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The Dead Husband Project
Perfect for readers of George Saunders, Jennifer Egan and Heather O’Neill, a rich and inventive collection of exquisite short stories by a major newcomer to Canadian literature.
In this deeply felt, compulsive and edgy work, Sarah Meehan Sirk shines a distinctive light on love and death in their many incarnations, pushing against the limits of the absurd while exposing piercing emotional truths about what it means to be gloriously, maddeningly alive.
In The Dead Husband Project, an artist who has planned to make an installation out of her terminally ill husband’s dead body has to recalibrate when his diagnosis changes. In The Date, an online dating match takes an unusual turn when the man who shows up to the restaurant has no face. In Ozk, a young girl longs to connect with her socially isolated mother, a professor of mathematics who makes a radical discovery.
Uncanny, sometimes violent, achingly sad and always profound, these stories showcase a writer with skill and empathy, and draw us in with a steady, unyielding grip.
In this deeply felt, compulsive and edgy work, Sarah Meehan Sirk shines a distinctive light on love and death in their many incarnations, pushing against the limits of the absurd while exposing piercing emotional truths about what it means to be gloriously, maddeningly alive.
In The Dead Husband Project, an artist who has planned to make an installation out of her terminally ill husband’s dead body has to recalibrate when his diagnosis changes. In The Date, an online dating match takes an unusual turn when the man who shows up to the restaurant has no face. In Ozk, a young girl longs to connect with her socially isolated mother, a professor of mathematics who makes a radical discovery.
Uncanny, sometimes violent, achingly sad and always profound, these stories showcase a writer with skill and empathy, and draw us in with a steady, unyielding grip.
247 pages, Paperback
First published August 8, 2017
7 people are currently reading
649 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Meehan Sirk
1 book19 followersSarah Meehan Sirk is a writer and radio producer. Her fiction has appeared in various journals and magazines and is anthologized in The Journey Prize Stories.
At the CBC, she's produced for national shows including Q (now q) and Day 6, and hosted the 2015 summer series Stripped. Before that, she produced a Toronto crime show, hosted sports programs, filed human rights reports with Ghanaian journalists in West Africa, and co-produced, wrote, and hosted a short TV series on minor hockey that was nominated for what was then known as a Gemini award (it lost to the Olympics.) She has also produced a son, and a daughter.
She studied math and philosophy at the University of Toronto, and was mentored by David Adams Richards at the Humber School for Writers. She lives in Toronto with her young family. The Dead Husband Project is her first book.
At the CBC, she's produced for national shows including Q (now q) and Day 6, and hosted the 2015 summer series Stripped. Before that, she produced a Toronto crime show, hosted sports programs, filed human rights reports with Ghanaian journalists in West Africa, and co-produced, wrote, and hosted a short TV series on minor hockey that was nominated for what was then known as a Gemini award (it lost to the Olympics.) She has also produced a son, and a daughter.
She studied math and philosophy at the University of Toronto, and was mentored by David Adams Richards at the Humber School for Writers. She lives in Toronto with her young family. The Dead Husband Project is her first book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
October 23, 2017
I loved this book SO much. From the very first story — where a visual artist always in the shadow of her artist husband decides when her cancer-ridden spouse dies she will mount his body as her artistic masterpiece... only to find out he's been cured of the disease — through to the many following stories that deal with love, friendship, parents, children, death, pain, and joy, Sarah Meehan Sirk brought to life these amazing characters with some of the most exquisite language I've read recently. Her turns of phrase were gorgeous. I'm not usually a big fan of short stories, but these were spectacular. Highly highly highly recommended.
November 5, 2017
Loved it. Stories about damage and damaging others. "OZK" is a story that will stay with me for a long time. The best book that my husband bought me so far. (Thanks, my guy!)
December 18, 2023
This.
Was.
INCREDIBLE.
I know that I usually go through short story collections and give each story a mini review but there's no need for this one - it was that good. Every single story had something worth talking about, and I think the true joy of reading this was discovering each of those bits for myself which is why I won't spoil anything here.
What I will say is that these are HEAVY stories. No fluff here. I'm talking abuse, loss of children, loss of partners, just GRIEF with a capital "G." I left each of these stories feeling a little bit tender and a whole lot vulnerable, so consider yourself warned about how this collection could leave you.
I'm disappointed Meehan Sirk hasn't written anything else, but am thrilled to have been able to experience this collection. What a fantastic Canadian female voice.
Was.
INCREDIBLE.
I know that I usually go through short story collections and give each story a mini review but there's no need for this one - it was that good. Every single story had something worth talking about, and I think the true joy of reading this was discovering each of those bits for myself which is why I won't spoil anything here.
What I will say is that these are HEAVY stories. No fluff here. I'm talking abuse, loss of children, loss of partners, just GRIEF with a capital "G." I left each of these stories feeling a little bit tender and a whole lot vulnerable, so consider yourself warned about how this collection could leave you.
I'm disappointed Meehan Sirk hasn't written anything else, but am thrilled to have been able to experience this collection. What a fantastic Canadian female voice.
August 1, 2019
You know those books that are just absolutely stellar and you wouldn’t change a thing? This is one of those books. Every single story in this collection was perfect. Never have I so deeply felt connections to characters in such short periods of time. I don’t know how this book got on my radar but I’m so glad it did. I’m anxiously awaiting more from Sarah Meehan Sirk!
January 9, 2018
A lovely debut collection. There are some remarkable stories here that I'm still thinking about and a few that I had trouble following. I'm looking forward to reading more.
October 21, 2023
Each story felt both incredibly real and unreal at the same time, treading the fine line between stark human experience and dreadful unreality. Every single story drew me in, made me hold my breath until the end, desperate to see where it was going.
October 12, 2017
Wow! What a wonderful variety of short stories. Like The White Album had a brief encounter with Ray Bradbury in a coffee shop, on THAT side of the tracks.
I can't wait to read more Meehan Sirk! Thank you.
I can't wait to read more Meehan Sirk! Thank you.
June 24, 2017
The Dead Husband Project is a lovely, assured debut from Sarah Meehan Sirk, whose stories provided an empathetic glimpse into the lives of people who would otherwise remain misunderstood. The protagonists include a young wife who anxiously awaits news that could tear her marriage apart while she, her husband and her newborn child vacation in Barbados; a girl whose life is turned upside-down when her twin sister dies unexpectedly; a daughter who resents her mother's eccentric reclusiveness; a striptease dancer who, in her youth, held promise as a ballerina; and a traveler who recounts a horrific family tragedy while touring Ghana. These stories bleed with hidden traumas and regrets, more often than not ending on a turning point and withholding tidy resolutions. It's a bold move that will frustrate some, but there's so much grist to Sirk's characterizations that it can be forgiven. The fact that we want to know where these characters will go next is a testament to her strength as a writer.
Most of these stories stick to the humdrum movement of contemporary life, privileging psychological exploration rather than a speculative realist mode. However, a few stories do push that boundary: "The Dead Husband Project," with its examination of art's provocative limits; "The Date," which takes a strange scenario and makes it even stranger when the denouement hits; and "Moonman," which is a story about bodily and domestic change superimposed on something more apocalyptic and universal. These ones are perhaps the most memorable (the first two especially), if only because they highlight Sirk's most imaginative impulses and prove that she is incredibly versatile. However, as a whole, the mixture of stories that showcase imagination with stories that are rich character studies gives The Dead Husband Project a satisfying balance, making it an enriching read for anyone in need of a strong collection of short stories.
Most of these stories stick to the humdrum movement of contemporary life, privileging psychological exploration rather than a speculative realist mode. However, a few stories do push that boundary: "The Dead Husband Project," with its examination of art's provocative limits; "The Date," which takes a strange scenario and makes it even stranger when the denouement hits; and "Moonman," which is a story about bodily and domestic change superimposed on something more apocalyptic and universal. These ones are perhaps the most memorable (the first two especially), if only because they highlight Sirk's most imaginative impulses and prove that she is incredibly versatile. However, as a whole, the mixture of stories that showcase imagination with stories that are rich character studies gives The Dead Husband Project a satisfying balance, making it an enriching read for anyone in need of a strong collection of short stories.
September 23, 2018
I won this book on Goodreads Giveaways. It took me a while to work it into my Popsugar Reading Challenge. I don’t usually read short stories; so, it introduced me to a new genre. I found the stories interesting and unexpected, in some cases. Overall I enjoyed the book and found it well written. 3/5 stars.
Here are a few quotes that I liked:
“But in the midst of the panic there’s a quiet rippling so deep below the bedrock of consciousness it’s less thought than wordless possibility and from there rises the idea: Why not just let go?”
“Love you, Mama! Like she always sang out when the screen door creaked shut behind me. Love you too, I called back, wanting to sing it out with the force of a gospel choir, wishing I could spread out around her like wings to carry her through the rest of her life, her feet never touching down on filthy ground again.”
“Everyone puts on a good face, though, when they wheel mom or dad inside for the first time, chatting away about the facilities and the food and the views of the park and the spacious rooms, while mom sits there with wild eyes and folded arms, or dad with his chin raised in a heavy mix of pride and defeat.”
“Even I envied them. My Russell was no good from the start. Should have seen it long before I took Colette and fled, but fear has this way of casting shadows and whispering fantasies when the truth would be too much to bear.“
“ She said the words were simple and clear, as if there was no kind of dressing on them to trump up there meaning. She said she could hear music in them even though she knew none of the original language. She believed there was music in every language.”
“We always knew when she was gone. I lost the feeling that children are supposed to have when they drift off to sleep: knowledge that their parents, their mother, is in the house somewhere, her protective warmth flowing from room to room in the dark.”
Here are a few quotes that I liked:
“But in the midst of the panic there’s a quiet rippling so deep below the bedrock of consciousness it’s less thought than wordless possibility and from there rises the idea: Why not just let go?”
“Love you, Mama! Like she always sang out when the screen door creaked shut behind me. Love you too, I called back, wanting to sing it out with the force of a gospel choir, wishing I could spread out around her like wings to carry her through the rest of her life, her feet never touching down on filthy ground again.”
“Everyone puts on a good face, though, when they wheel mom or dad inside for the first time, chatting away about the facilities and the food and the views of the park and the spacious rooms, while mom sits there with wild eyes and folded arms, or dad with his chin raised in a heavy mix of pride and defeat.”
“Even I envied them. My Russell was no good from the start. Should have seen it long before I took Colette and fled, but fear has this way of casting shadows and whispering fantasies when the truth would be too much to bear.“
“ She said the words were simple and clear, as if there was no kind of dressing on them to trump up there meaning. She said she could hear music in them even though she knew none of the original language. She believed there was music in every language.”
“We always knew when she was gone. I lost the feeling that children are supposed to have when they drift off to sleep: knowledge that their parents, their mother, is in the house somewhere, her protective warmth flowing from room to room in the dark.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2017
A couple of good nuggets in this one. The Namesake Short, namely the Dead Husband Project was indeed a wicked little tale, faithful to its absurd aspirations. A Road in the Rain explores power relationships between boss and employee, the road to rape, and the road from it. Mommy blogger is a what-if tale shouted out, blogged out to no one and everyone as new mom battles near-despair, mother-in-law and almost-there husband. There is even a pleaser for the tech-minded, The Date, which I cannot even begin to describe without spoiling it, beyond saying it is a take on the Turing Test. However, some of the stories were either beyond my understanding even after multiple reads or seemed a little pointless: Ozk was a little forced and lacked in credibility despite mighty efforts, and Postcards tried to avoid the white (wo)man's burden in Africa but went nowhere beyond a flight from tragedy. Overall, though, there are plenty of good stories here; the reader may have to put in some work, but it generally is well worth it.
January 10, 2018
Really good, for what it was worth. I read it all in one sitting. Talent for real heartache — both the good and bad kinds — rings in Sirk’s words, although I wished at times that she were less careful — less “writers workshop” with her words. Rough ideas with too much polish or sometimes (rarely) clean ideas with not enough polish. Sometimes getting it just right. Beauty.
There is often a wry, knowing smile and secret nod to the peanut gallery to go along with all those references to weed and negligent parents. You get exactly what she is writing about, remember that spot in your own lifetime, though it resembles nothing at all to what you have ever lived.
Sometimes, the tales dwindle or weave before their time. For those moments, I was disappointed, desperate for more, to pursue or finish or... suspended. To be continued. To be forgotten. Moments more than the stories themselves will stick with me, will be recommended to the “right kind” of friends. Very vivid imagery.
For that I gave it 4 stars and would be happy to read more from this author.
There is often a wry, knowing smile and secret nod to the peanut gallery to go along with all those references to weed and negligent parents. You get exactly what she is writing about, remember that spot in your own lifetime, though it resembles nothing at all to what you have ever lived.
Sometimes, the tales dwindle or weave before their time. For those moments, I was disappointed, desperate for more, to pursue or finish or... suspended. To be continued. To be forgotten. Moments more than the stories themselves will stick with me, will be recommended to the “right kind” of friends. Very vivid imagery.
For that I gave it 4 stars and would be happy to read more from this author.
June 11, 2017
I received an ARC of The Dead Husband Project by author Sarah Meehan Sirk compliments of Goodreads Firstreads Giveaway and appreciated the opportunity.
This short story compilation is modern, raw and thought provoking. The author's imaginative and curious thoughts are poetic and gritty. Each story ending lingers, as a reader I craved more. There is much tragedy and dark pain with a great depth in the writing. It was all too easy to place one's self into the characters turmoil and feel their experiences. They grabbed at the soul.
The title is catchy and the cover art is stunning- I couldn't stop admiring it. There are many incredible women at the centre of most of the stories highlighting resilience, strength and hope.
All of the writings hold individual merit and I did enjoy them all. I would say my favourites included The Dead Husband Project, Barbados and The Centre.
I recommend to any fan of short stories and look forward to more by this talented Canadian writer.
This short story compilation is modern, raw and thought provoking. The author's imaginative and curious thoughts are poetic and gritty. Each story ending lingers, as a reader I craved more. There is much tragedy and dark pain with a great depth in the writing. It was all too easy to place one's self into the characters turmoil and feel their experiences. They grabbed at the soul.
The title is catchy and the cover art is stunning- I couldn't stop admiring it. There are many incredible women at the centre of most of the stories highlighting resilience, strength and hope.
All of the writings hold individual merit and I did enjoy them all. I would say my favourites included The Dead Husband Project, Barbados and The Centre.
I recommend to any fan of short stories and look forward to more by this talented Canadian writer.
July 15, 2018
The Dead Husband Project is a bold, shocking and unusual collection of short stories. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a taste of what it is like to push boundaries, not just of form, but of subject matter. Of the fourteen stories in this collection, the three that had the most impact on me were the title story, Ozk, and The Date. All three are thought-provoking stories that stay with with you long after you have finished reading them. The title story jolts you when you understand what the wife-artist whats to do to her husband, and is also a comment on the marital relationship. Ozk is poignant tale about a daughter seeking to connect with her brilliant mathematician mother, and The Date, while it is shocking, depicts how technology can transform some of our central relationships, and so our humanity. It is a collection well worth one's time.
June 18, 2018
This book came to my attention after attending The Alice Munro Festival in Bayfield Ontario at the beginning of June, where I was fortunate enough to hear the author speak in a panel session. I had read her first story in the collection "The Dead Husband Project- Stories" the evening before after the local book seller Martha urged me to buy her book. I was not disappointed. Clever, imaginative and raw writing is what Meehan Sirk offers readers in her debut short story collection. The author opted to read us "The Date" during the panel session and it was brilliant. Her writing will keep you guessing and takes unpredictable turns (I am hoping she writes a mystery one day!) while keeping the reader engrossed and invested in each character that she creates. Sarah is a likeable author with many stories to tell and I look forward to reading more of her work as she publishes.
March 29, 2018
Brilliant. Why has thus Canadian book of short stories not been promoted to the hilt? Virtually no one has heard of it. I saw it on the library shelf - and who could resist such a title? I've never read such a collection of such variance it's hard to believe they all came from a single author. Amongst other things, what really jumped out for me was the "editing" - time, space, modern film editing cuts and spaces. No spoonfeeding here. Readers get additional joy in challenging their own sensibilities. So intense, so deep. I hope Ms Meehan Sirk has many stories ready for a new collection,soon. More specifics when I get the book in hand.
December 12, 2022
Sorry, so busy, busy in this holiday season, so posting an apt review from The Globe and Mail.
**"In The Dead Husband Project, her debut collection of short fiction, Toronto writer Sarah Meehan Sirk takes a sharp pen to conceptual art, dating apps, reality TV, mommy bloggers, social media and other contemporary obsessions, often marrying preposterous scenarios with ordinary concerns. The result is a highly readable intersection of the bizarre (a date with literally no face; an art installation featuring a corpse; the discovery of a new colour) and the very real (desire, disease, death). Oh, and heartbreak. There's a lot of heartbreak." **
**"In The Dead Husband Project, her debut collection of short fiction, Toronto writer Sarah Meehan Sirk takes a sharp pen to conceptual art, dating apps, reality TV, mommy bloggers, social media and other contemporary obsessions, often marrying preposterous scenarios with ordinary concerns. The result is a highly readable intersection of the bizarre (a date with literally no face; an art installation featuring a corpse; the discovery of a new colour) and the very real (desire, disease, death). Oh, and heartbreak. There's a lot of heartbreak." **
July 25, 2017
The Dead Husband Project is the first short stories book I've read so I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the genre and all the stories in it. The author is really talented and knows how to capture your attention!
All of the stories have a central message to tell the readers and it illustrates how people are often too dissatisfied with their life, struggling with issues that are different from one another but in the end, make them feel the same way. In The Dead Husband Project, an artist whose husband is dying plans to make a modern art show out of him. Barbados, my favorite one, is about a family waiting for life-changing health results while on a vacation, wondering all along if they'll survive this. Besides this, the themes of moral and social expectations is explored in stories such as The Date where the girl meets a man with no face and is disgusted by it, or in Mommyblogger where a woman is struggling about what is expected of a wife and mother...
Most of the stories were excellent and deep, sometimes absurd and derisory and pushing the limit, making it very fascinating. There is a couple of them that I didn't want to end!
I would definitely recommend this book, even for people who aren't used to read short fiction. Many thanks to Penguin Random House for the book!
G-
All of the stories have a central message to tell the readers and it illustrates how people are often too dissatisfied with their life, struggling with issues that are different from one another but in the end, make them feel the same way. In The Dead Husband Project, an artist whose husband is dying plans to make a modern art show out of him. Barbados, my favorite one, is about a family waiting for life-changing health results while on a vacation, wondering all along if they'll survive this. Besides this, the themes of moral and social expectations is explored in stories such as The Date where the girl meets a man with no face and is disgusted by it, or in Mommyblogger where a woman is struggling about what is expected of a wife and mother...
Most of the stories were excellent and deep, sometimes absurd and derisory and pushing the limit, making it very fascinating. There is a couple of them that I didn't want to end!
I would definitely recommend this book, even for people who aren't used to read short fiction. Many thanks to Penguin Random House for the book!
G-
August 23, 2017
I won this in a Goodreads giveaway. What an amazing variety of short stories in this book. The first story, "The Dead Husband Project" is super creepy and disturbing but absolutely intriguing as the wife in the story is actually kind of disappointed by her husband's improving health. It's a great start to the book and to the creative stories that continue throughout. My other faves include, "Ozk," "Inters ection,""Date," and "Moonman." Honestly though, they're all fabulous...just read all the stories, you'll be pleased that you did.
June 22, 2017
I received this book for free through Goodreads. This is a book of short stories. I found that some of them did not end satisfactorily for me and I felt like I was left hanging. Others though, were great and got me thinking about things. I wish that the author would expand on some of the stories such as Dreams, Moonman and maybe even The Date. And by expand, I mean those stories would make great novels with more details and just more to the stories - they were pretty good!
March 6, 2018
Wow! This is as good as Alice Munro! And I mean it with full awareness that I'm comparing a debut to a Nobel laureate's work. There is something in the author's writing that really made me share in characters' tension, sadness, and uncomfortable feelings, and I'm not even that empathetic. The title story is clever. The apocalyptic, nostalgic "Moonman" reminds me in mood of Station Eleven, and I'd like to see what happens next in the Black-Mirroresque "The Date."
October 29, 2024
An artist's controversial upcoming project is scuttled by a miracle. A widower's grief is more complex than he'd like it to be. A wife and mother reflects on the road not taken. And as always, these intentionally-vague-so-as-not-to-spoil-the-twist, one-sentence reviews say absolutely nothing about the narrative ingenuity or the writing style. The stories are well-written, and take you straight into the characters' heads.
June 25, 2017
Short, dark, insightful glimpses into the lives of generally unlikeable characters. Well crafted and beautifully written with vivid descriptions.
Certainly not a feel good sort of book, I found these tales best taken in small doses, a story or two at a time.
(I received a free copy of this book through a giveaway on Goodreads)
Certainly not a feel good sort of book, I found these tales best taken in small doses, a story or two at a time.
(I received a free copy of this book through a giveaway on Goodreads)
June 26, 2017
I won a copyof this book on goodreads in exchange for and honest review. I found some stories more enjoyable than others, and some i just think I missed the point. The flow of the stories was good and I did like the uniqueness of the subject matter. This book is great for people who like to support and read good canadian fiction and fans of short stories.
July 30, 2017
I received an ARC of this book through the Goodreads Giveaway program in exchange for an honest review. This collection packed an intense amount of varied emotion in each story and had a very different feel with each plotline. I was immediately hooked by each story, which rarely happens when I read a short story collection, so kudos to Sarah!
August 23, 2017
I won this book in a giveaway, and I was surprised as how much I enjoyed this book. I am not a fan of short story anthologies, but this book had a common thread of family tragedies. The various stories were just long enough to have you invested in the stories, and wanting just a bit more by the time you get to the end.
August 31, 2017
I so enjoyed this book. Sirk has a way of setting up something you think you know and turning it into something else, sometimes in just a few words. I had a hard time putting this down. Not all of the stories are perfect, but all are exquisitely crafted. A few so gripped me, I'll be unpacking them for months I think. At this point, I'd read anything she chose to write.
August 31, 2017
The title intrigued me. The Dead Husband Project is the first of fourteen short stories and is the best in the book. There are more hits than misses in this collection and I really enjoyed Sirk's writing style, the way she left her endings just hanging there. Most left me thinking about them long after I finished reading. Short stories are tough to do really well; Sirk nailed it.
September 2, 2017
Surreal and dark stories packed with rich prose really make this collection come alive on the page. Relationships lie at the centre of the collection whether they be broken or whole. Particular favourite stories include: Ozk, Barbados, mommyblogger, A Road in the Rain, Postcards, and In the Dark.
4 stars
4 stars
September 15, 2017
I raced through this collection of short stories. They were riveting. What great, complex but clearly written characters and all in a few short pages. The author creates some unusual settings and situations. Really original thinking, but not far-fetched as she always finds the human side to each situation. Wish she had more stuff published.
December 2, 2017
Every single one of these stories is sad. The kind of sad that, if I think about it too much, makes my mind feel heavy. But it was also a pretentious sadness that I couldn’t take seriously. I would have liked to see Sirk write some other emotions into this book; by the last few stories, I was kind of over it.
My favourite stories were The Date and Moonman.
My favourite stories were The Date and Moonman.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews