and/or odd (in the case of ham, arguably both), and it makes a perfect first story in that way, because it does feel like it bridges everything, at least in terms of writing. However, the back half is really where the collection sings. "Great, Wondrous" is simply magical and tragic and beautiful. It's coming of age and it's outsider survival and it's just beautifully done... I was transfixed from the incident in the mall onward, and while there is so much to know about the time between, about the origins of this group, about what happens next after the story ends, it's still a perfect capsule of its own internal logic. "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph" is also wonderful, offbeat more for its characters than its context. Ruby, the narrator, is the odd duck, the coarse, vice-riddled woman among a convent of nuns. The nuns, for their part, are also odd ones, and not the least of which for being religious folks who aren't actively judging Ruby for her shortcomings. It's a much smaller moment than the super-powered framework of "Great, Wondrous," but it shows off Bertino's skill with smaller, more internal moments. Ruby is an ideal anti-hero, if for no other reason than that she's not really not-a-hero, so much as just a normal, broken person. She's a disruption in the nuns' normal life, for better and for worse. She is a humanizing element among the children they teach, albeit one who remains an arms length away in most situations. It's a story rich in details and moments and it gives a great picture of the characters.
As such, this was a worthwhile read, because it gives a certain look into the author's head, the many facets and ideas that are bumbling around there, some funny, some tragic, some just needing to hop out at all costs. It makes me that much more interested to see where her next full novel goes in 2020
These stories show what a difference time can make, or perhaps what a difference format can. There are a number of stories here which feel early, in that hard to describe way. Perhaps it is the way that some feel like they hinge on an intentionally constructed conceit. One narrator is maybe-an-alien, one has brought Bob Dylan to Thanksgiving, one is going deep-meta by dating their idealized idea of their ex while he is dating the her that he wishes she'd been. There are realities being casually twisted and not always successfully. The writing in these places often feels in service to the Very Clever Idea instead of the story and the writing itself. Not to say there is no strength in these exercises: "North Of," the aforementioned Dylan fantasy, says a lot about family, about the divisions between the small town and the city, the rifts we feel, quite rightly, when our values seem to no longer be shared (I, as a city boy, side with the Dylan-toting sister here). It also paints an amusing picture of a petulant caricature of Dylan, still unreal and rarified, but now also given humanizing foibles, both the focus of the story and little more than a bit of window dressing at the same time.
On the other hand, there are times when bizarre premises build entirely charming wholes. We can start at "Free Ham," which in some ways tries to do too much in one story, but does so in an endearing and heartbreaking way, with that almost ominous title looming in the background. Free. Ham. It's indicative of both the best and the most difficult parts, the humor through emotionally trying times, the artifice around which a whole world is created being something trivial and/or odd (in the case of ham, arguably both), and it makes a perfect first story in that way, because it does feel like it bridges everything, at least in terms of writing. However, the back half is really where the collection sings. "Great, Wondrous" is simply magical and tragic and beautiful. It's coming of age and it's outsider survival and it's just beautifully done... I was transfixed from the incident in the mall onward, and while there is so much to know about the time between, about the origins of this group, about what happens next after the story ends, it's still a perfect capsule of its own internal logic. "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph" is also wonderful, offbeat more for its characters than its context. Ruby, the narrator, is the odd duck, the coarse, vice-riddled woman among a convent of nuns. The nuns, for their part, are also odd ones, and not the least of which for being religious folks who aren't actively judging Ruby for her shortcomings. It's a much smaller moment than the super-powered framework of "Great, Wondrous," but it shows off Bertino's skill with smaller, more internal moments. Ruby is an ideal anti-hero, if for no other reason than that she's not really not-a-hero, so much as just a normal, broken person. She's a disruption in the nuns' normal life, for better and for worse. She is a humanizing element among the children they teach, albeit one who remains an arms length away in most situations. It's a story rich in details and moments and it gives a great picture of the characters.
As such, this was a worthwhile read, because it gives a certain look into the author's head, the many facets and ideas that are bumbling around there, some funny, some tragic, some just needing to hop out at all costs. It makes me that much more interested to see where her next full novel goes in 2020
August 30, 2024
This is one of the easiest five-stars I've given in a while. It's hard to put into words how much I loved and admired this collection of stories. It certainly ranks among my favorite story collections ever. MHB manages to write stories that are at once funny, inventive, and moving, which is basically all I want in a story. The collection is so good that I'm tempted to reread it right away.
There are eight stories here, six which I adored and two which didn't resonate as much but are still impeccable. My favorites:
"North Of" - a prizewinner, and for good reason. I'm writing a story that pays tribute to this one.
"Carry Me Home, Sisters of St. Joseph" - hilarious, fresh, heartwarming
"Sometimes You Break Their Hearts, Sometimes They Break Yours"- this is a precursor to her recent novel BEAUTYLAND, and you can see in this story why she decided to spin it into a novel
"The Idea of Marcel" - so original. I could see this being turned into a short film.
"This Is Your Will to Live" - takes wordplay to the next level. Brilliant.
"Safe as Houses" - sad and magical
I'm now 3 books into the MHB oeuvre and I've become more and more impressed with her with each story and book I read. She's become one of my favorite contemporary authors.
There are eight stories here, six which I adored and two which didn't resonate as much but are still impeccable. My favorites:
"North Of" - a prizewinner, and for good reason. I'm writing a story that pays tribute to this one.
"Carry Me Home, Sisters of St. Joseph" - hilarious, fresh, heartwarming
"Sometimes You Break Their Hearts, Sometimes They Break Yours"- this is a precursor to her recent novel BEAUTYLAND, and you can see in this story why she decided to spin it into a novel
"The Idea of Marcel" - so original. I could see this being turned into a short film.
"This Is Your Will to Live" - takes wordplay to the next level. Brilliant.
"Safe as Houses" - sad and magical
I'm now 3 books into the MHB oeuvre and I've become more and more impressed with her with each story and book I read. She's become one of my favorite contemporary authors.
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