Stygo

by Laura Hendrie

Winner 1995 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award. Winner 1995 Mountains and Plains Regional Book Award Finalist 1995 PEN/Hemingway Foundation First Fiction Award Stygo is the quintessential western town - a place where people work hard for very little and learn to survive on dreams. Hendrie brings these dreams to life in a haunting series of interlocked stories, including the tale of Tom Go, who suddenly finds his fantasy of moving to Alaska within reach; of Beca, struggling to free her older brother from the grip of their father's expectations; of Frank, who knows that love is a chimera often glimpsed but seldom captured; and of other inhabitants, adults and children alike, who bear witness to love and despair and learn to take what they can from life.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

225 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

Reviews

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any novel in the form of short stories about the life of a small American town probably invites comparison to Winesburg, Ohio. In Stygo's case, the comparison is not all that apt: Stygo is not a sleepy town full of quiet desperation, but a desperate town in its own right. No main character emerges from the novel or leaves at the end (in fact, the only young man we know to have struck out from town is a spree-killer.) It's its own book.

What I enjoyed most about the book was the way it spiraled outward, each story bringing the reader farther into the margins of town, farther from the apparent heart of the community. By the time the chapters come back to the center, back to the bar and Willa Moon, it's clear that neither a place nor a person is the center of this community, but rather an unanswered need, a void.

My favorite stories in this volume were those of teen and tween girls, especially "Corsage" and "Calliope." Hendrie does a great job with these lives and voices, on the edge of self-consciousness and the edge of transformation. Individual stories in the book may end too easily or too pat, but the images and people stick with you, and it's an engaging read. Push on beyond the establishing shot of the first story, and you'll be well-rewarded.

[Elissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting interlocking stories, but too bleak for my taste