The Whole Beautiful World: Stories

by Melissa Kuipers

Original, witty, and subtle, these stories feature characters who must navigate life in a small town, and will appeal to fans of Miriam Toews and Kathleen Winter.



This collection of beautifully crafted short stories features complex characters whose internal struggles manifest in their most intimate relationships, told by a writer with a compassionate eye.



A narrator watches her social sphere deteriorate after her boyfriend’s rough-housing leads to his best friend’s tragic paralysis. Childhood sweethearts, finally united later in life, find that they are not the soulmates they believed themselves to be. After her mother becomes depressed after a miscarriage, a daughter takes on the role of caregiver.



Set in fictional small rural towns, these stories explore young people who grow up against a religious backdrop, mothers who baulk against society’s imposed identities, and characters who explore their individual roles within their families as they navigate sexuality, suffering, and shame. These narrators are blunt and sometimes obsessive, but bravely optimistic as they strive to be the best versions of themselves.



As her characters struggle to discern deception from reality, using their limited resources to parse charm and charisma from credibility, Kuipers understated style is full of dark wit and detailed observation.

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2017

Reviews

[Mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great set of 17 short stories. Many of Kuipers' stories are set in the fictional small town of Talbot and deal with teens and young adults and coming of age. Those I particularly enjoyed were "Pretty Prayer", "The Missionary Game", and the title story, "The Whole Beautiful World", but all of them were enjoyable. Kuipers wants to help readers see beauty in the daily aspects of our lives, not just in the big spectacles of once in a lifetime events. She writes well and I look forward to reading more from her as she continues to use and develop her writing talents in the future.

[Chris Hay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these stories. Canadian small town but universal life meditations. All female protagonists I believe (refreshing, for me!).

Here's some notes:
•Pretty Prayer: very short, clever humour
•The Missionary Game: Relatable reflection on Evangelical obsession over having a dramatic moment of "being saved" whose date and time you can cite. I loved the nightmare cow imagery too.
•Ploughshares into Swords: Took me a minute to notice the reversal. An honest and at times funny story about love and marriage and something in between.
•Barn Cats: A funny short about a bad date.
•Bacon Bits: At first I didn't get it, it took me stopping hair way abed reading again more slowly. To figure out who the characters all were. It was worth it. My favourite story so far. It is sad but put into words what I often can't, how people are and think. There is a subtle thing I managed to realize just before the reveal. That's good writing. Also loved the cattail basket and furniture building and other beautiful carefree summery mood, imagery, activities.
•Looking for drama: I was surprised by the contents, rarely touched by authors.
•Cat Food Trees: The idea of your artwork as your children is really clever. I enjoyed this opening dialogue. I found the rest a really beautiful, honest look at parenting a young child. It made me smile.
•Happy All the Time: An exercise into the mind of someone who becomes a religious fanatic. Disturbingly familiar, it was sad and even a little frightening to me.

I read the whole book but have no comments for the other stories.

[Marshall A. Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melissa Kuipers was my high school English teacher; she also taught my favourite class in high school, Creative Writing. So when I found a copy of her book at a local bookshop I obviously had to read it. Kuiper's writing style is accessible and the story elements are interesting. I didn't find any stories that were terribly written or that I hated, I just didn't find them to be the kind of stories that I prefer to read. My favourite stories were:

Ploughshares into swords
Cat food trees
Happy all the time
The whole beautiful world

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free through Goodreads. I enjoyed the stories in this book but my favourite one was Mood Ring. I did however find that some of the stories had weird endings that I didn't like too much because I wanted more details!

[marissa sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I, uh, enjoyed the book and was engaged, but I can't really remember much of it? If you need a book for vacation reading, or reading at the office, it's a really good choice -- pleasant reading, and you could just leave it behind when you're done.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I enjoyed some of the stories individually, but as a whole, the collection is not particularly strong or cohesive. I don't think these stories will stay in my mind for very long. But always interesting to read a Canadian author!

[Maddox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird and tragic and strange…the authors Christian background definitely comes through

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

With perfectly placed Southern Ontariana, Kuipers squeezes as much as she can from a collection of top-tier post-grad writing workshop assignments