What do you think?
Rate this book
How to Fall: Stories
Edith Pearlman manages to combine subtlety with extravagance, understatement with spectacle, drawing our focus to the eccentricities of those who would prefer to remain unnoticed. . . . Confronted with unexpected obstacles, these characters exchange the blurring comfort of routine with spontaneity and improvisation . . . . Full of vivid, intricate, nuanced portraits, confidently focused, restrained and yet spirited, saturated with a powerful imaginative sympathy, How to Fall is a remarkable collection by a remarkable writer.
—From the Foreword by Joanna Scott
How to Fall is a darkly humorous collection that welcomes the world’s immense variety with confidence. Spanning no fewer than four countries in sixty years, these sixteen stories flesh out the complexities of people who, at first glance, live ordinary, unremarkable lives. Widowers, old men, estranged spouses, young restaurant workers, career women and Jewish grandmothers are all at the center of Pearlman’s cool, studied observation. Each character is rendered with such unpredictable intricacy that they often astonish themselves just as much as the reader. Many of the stories either begin or wind their way back to one, mythical, two-by-three-mile Massachusetts town—Godolphin, a place that “called itself a town but was really a leafy wedge of Boston.”
Edith Pearlman has published over 100 stories in national magazines, literary journals, anthologies and online publications. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize collection, New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best and The Pushcart Prize collection. Her first collection of stories, Vaquita, won the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature, and her second, Love Among the Greats, won the Spokane Prize for Fiction. She now lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
—From the Foreword by Joanna Scott
How to Fall is a darkly humorous collection that welcomes the world’s immense variety with confidence. Spanning no fewer than four countries in sixty years, these sixteen stories flesh out the complexities of people who, at first glance, live ordinary, unremarkable lives. Widowers, old men, estranged spouses, young restaurant workers, career women and Jewish grandmothers are all at the center of Pearlman’s cool, studied observation. Each character is rendered with such unpredictable intricacy that they often astonish themselves just as much as the reader. Many of the stories either begin or wind their way back to one, mythical, two-by-three-mile Massachusetts town—Godolphin, a place that “called itself a town but was really a leafy wedge of Boston.”
Edith Pearlman has published over 100 stories in national magazines, literary journals, anthologies and online publications. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize collection, New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best and The Pushcart Prize collection. Her first collection of stories, Vaquita, won the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature, and her second, Love Among the Greats, won the Spokane Prize for Fiction. She now lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
28 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
Edith Pearlman
23 books90 followersEdith Pearlman, born in 1936, published her debut collection of stories in 1996, at age 60. Last year, she won The National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for Binocular Vision. She has published over 250 works of short fiction in magazines, literary journals, anthologies and online publications. Her work has won three O. Henry Prizes, the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature, and a Mary McCarthy Prize, among others. In 2011, Pearlman was the recipient of the PEN/Malamud Award, which puts her in the ranks of John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and other luminaries.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 15, 2023
This is the third volume of Edith Pearlman's short stories that I've read. Some of the stories in this collection were included in Binocular Vision, a collection of selected and new stories, which served as my introduction to Ms. Pearlman's writing. Of the "new" stories - new to me, that is - my favorites were "Trifle", a small gem, and ""Shenanigans", a comic tale of two octogenarian women - one Irish and the other Jewish, but both cut from the same cloth - who try to act as matchmakers for their middle aged children.
"'Conflict is the stuff of life,' Maura reminded her son. His handsome face grew Stony. 'You always sidestepped trouble,' she sighed.
'You don't have to defend every damned one of your principles,' said Lillian to Hildy. 'Swallow some of them; they'll go down like jelly.' Then she stopped talking. It was too late to teach her daughter the value of hypocrisy."
The ending of the story surprised and delighted this reader.
Among the stories I'd read previously, it was a pleasure to reread and revisit "Mates', "Home Schooling" and, especially, the interconnected trilogy of "If Love Were All", "Purim Night", and "The Coat".
Edith Pearlman passed away earlier this year. Her death was a tragedy, though an inevitable one, as it must be for all of us. However, the stories that she left us are a true blessing for everyone.
"'Conflict is the stuff of life,' Maura reminded her son. His handsome face grew Stony. 'You always sidestepped trouble,' she sighed.
'You don't have to defend every damned one of your principles,' said Lillian to Hildy. 'Swallow some of them; they'll go down like jelly.' Then she stopped talking. It was too late to teach her daughter the value of hypocrisy."
The ending of the story surprised and delighted this reader.
Among the stories I'd read previously, it was a pleasure to reread and revisit "Mates', "Home Schooling" and, especially, the interconnected trilogy of "If Love Were All", "Purim Night", and "The Coat".
Edith Pearlman passed away earlier this year. Her death was a tragedy, though an inevitable one, as it must be for all of us. However, the stories that she left us are a true blessing for everyone.
April 22, 2021
Edith Pearlman ranks among widely celebrated but not widely known authors. Pearlman’s many literary honors include the PEN/Malamud Award, the Pushcart Prize, the National Book Critics Circle award, the Mary McCarthy Prize, and a finalist for the National Book Award. How to Fall, published in 2005, is the third of her five short story collections. If I count correctly, Pearlman sets ten of the sixteen stories in How to Fall in current or recent day Godolphin, an apparently progressive and intellectual close-in Boston suburb. Pearlman sets her other stories in World War Two and after World War Two England and Europe, Jerusalem, and perhaps New York City.
Choosing favorites among the stories in How to Fall proves difficult: so many are so wonderful, and only a few fall below Pearlman’s high bar. Pearlman’s Godolphin stories are especially memorable: “Signs of Life”, which follows a mid-50s lesbian couple as they face an unlikely health crisis and age; “Mates”, which reflects upon how little we know about a seemingly mysterious and quiet then couple who arrive in Godolphin from unknown places and unknown backgrounds, raise their three sons, and leave just as mysteriously and quietly twenty-five years later; “Vegetarian Chile”, in which the chef of a women’s shelter contributes a recipe to the ‘Crowd Pleasing’ column of ‘Cuisine’ magazine, with directions such as ”Heat oil in pans; sauté veggies. Persuade Akisha’s children not to drown dolls in caldrons. Sit with Bridget, crying over the baby who died. Mix eggs, cornmeal and milk in likely ratio and set in oven. Do something about Gretel’s raw feet”; and “Shenanigans”, about an unlikely friendship between the elderly Jewish and Irish mothers of a young couple. In her Godolphin stories, Pearlman displays seemingly inexhaustible curiosity about everyday but not ordinary lives and events, observing and respecting the dignity of the quotidian. Pearlman seems almost like an anti-Updike or an anti-Roth, as she writes compelling and affectionate stories about people living dignified and intelligent lives.
Pearlman’s an anthropologist of the everyday, but her stories do contain shocks and surprises. In ‘The Message’, a middle-aged, retiring, painfully shy husband pretends to understand a Hebrew message left for his wife, which he translates as a paean of his own love for her; in ‘The Story’, Lucienne obsessively retells a story at a small dinner party that her husband, ”Harry had heard. . . scores of times, He had heard it in Yiddish and in French and occasionally in Spanish. Mostly though, she told it her lightly accented English”: ”That morning—[my father]. . . took my brother with him. My brother was twelve. They went to one office and were on their way to a second. Soldiers in helmets grabbed my father. My brother saw the truck then, and the people on it, crying. The soldiers pushed my father toward the truck. ‘And your son, too.’ One of them took my brother by the sleeve of his coat. / My father stopped, then. The soldier kept yanking him. ‘Son?’ my father said. ‘That kid isn’t my son. I don’t even know him.’ The German still held on to my brother. My father turned away from them both, and started walking again toward the truck. My brother saw one shoulder lift in a shrug. He heard his voice, ‘Some Goy,’ my father said.”
Read Edith Pearlman.
4.5 stars
Choosing favorites among the stories in How to Fall proves difficult: so many are so wonderful, and only a few fall below Pearlman’s high bar. Pearlman’s Godolphin stories are especially memorable: “Signs of Life”, which follows a mid-50s lesbian couple as they face an unlikely health crisis and age; “Mates”, which reflects upon how little we know about a seemingly mysterious and quiet then couple who arrive in Godolphin from unknown places and unknown backgrounds, raise their three sons, and leave just as mysteriously and quietly twenty-five years later; “Vegetarian Chile”, in which the chef of a women’s shelter contributes a recipe to the ‘Crowd Pleasing’ column of ‘Cuisine’ magazine, with directions such as ”Heat oil in pans; sauté veggies. Persuade Akisha’s children not to drown dolls in caldrons. Sit with Bridget, crying over the baby who died. Mix eggs, cornmeal and milk in likely ratio and set in oven. Do something about Gretel’s raw feet”; and “Shenanigans”, about an unlikely friendship between the elderly Jewish and Irish mothers of a young couple. In her Godolphin stories, Pearlman displays seemingly inexhaustible curiosity about everyday but not ordinary lives and events, observing and respecting the dignity of the quotidian. Pearlman seems almost like an anti-Updike or an anti-Roth, as she writes compelling and affectionate stories about people living dignified and intelligent lives.
