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Landfall: A Ring of Stories
In this ring of connected short stories, grounded in the fictional town of Conrad’s Fork, Kentucky, everyone is staging some sort of escape. A woman harboring the dark truth about her youngest daughter’s birth, a new teacher suddenly under suspicion after a student’s disappearance, a young girl witnessing her older sister’s sexual all the people in this Appalachian community suffer a paralyzed desire in response to the stagnancy and exposure they experience in their small town. A Ring of Stories weaves together the voices of two generations of mountain families in which secrets are carefully guarded—even from closest kin. One by one, those who leave confront the pull of the land and the people they’ve left behind. Perhaps Conrad’s Fork will save them, or, perhaps, in the wake of urban encroachment and shifting family systems, they will save it.
- GenresFictionShort Stories
232 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 4, 2017
Want to know how to tell when you're reading a good book?
Let's say you're reading it during your lunch break. You get to a certain part, you clasp your hands together, and you think, Oh, no! Oh, no! and then you have to go back to work.
All afternoon, you stop every now and then and think, Oh, no!
And by dinner, you're reading again. Because you have to know what happens. And you hope to heaven that the character you worried about all afternoon didn't do the thing you were oh-noing over.
You worried. As if the character was a real person.
Now THAT'S good writing. And it's everywhere in this book. All of the characters in all of the stories grab your attention and don't let go.
The book calls itself a ring. And I can see that, with how the last story reflects on the first. But really, it's a masterful linked story collection, with characters appearing in each other's relationships at a variety of times in their lives. When I finished the book, I actually went back and traced each character, reminding myself of who each one was, and how that character changed as he or she aged or went from one relationship to the next.
This is lovely work. I stayed up late to finish it. That's another sign of a good book.
Let's say you're reading it during your lunch break. You get to a certain part, you clasp your hands together, and you think, Oh, no! Oh, no! and then you have to go back to work.
All afternoon, you stop every now and then and think, Oh, no!
And by dinner, you're reading again. Because you have to know what happens. And you hope to heaven that the character you worried about all afternoon didn't do the thing you were oh-noing over.
You worried. As if the character was a real person.
Now THAT'S good writing. And it's everywhere in this book. All of the characters in all of the stories grab your attention and don't let go.
The book calls itself a ring. And I can see that, with how the last story reflects on the first. But really, it's a masterful linked story collection, with characters appearing in each other's relationships at a variety of times in their lives. When I finished the book, I actually went back and traced each character, reminding myself of who each one was, and how that character changed as he or she aged or went from one relationship to the next.
This is lovely work. I stayed up late to finish it. That's another sign of a good book.
July 9, 2016
I'd read many of these stories in literary journals before the collection came out--among my favorites, the powerful title story, "Landfall;" the sad, sometimes funny, slightly scandalous, and somehow charming, "Sugar;" and the quietly boiling, "The Sound of Animals" with an ending so subtle and powerful you wonder how Hensley can evoke such contrasts in one sentence. But she does. In fact, the way these stories surprise and delight in language, structure, and plot is a common theme throughout the collection.
Each of these stories, on its own, is a complete world with complex characters and so much simmering beneath the surface. But, as the subtitle suggests, when put together these stories gather momentum, playing off each other in various ways--character, tone, place, and a host of other common threads from first loves to the sacrifices we make in the name of family.
In the end, this ring of stories I'd known on an individual basis transforms into a novel that is at once new and familiar. A smart and beautiful collection that delights with its turns of plot and humor. It grabs hold of you early on and won't let go, all the way to the climactic final, and I'd argue best, story ("Expecting") in a collection of great stories.
Each of these stories, on its own, is a complete world with complex characters and so much simmering beneath the surface. But, as the subtitle suggests, when put together these stories gather momentum, playing off each other in various ways--character, tone, place, and a host of other common threads from first loves to the sacrifices we make in the name of family.
In the end, this ring of stories I'd known on an individual basis transforms into a novel that is at once new and familiar. A smart and beautiful collection that delights with its turns of plot and humor. It grabs hold of you early on and won't let go, all the way to the climactic final, and I'd argue best, story ("Expecting") in a collection of great stories.
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September 3, 2016Hensley and I got our MFAs together, and she was always the finer writer. This collection of linked stories demonstrates her talent. While her exploration of the Kentucky setting and seemingly extraordinary knowledge about farming struck me (a city slicker, big-time), I think the standout feature of her writing is at the sentence-level. Each individual sentence is beautiful. It seems to be very carefully written prose; the lines are well-considered. It is no surprise that Hensley moonlights as a poet!
My favorite story was "Floating."
She's still the better writer.
My favorite story was "Floating."
She's still the better writer.
October 6, 2018
Hensley is a gifted short story writer of the highest caliber. You will get sucked into the intricate world of the people she calls to life with her seemingly effortless words. Her characters lead passionate, flawed, desperate lives and you can't help but get pulled into them.
August 30, 2019
Julie Hensley. a Kentucky author spun a circular stories that were linked together by women's lives.
I found the book to be eloquently written using word pictures that portrayed realistically the time frame and story elements.
Women's live-in a patriarchal society and the subsequent losses were the meaningly and foremost theme.
I found the book to be eloquently written using word pictures that portrayed realistically the time frame and story elements.
Women's live-in a patriarchal society and the subsequent losses were the meaningly and foremost theme.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews