Old Crimes: and Other Stories

by Jill McCorkle

Jill McCorkle, author of the  New York Times  bestseller  Life After Life and the widely acclaimed  Hieroglyphics , who is considered "one of our wryest, warmest, wisest storytellers" (included four times in the  Best American Short Stories),  delivers another breathtaking collection of stories that take an intimate look at the moments when a person's life changes forever.  Old Crimes takes readers deep into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate over time and across generations. And despite the characters' yearnings for connection, they can't seem to tell the whole truth. In "Low Tones," a woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband's commentary. In "Lineman," a telephone lineman tries to keep his family close as he feels himself pushed aside in a digital world. The young couple in "Confessional" buys a confessional for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty. Profoundly moving and unforgettable, the stories in Jill McCorkle's new collection reveal why she has long been considered a master of the form. Each story reads like a compact, brilliantly condensed novel, probing lives full of great intensity, of longing and affection, of deep regret, and of the inability to ever forget an old crime.  

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2024

About the author

Five of Jill McCorkle's seven previous books have been named New York Times Notables. Winner of the New England Booksellers Award, the Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Award for Literature, she has taught writing at the University of North Carolina, Bennington College, Tufts University, and Harvard. She lives near Boston with her husband, their two children, several dogs, and a collection of toads.

Reviews

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written with wisdom, much emotional depth and insight, the stories in Old Crimes: and Other Stories by Jill McCorkle depict how secrets, mistakes, and regrets can leave an indelible impact on the human psyche and relationships. Despite the short length of each of these stories, they are emotionally heavy reads that inspire pause and reflection.

In turn, profoundly insightful, heartbreaking yet reflective and thought-provoking, these stories explore the human condition through complex yet real and relatable characters in various stages of life. The common thread among these stories is deep-rooted sorrow, loneliness and the desire for human connection, the life changing consequences of the choices people make and the emotions they choose to internalize – voluntarily or otherwise – the “crimes’’ they commit toward oneself and those they hold dear. Few of the characters appear in more than one story, allowing us to explore their character arcs from different vantage points. The tone of these stories ranges from melancholic to nostalgic and contemplative, though there are some moments of humor to be within the pages as well . Overall, I found this to be an impactful and exceptionally well-written collection of short stories that I would not hesitate to recommend this collection to those who enjoy character-driven short fiction.

Many thanks to Algonquin Books for both the digital review copy via NetGalley and the physical ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book was published on January 9, 2024.

Individual rating for the stories with brief descriptions: (not spoilers per se, but I've chosen to make this segment optional)

In the first story, ” Old Crimes” (4.5/5), we meet a high school teacher who ruminates on her memories of a trip to New Hampshire from decades ago when she was a college student. Her encounter with a six-year-old girl in the run-down inn where she was staying prompted her to think about her own expectations from life and influenced her perception of cruelty and evil in the world -thoughts that have remained with her through the years. “The Lineman”(4.5/5) revolves around a telephone lineman who tries to come to terms with how human connections and relationships have been impacted by dependence on technology and digitization. He regrets his failed relationships and struggles to hold on to those he holds dear, hoping that one day, when all technology fails, he will be appreciated for his skills. A woman experiences much regret over her inability to speak up for herself or her son as she reflects on the forty years, she has spent in an abusive marriage to a man who was loved and admired by everyone in town in “Low Tones”(5/5). In “Commandments” (5/5), we follow a group of women, a “self-help group of sorts”, each of whom was romantically involved with and dumped by the same man. Their interactions with the strong-willed waitress who serves them in the café where they meet once a month, inspire them to take stock of their lives and reevaluate their priorities.

Our protagonist in “Swinger”(4/5) is grappling with the recent loss of the man with whom she had been in a live-in relationship for the past three years. As she prepares to vacate the home they shared, a box of photographs she finds among his belongings seems to deepen her insecurities, prompting her to question the depth of his commitment to her. In “A Simple Question”(4/5) a woman reflects on her friendship with her older colleague, a woman twice her age, from twenty-five years ago and how own insensitivity and immaturity contributed to their drifting apart. In “Baby in the Pan”(4.5/5) we meet a young mother whose choices cause friction with own her mother, who harbors painful childhood memories. A man rents a room in his late grandparents' former home which is now a gas station when he visits his hometown to visit his dying high school shop teacher in “Filling Station”(4/5) but his attempts to surround himself with happy memories from his childhood for his peace of mind don’t quite go according to plans.

A young couple purchases an old confessional from an antique shop unprepared for the awkward and uncomfortable situations that arise from what was intended to be a source of entertainment among their friends in “Confessional”(5/5). We meet a retired elementary school librarian who does not back down from expressing her opinions and holds her own in her crusade against several social issues in “The Last Station." (4.5/5) A holiday gathering with her adult children and their families brings back memories of the years gone by for a retired high school drama teacher as she contemplates sharing news of her failing health in “Act III”.(5/5) While attending her son’s Little League matches, a young newly divorced mother of two is befriended an elderly woman who shares stories about the town in the aftermath of a recent tragedy, in ”Sparrow”. (4.5/5)


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[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book of short stories. Which made it an easy-to-read, quick read.

McCorkle has a way of creating something for the reader to discover in just a few pages.

My favorite story was “Confessional.”

So...

Imagine if you will what people might say to a priest in a confessional. Now imagine if you had the confessional in your home? How would you use that confessional? What would you confess?

The author’s dialogue is a masterclass in expert plotting. I felt as if I were watching a movie before my eyes.

And…

With all her stories, the author’s characters were flawed, at times ugly towards one another, and sometimes so real feeling, I had to wonder if I read about them somewhere in a news story.

It is a brilliant collection. Characters are interesting and mostly unlikable, but fascinating.

And…

Gratefully the 12 stories being short enough that I didn’t have to reflect too long on these people. My memories of them were gone in a flash.

Which…

Is a good thing in this case.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fine example of a collection of short stories that ends up being more work than a novel of similar length, as each story is complete, requiring a reader to pick up and haul every twenty pages or so. There is even some crossover between several of the stories, but using Act III as an example, there are enough characters to fill an entire volume, each clearly defined, and a wish to know more.

[Leah Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

See full review in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

To call “Old Crimes: And Other Stories” a compilation of independent narratives is to diminish Jill McCorkle’s evocative statement on the interconnected nature of human suffering. These 12 intimate snapshots focus on the interior experiences of melancholy characters as they excavate internal pain. Each story relates to Southern teachers in some small way, many of whom have spent time in the North. Steeped in loneliness while drilling straight to the heart of emotion, these standalone narratives collectively deliver a stunning study on the shared experience of isolation...

https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/old-...

[Mary Hinkle · Rating 3 out of 5]

These short stories are really character studies about ordinary, unnoticed people, each of whom has committed some small crime. I have read and loved Jill McCorkle’s novels, but this collection did not hold my interest.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, thoughtful stories of everyday people looking back on their lives and their choices. Lots of nostalgia here and also lots of anger and regrets.

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story collection about ordinary people and all have something to do with a minor crime but mostly they are about human interaction my favorite story was the one about Tori and her strange mom who really wasn’t all that strange to begin with my least favorite was the one about candy and her mom I found candy to be a very mean person and I almost couldn’t finish that short story the rest of the stories are really good and I enjoyed them if you like short stories you will definitely like Old Crimes by Jill McCorkle I certainly did I know they have a lot of people like me who love short stories this is definitely a great one to read. I want to think the publisher and net galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jill McCorkle is a master at crafting stories. Populated with people you know, frailties showing as well as moral compasses. This collection is loosely organized around decisions made and roads not taken that determine the trajectory of a life. But we like the characters despite their regrets. Thanks to Alqonquin Press for always publishing important high quality regional authors and for this advance copy through NetGalley.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of McCorkle's darkest but finest collections to date. "Filling Station" left me breathless. I'm sure someone else has already said it, but this is a Southern Winesburg, Ohio for the twenty-first century.

[Mary Lins · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Old Crimes” by Jill McCorkle is a collection of a dozen short stories that are entertaining and thought-provoking.

I really admire skilled short story writers, McCorkle is one, because they can do so much with plot, characters, place, and themes, in a relatively few pages.

Reading about people’s mistakes or “old crimes” highlights our shared humanity. Who doesn’t have some regrets?

(McCorkle makes her own political views clear in subtle and not-so-subtle ways throughout.)

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overall meh short story collection, with most of them having some sort of depressing, seedy vibe. The last two stories I thought were actually really good, but most of the rest were kind of just there, and forgettable.

I loved Jill McCorkle’s books when I was younger but hadn’t kept up with her work so when I saw she had a new short story collection I thought I’d give it a try, but sadly it just didn’t really do it for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy; all opinions are my own.

[Sharon Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jill McCorkle is a beautiful writer and every story in this collection is a little gem.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories were somewhat depressing. Maybe that was the author’s intent

[Rhonda Lomazow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jill McCorkle has written another wonderful book of short stories.I’ve been a fan of hers since I read her first books .She always draws me in keeps me engaged and entertained.Each story compelling unique involving.#netgalley #algonquinbooks. @algonquinbooks.

[Star Gater · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you Algonquin Books for allowing me to read and review Old Crimes and Other Stories on NetGalley.

Published: 01/09/24

Stars: 2.5

Not for me. The stories were just meh. Unfortunately, if these were published in a magazine and I read one, it's okay and I move on. But, when there is a collection and the stories are read back-to-back, the author's name takes on new meaning. I am generally speaking a fan of short stories; however, not these. While the characters and stories are now a blur, the author's name isn't. Each tale had a victim and each tale was depressing, and frankly I was exhausted.

I'm not sure who this is written for.

[Ranjini Shankar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Through no fault of the book, this just isn’t my type of collection. It’s all pure character studies and it just didn’t hold my interest. Every short story felt very long and half the time I’m not sure I got the point. Entirely a me problem because the writing is clearly beautiful and thought provoking,

[Sarina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the book disappointing. The short stories felt disjointed, lacking flow, making it difficult to engage with them. As a fan of short stories, I expected more, but I struggled to enjoy even a few of them. Overall, it was a challenging read, and I barely managed to finish the book.

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Individually interesting stories that as a collection, felt a bit repetitive.

[Sascha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hoped to have this review up yesterday but one of the stories, “The Last Station,” literally had me bawling my eyes out so I had to put the book aside for a little while. In fact, when I picked it up again, I couldn’t seem to focus on the characters mentioned on the subsequent pages. Even thinking about the story now brings tears to my eyes. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about these stories, though. We are not talking about “my boyfriend broke up with me” angst. This is so much more. These are emotions driven by real, self-aware people who have a rich internal life, if not an external one, and have reached a point in their lives where events either bring an awareness or send the bubbling pot to boiling over. Onwards.

I have enjoyed short stories since being introduced to them in high school and college, perhaps even earlier in grade school when we would have, no doubt, read O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi” (fitting for the holiday season, if you’ve never read it) so being given the opportunity to feast on Jill McCorkle’s Old Crimes and Other Stories was like being offered a complicated but whole satisfying dessert that has you considering it well past the last bite.

Immediately I felt an affinity to her story, “The Lineman.” Was it because of the numerous times lately that I have heard that “Wichita Lineman” is one of the best songs ever, which validated my own feeling about the song? One that Bob Dylan wished he’d written? One that I sometimes stream when I want to hear an almost perfect song? Or because I have seen the world change so significantly in the past forty years that I could sympathize–empathize–with the narrator who sees his job as a telephone lineman being swallowed up by a technological society (purposefully omitted advanced). And, because this is a rich, layered short story, “The Lineman” meditates on communication, or mainly the lack thereof. Hours on social media “liking” things but not really talking. How people don’t know how to do things any more, build things, physical or emotional. And how do you convey all of this to your kid without alienating her, the best thing in your life?

Some of the stories sometimes visit the ugliness humans, regular-old-average humans, are capable of. In “Confessional,” a couple purchases an antique confessional (Why, why, why? My previously learned (and lapsed) Catholicism wants to know.) and places the huge conversation piece in their living room where it absorbs attention and then all of their confessions. As the couple’s confessions progress and escalate, the admissions become harder to read, for me at any rate. Everyone has a secret. Some are even willing to share under the right circumstances.

As mentioned, “The Last Station” sent me over an emotional edge: “Sometimes I felt so unloved.” “Invisible and unloved” except by the dog who was “just a dog.” And you know those would not be words she ever utter, just a dog, but were said by someone with the sensitivity of a shoehorn. Why are you so upset? It’s just a dog. Words about feeling unseen uttered by a bright, happy woman who was there for everyone. Who volunteered and helped where it was needed but who, after the recent death of her husband, felt taken for granted. There is a little sledgehammer of a parallel going on (or a big one, depending upon your sensitivity).

Besides being powerful short stories, some are linked by characters who startlingly appear in unrelated stories, providing more information on their situation from the POV of other characters or what happens to them in the future. Because of this, because of bits that I am certain I missed on first reading, these stories ask to be read again knowing things you did not on the first pass through and heightening the delight of reading an author who so skillfully pens multi-dimensional stories with multi-dimensional characters. I can state undoubtedly that these are stories that you will think about long after you’ve finished reading them.

For most of us, this holiday season is filled with family or the memories of family, bittersweet nostalgia that makes us revisit the best and sometimes less than great memories much like those that occur in these stories. This is especially true when you reach a certain age. Perhaps it’s looking at life from this vantage point that makes these stories so very impressive.

Many thanks to Algonquin Books for sending me a copy.

[Larry H · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up.

This is my first story collection of 2024. I love reading short stories but I’ve become very particular about them. The ones that work best for me feel more like mini-novels, in the sense that they have well-developed characters and a plot that doesn’t leave me hanging.

With Jill McCorkle’s newest story collection, Old Crimes ,” I needed a few stories before it hooked me. But once it did, I could see a number of the stories which would make great novels on their own.

Some of the stories in this collection deal with familiar, everyday situations—a woman and her mother fighting over differing points of view about religion and other hot-button issues; a group of women who meet regularly to lament about the man they all have in common; a woman dealing with growing older and reflecting on her difficult husband. But other stories are built on interesting concepts—a couple buys an antique confessional and it becomes much more than a piece of furniture; a man rents a small apartment above a gas station built in what used to be his grandparents’ house; a couple vacations with their adult children and deals with all of the drama accumulated through the years.

Not all of the characters in McCorkle’s stories are likable or even sympathetic, but many of the stories really resonated emotionally for me. There were familiar themes—growing older, feeling dissatisfied with your life, feeling alone, dealing with the decline or death of loved ones. It’s not a perfect collection, but it moved me.

See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.

Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.

Check out my best reads of 2023 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2023.html.

[LLJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Old Crimes" was a pleasure to read, far exceeding my expectations for this collection! As a fan of Jill McCorkle's novels, I was looking forward to reading these short stories and sincerely appreciate #NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy via their app and #AlgonquinBooks for mailing out a physical copy. The latter was especially useful as I learned partway through the book that these individual stories comprised a linked collection (my absolute favorite genre!!) and featured repeating characters and locations that took on layered meaning as they were viewed in relation to the entire collection..

The title story--"Old Crimes"--referred, intermittently, to actual crimes mentioned within a few stories, but was also a metaphor for the emotional crimes that occur, over time, in all families. In "Act III" the next to final story in the collection, this wonderful passage served as a great summary: ""And now Vera is seeing all of life as a play. Someone, Capote maybe, said that 'Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.' So, maybe this is Act III. Call it: Family Gathering at the Inn: Act I, 'The Early Years'; Act II, 'The Kids Leave the Nest'; Act III,' They All Return.'"

My personal favorites were "The Lineman"/"Low Tones" (Loris!)/"Filling Station" and the final story "Sparrow" which featured a community abuzz with gossip about the deaths of a mother and her son. The narrator, who is slowly assimilating into the new community via her son's baseball games, felt vulnerable and the people with whom she interacted, especially "Patrick's grandmother" were beautifully written and not all who they seemed to be. Without spoiling any stories, or the threads within, I just loved this collection -- I love the linked storytelling style perfected by writers like Liz Strout, Jennifer Egan, and Melissa Bank, and I strongly recommend this book. Thanks again to #NetGalley for the chance to review it.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each of these short stories can stand alone, but in this collection, many of the stories share some characters or places, either directly or through marriage or family relation. I began the book when I was ill and I thought that it might not be the best choice because the stories are populated with people who are outsiders, the settings claustrophobic and prescribed by the social constraints of the bible belt. Being from the south myself, I could recognize those southern women martyrs readily. On the whole, most of the characters do feel a connection to the people around them, however futile their attempts to act on the connection might be. I reread the first couple of stories both to make the connections to the later stories and to check my perspective since I was feeling better, and I did feel more positive about the earlier stories on the second reading. Most of the characters seem to live with a sense of optimism that situations can improve or at least become more understandable.

I particularly liked seeing the same character from different points of view and realizing that they might shine in one situation but be repulsive in another, given the same character traits. Being among family plays a large role in how a person acts or reacts. There is also humor. My favorite story along these lines is Confessional in which a couple buys an antique church confessional for their home and uses it to share their secrets, things that might test their relationship and which are sometimes pretty surprising. The book ends with a story including the character from the very first story and seems to end on a positive and optimistic note that includes both community and family. I enjoyed the writing and can see myself reading this around again to see the characters in a new light with the knowledge gained from the later stories and the improved outlook of my own recovered health.

[Raima Larter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a masterful collection of stories - loved every one of them. I am very glad I picked this book up from the "New Books" shelf at the library. I'd heard of the author but had never read any of her work, so this was a hugely pleasant surprise.

The writing in all these stories is amazing and I was totally absorbed in each story. I enjoyed seeing some characters in one story appear in another as it made this collection feel connected. Even without that, though, the book had a coherent theme. It is very much about marriage and relationships and family, each story exploring different aspects of this theme using characters that seemed absolutely real to me.

In addition to the skillful writing and storytelling, I enjoyed reading stories about people my age. Not all the characters are my age, of course, but the author herself has intimate personal knowledge of the way things were in our world pre-Internet/social media/etc. This added a great deal of authenticity to stories about people who remember phones that plugged into the walls, TV with only three channels, etc. I greatly appreciate writers who have experienced a lot of life and decided to share their insights with us.

Many of these stories are painful and difficult, but there are also humorous bits scattered throughout the collection. My favorite is probably the character Candy in the story "Commandments," a waitress with a sharp tongue and even sharper mind who helps a group of women with something in common understand the truth--and does so in a highly hilarious fashion. I laughed all the way through this one.

Highly recommend this great story collection. I'll definitely be reading more work by this author.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

At their best, the stories in Jill McCorkle's Old Crimes are subtle and quiet, and yet still howl with the suffering of its characters, straining them and our sympathies through their regrets, fears, and impossible desires. McCorkle has an excellent sense for developing and pivoting stories on dark, uncomfortable, and compellingly odd details about its characters. She often lets her characters swirl about in their indiosyncrasies, gradually revealing shadows of their complexes while developing theme. Complexes ranges from a lineman's obsession with an apocalyptic, country-wide power outage; to a young woman who keeps remembering a bog body she studied in an anthropology class, a girl, bound up and killed in some unnamed violence centuries ago. In that vein, "A Simple Question", "Filling Station", and "Low Tones" were some of my favorites, filled with uncomfortable verisimilitude and vibrating tension.

Still, some of these stories felt like misses, and I think the biggest flaws in these stories center on what makes the stronger stories work. While McCorkle has an excellent ear for specific, "real" details, on some occasions, these details felt coatracked onto otherwise underdeveloped characters and themes, muddling the overall story. One of the pieces in the collection, "Confessional", felt emblematic of this. The story is about an unnamed couple confessing the things they did in their past after the purchase of a confessional booth on a whim. Their confessions start as a sort of play and bonding exercise, before they devolve into revealing the sordidity of their past. Their "crimes," if you like, have that unnerving ring that McCorkle hones so well, but this was a story that made me ask: to what end? The "confessions" are often disturbing and unethical, yes, but they are scattershot and difficult to make sense of together, which was not helped by a lack of connective tissue between the (again, unnamed) couple and a rather bluntly framed structure and its figurative device. The theme of how couples navigate the secrets kept from one another is a fairly well-tread premise, and I felt this had very little new to say on it, despite its lurid shock and awe.

This was my first exposure to Jill McCorkle, and I had few expectations coming into this collection. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it; it feels fresh and dark and subversive when it hits its stride. It's certainly not perfect, but it doesn't have to be to be worth reading!

[Amy Linton · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you don't know Jill McCorkle, you are in for a treat. She's a North Carolina-based writer with tremendous skill at depicting ordinary people rising above and beyond their small-town settings. Her novels are great fun, but I like the short story collections, each based loosely around a common theme -- Final Vinyl Days, for instance, circled the ebb and flow of popular culture trends, often leaving the characters of her stories high and dry.

Old Crimes is, not surprisingly, about the central kernel of wrong-doing that affects the characters lives. In "The Lineman," the crime is a romantic betrayal that keeps the titular narrator from real intimacy; in "Commandments," a tatted-up millennial schools a group of older wealthy women in how to live a better life by giving up their common hatred for a ne'er-do-well ex. In "Low Tones," a woman's voyeurism combines with her regret for an unkindness that led to the lifelong estrangement of her son, "a plump sweet boy who still slept with a sour-smelling little stuffed owl she bought when he was a baby because it had big. brown wise-looking eyes just like him." [Yes, one is not supposed to quote from a proof copy, but this is just stinking great!]

The stories are clever, nuanced, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, each like a glass of something powerful and delicious.

Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unfettered opinion.

[Mike Shoop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jill McCorkle is one of my favorite contemporary regional writers, along with Clyde Edgerton and Lee Smith, because she writes so well about things that she knows, things that are universal, issues and emotions that almost anyone can relate to. Her prose is readable, nicely descriptive, and has a good flow to it, and these stories are good examples of her work. For the most part, while not interconnected, the entries have a connection to each other, mainly through a character or a place. It's a good collection overall, as McCorkle uses real issues of aging, loss, romance, death, vulnerability, the loss of innocence, the desire to be accepted, nostalgia, etc., to tell the stories, and to show how secrets and small crimes of the heart can have lasting effects far into the future, how relationships can change, how time can make memories fade. Her stories have believable, vibrantly done language, and complex, well drawn characters, several of whom, like Tori's mother the librarian, Vera, and Candy the waitress, could have whole novels of their own. These characters are like people you'd meet on the street in a small town, or that you grew up with, or remember from childhood. I'm not necessarily a fan of short stories in general, but I found these entertaining and interesting.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each of the stories in this collection has an unexpected kick. The ones I am noting here had the greatest impact on me.

- "Low Tones" was a story based in a doctor's office waiting room. It reminded me of Flannery O'Connor's story of a doctor's office waiting room, called "Revelation."
- "The Last Station" felt like a stab in my heart. Tori's mother re-enacted the stations of the cross and asked why she had been forsaken all these years. Couldn't someone have remembered her birthday this year?
- "Act III" was another stab. Vera arranged for her three adult children to vacation with her and their father as a chance to reconnect and reminisce, but the children regressed to their childhood behavior patterns. When "The Last Station" and "Act III" are read together, they really pack a punch to the gut.
- "Sparrow" is a story about a young, newly divorced mother who is new in town and has been struggling to fit in with the community. When she attends her son's Little League games, she sits in the bleachers with one of the other boy's grandmother, who is chatty and opinionated and loud. So relatable.

Reading these stories makes me wonder why I have not read all of Jill McCorkle's books. Sigh.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I acquired this book (and at least one other) when I attended a discussion between Jill McCorkle and her editor, Kathy Pories, at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC. I was interested in the event because I had read and enjoyed McCorkle's book, Life After Life.

The event was great, as were the brief readings given by McCorkle, and the author's charm at the signing table. Not usually a fan of short stories, I truly enjoyed these tales of relationship. Nothing in this book is quite as it seems, primarily because no ONE in this book is all, or only, what they seem. So many secrets, yet none are seen as such. It would be impossible to share each of the 60,000 or so thoughts we have each day, but as we choose which to tell and which to hold close, attempt to forget, or stockpile for future use, we simultaneously determine not only how we see our lives and the people around us, but also how the people closest to us see us and our shared relationships. These decisions are generally made subconsciously and automatically, most of us unaware that we are, arguably," "keeping secrets." What are yours?

[Edie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My love for the short story format is well-documented. My love for the way Jill McCorkle uses language is well-documented. So to absolutely no one's surprise, I love her latest collection of short stories, Old Crimes.

I describe McCorkle's writing as southern women's fiction and, honestly, I am not entirely sure what I mean by that term but I am sticking with it. Obviously, I prefer genre fiction. But there is something about the way McCorkle writes which sings to my soul. I can't guarantee it will sing to yours in the same way but I do hope that as a reader, you will find those authors who speak straight to your core, bypassing all your thoughts and emotions and expectations. And if you write, I hope you find the readers who read your words, not with their eyes or ears, but with their entire being.

These stories are gritty. They aren't happy but hope is not entirely absent. If I describe them to you, you will wonder why I love them so much. They don't sound like my usual fare. But oh how they capture the essence of life. If certain authors and readers are soulmates, McCorkle is mine. I am grateful her words have enriched my entire adult life. Thank you to the author, Algonquin Books & NetGalley for the eARC.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have to swoon over a character who has quotes from Charlotte’s Web tattooed on her arm, whose life was changed by a book read by a librarian.

The characters in these stories are humanely rendered with great sympathy and insight. They make you laugh and bring tears.

There is the sister who sticks a needle into her brother’s condoms because she wants his girlfriend as a sister-in-law. And the mother who considers her gathered family and imagines a Rod Serling voiceover narrating the truth she is hiding from them.

Life is filled with unsolved mysteries, crimes unsolved, innocent people sacrificed, a young woman thinks. A lineman recalls learning his ‘sister’ was really his mother as he dwells on the tenuous lines of communication. A man esteemed by the community is abusive behind closed doors. Women gather in spiteful gossip sessions to trash the man who dumped them.

With complex and relatable characters and conjuring emotions from laughter to sadness, I loved these stories.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.