Pearlman’s an anthropologist of the everyday, but her stories do contain shocks and surprises. In ‘The Message’, a middle-aged, retiring, painfully shy husband pretends to understand a Hebrew message left for his wife, which he translates as a paean of his own love for her; in ‘The Story’, Lucienne obsessively retells a story at a small dinner party that her husband, ”Harry had heard. . . scores of times, He had heard it in Yiddish and in French and occasionally in Spanish. Mostly though, she told it her lightly accented English”: ”That morning—[my father]. . . took my brother with him. My brother was twelve. They went to one office and were on their way to a second. Soldiers in helmets grabbed my father. My brother saw the truck then, and the people on it, crying. The soldiers pushed my father toward the truck. ‘And your son, too.’ One of them took my brother by the sleeve of his coat. / My father stopped, then. The soldier kept yanking him. ‘Son?’ my father said. ‘That kid isn’t my son. I don’t even know him.’ The German still held on to my brother. My father turned away from them both, and started walking again toward the truck. My brother saw one shoulder lift in a shrug. He heard his voice, ‘Some Goy,’ my father said.”
Read Edith Pearlman.
4.5 stars
October 30, 2008
Edith Pearlman is a master storyteller. I was delighted to help publish two of her stories in West Branch when I was fiction editor there, and I've bought all three of her story collections. Her work has a technical formality that's immediately recognizable, a clear story arc; her ear for dialogue is sharp and canny; her characters, to me, are delicately nuanced. One of my favorite fiction writers.
April 24, 2024
What a joy it is to discover Edith Pearlman’s stories! Her writing is faultless—try reading them out loud, yourself—it’s effortless. Her characters are wonderfully realistic and we follow some through a few stories, with growing interest. Her observations are vivid, lexicon is impeccable, humor is subtle, and plots are satisfying.
July 12, 2015
This is the third collection of shorts by Edith Pearlman I’ve read (the first being Binocular Vision, and the second, Honeydew)). As I’d already read many of the stories I found here in Binocular Vision, this ended up being a very short read.
To repeat what I suggested in my two earlier reviews, Edith Pearlman is definitely sui generis. And while I’m not certain I get the sense of every one of her stories, I consider that to be my shortcoming as a reader rather than hers as a writer.
Her characters are most often just ordinary people. They may well have lived through some extraordinary events in the past, but they first appear on the page (hence, to our eyes) under quite run-of-the-mill circumstances. It is, then, how they react to events or other characters on this newer stage that I find so captivating. It is, then, quite obviously the mind and imagination of Edith Pearlman that I find unique and uniquely rewarding.
Just as I did not, you may not get the sense of each and every one of her stories, but don’t let that fact put you off. She’s well worth the trial by fire.
RRB
07/12/15
Brooklyn, NY
To repeat what I suggested in my two earlier reviews, Edith Pearlman is definitely sui generis. And while I’m not certain I get the sense of every one of her stories, I consider that to be my shortcoming as a reader rather than hers as a writer.
Her characters are most often just ordinary people. They may well have lived through some extraordinary events in the past, but they first appear on the page (hence, to our eyes) under quite run-of-the-mill circumstances. It is, then, how they react to events or other characters on this newer stage that I find so captivating. It is, then, quite obviously the mind and imagination of Edith Pearlman that I find unique and uniquely rewarding.
Just as I did not, you may not get the sense of each and every one of her stories, but don’t let that fact put you off. She’s well worth the trial by fire.
RRB
07/12/15
Brooklyn, NY
January 22, 2010
Winner of the 2003 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, selected by Joanna Scott
January 12, 2023
Traditional stories well and slyly told
Read
April 11, 2021A collection of short stories mostly of the subtle observations of bourgeois life vein. I tend to struggle a bit with that kind of thing but by the end Ms. Pearlman had me a believer.
September 16, 2009
I agree with two of my classmates (and who knows who else) that this is significantly better than the other two Pearlman collections. I think the stories have more plot and more questions that keep me reading. "Home Schooling" has a really enviable last line and may be my favorite in this book. Pearlman is really good at creating characters.
December 17, 2012
The only reason I didn't give this five stars is that a number of the stories were repeats from her earlier collection. That being said, she is a consummate short-story writer on the level of Alice Munro, William Trevor and Edward P. Jones. Superb writing.
October 22, 2015
I really enjoyed these stories, some of which lead into the next so that you become involved with the characters. In fact, even those that stand alone draw you into the lives of the characters. I'll read more of this author.
January 31, 2011
Pass on this. She's old and the stories are old and slow.
May 23, 2012
love the scenes of Brookline- reminds me how I loved living there
November 18, 2012
It tok me a while to get past the first two stories...for some reason I didn't engage. Once I did, I was hooked and finished the last story wanting more.
Read
December 14, 2012Check out a free preview of a story from How to Fall in our Bookslinger app!
November 20, 2015
Really enjoyed this book of short stories.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews