Genevieves

by Henry Hoke

A shape-shifting presence named Genevieve unites these nine surreal stories, haunting the characters as they transcend and escape the traps of the everyday. Visions carried over from childish desire and imagination start to manifest in adulthood. In the mysteries that wake us up only to show us a new dream, Genevieve exists.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2017

About the author

Henry Hoke is an editor at The Offing and the author of five books, most recently the novel Open Throat (MCDxFSG / Picador), and the memoir Sticker (Bloomsbury).

Reviews

[Joe Sacksteder · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review on Western Humanities Review: http://www.westernhumanitiesreview.co...

[Sara Gerot · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book, small and strong, it is rich with significance, I don't read Hoke's work like that. Not at first. After reading Genevieves I read this great reviewhttp://www.westernhumanitiesreview.co... that enhanced my understanding; however, at a first read-through I don't want anything from his work but the flips and turns the poetic prose and ghostly characters incite. His work is weird in the best possible way and I enjoy just letting the sentences, and the stories carry me along, never wanting to stop, or pause, or put the book down. It is sort of magic like that.
The whole book is great but there are some amazing lines like "names are just another way of pretending things aren't happening." The writing is crafted, and curated with such control. I really really enjoy his work.

[LB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay. I think this review needs to start with a grounding statement before we get into what we are inevitably going to get into. So deep breaths all around as I try to coherently review this reading experience that honestly felt like it was reviewing me right back.

Important disclaimers below before I can start ↓
1. I purchased this book and it is now the most expensive book I own. I had been aware of how difficult it was going to be to get my hands on this book for a while, that being said it definitely weighed on me during this process. The classic question of the juice and the squeeze. So be warned I had high expectations for this pricey lady.

2. I have read and become a bit of a "fangirl" to quote one of my coworkers, of Hoke after Sticker and Open Throat. I originally was not as interested in this book as I was his first, but that has proven actually impossible to find, so here we are. I actually plan on reading The Groundhog Forever after I'm done with my current book, so stay tuned. *I add this to say in the least elitist way I can, I think I have a pretty good understanding, or maybe connection is a better word, of Hoke's style and voice and all the other words that simply put mean: I just feel like I get it, you know?

3. I set up a rule while reading this book that was informed by the big price tag (again, juice) and it may have hurt or helped my reading experience but I'll leave that up to you. I only allowed myself to read one story a day. Specifically, I read all of these in the evening right before bed, I would read one, summarize it to my partner sitting on the other side of the bed, and put it on my nightstand. There were times I wanted more, and times where I was satisfied, but this rule was consistent and from my perspective added an interesting distance to the stories that was there originally but felt amplified in a way.

Okay, here are my thoughts now that I've given all the background details to set the scene and possibly defend what I am about to say.

After reading Elevation is Everything (Not 100% certain it was this story, but this is roughly where the feeling started to set in) I said out loud a sort of question/statement that went something like:

"I think I'm enjoying this but if I didn't, would I be able to tell?"

And here's the thing, I did enjoy reading this. Sure I liked some stories more than others, but overall I looked forward to reading a new one each night and did get that sort of empty-stomach-drop-roller-coaster feeling when it was done and it moved from nightstand to shelf. But it wasn't an obvious triumph like Sticker or Open Throat was for me, and I think I was able to figure out why. It was harder to hold onto.

Granted, did my separating these fragments of stories by reading only one at a time help this feeling? Definitely not. But the issue still stands. I read Open Throat in one sitting as I now believe is the intended and only way one should. Sticker was over the course of months, read in planes, cars, restaurants I mean you name a place, I was probably reading sticker there, trying to savor every last minute of it. But this book, this one did my head in trying to find solid ground to safely stand on. I kept digging my feet in the sand thinking I was stable only to get knocked over again. There were times when things felt so specific, heavy, full of implied meaning and then were scrubbed away violently and quickly, trying to hide that anything was ever there to begin with. Like when you were younger and you're sitting in the backseat during those car washes full of the rainbow twinkly lights that are so pretty you forget how loud everything is until those big soapy tassels claw at your window threatening to clean you too and you just want to be back in the daylight in a dirty car.

Now, I've come to the part of the review where I step back and say that I know the passion I am expressing here borders on obsessive and it's just a book, a book I really did like and will probably read again of my own will to try and uncover and understand deeper. But I must give myself credit where it is due, I was dedicated to this book. I gave my all or at least would say I tried too, and I felt it in return from these stories. This is a beautiful experiment that I am happy to say I got to experience, despite the almost do-I-know-what-reading-really-is-or-how-to-do-it dentity crisis it caused for me. It was something special to behold wether I really got it, or I didn't, or I couldn't.

This book is a lot of things by factually being none of them. It's a hard reality when a book has such a big impact on you and still you can't fully understand how or why or what kind of loafer or sneaker the shoe print now left on your brain is, but that's how it went and that's how you now find me: imprinted. And to my now soapy but shiny brain, I'm okay knowing that I can't know how to tell you what it really is I got to have here, because you get to have something different than I did. And guess what, we're both probably wrong anyway. Genevieve will exist regardless of this "review" if you can call it that.



*****Unrelated to this review but if anyone of a higher power sees this and has a copy of The Book of Endless Sleepovers just laying around taking up space I would be more than happy to water feed and give it a good home for ya ;)

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

stories linked by a name, sometimes of them a character but mostly overheard, implied, not needing understanding. the stories have siblings, usually with a strangeness between them. the stories have violence, though off screen, waiting, implicit.

[Téa Jones-Yelvington · Rating 5 out of 5]

ASTOUNDING.

[Nina Rota · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letters rewrite themselves, people — both living and drawn — disappear into thin air, quote marks become violent, and even book blurbs are snarky. But not this review, because this is the most creative and unexpectedly complex book I’ve read in a long time. I kept going back to check that I’d read what I read — yes, a father may have been missing his mouth.

The humor distracted me as the haunting crept up and bit me in the face. You’ll want to read and reread these stories.