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What Luck, This Life: A Novel
The Columbia space shuttle and its contents rain down on the people of Kiser, Texas, in Kathryn Schwille's imaginative debut novel set six weeks before the invasion of Iraq.
What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle's break-up, as the people of Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. A shop owner defends herself against a sexual predator who is pushed to new boldness after he is disinvited to his family reunion. A closeted father facing a divorce that will leave his gifted boy adrift retrieves an astronaut's remains. An engineer who dreams of orbiting earth joins a search for debris and instead uncovers an old neighbor's buried longing.
In a chorus of voices spanning places and years, What Luck, This Life explores the Columbia disaster's surprising fallout for a town beset by the tensions of class, race, and missed opportunity. Evoking Sherwood Anderson's classic Winesburg, Ohio and Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, the novel's unforgettable characters struggle with family upheaval and mortality's grip and a luminous book emerges-filled with heartache, beauty, and warmth.
What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle's break-up, as the people of Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. A shop owner defends herself against a sexual predator who is pushed to new boldness after he is disinvited to his family reunion. A closeted father facing a divorce that will leave his gifted boy adrift retrieves an astronaut's remains. An engineer who dreams of orbiting earth joins a search for debris and instead uncovers an old neighbor's buried longing.
In a chorus of voices spanning places and years, What Luck, This Life explores the Columbia disaster's surprising fallout for a town beset by the tensions of class, race, and missed opportunity. Evoking Sherwood Anderson's classic Winesburg, Ohio and Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, the novel's unforgettable characters struggle with family upheaval and mortality's grip and a luminous book emerges-filled with heartache, beauty, and warmth.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published September 18, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
September 24, 2018
⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
First off, I am very grateful to Hub City Press for providing me with a copy of What Luck, This Life by Kathryn Schwille in exchange for my honest review. Hub City Press is an independent literary press that was founded in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1995. They focus on spotlighting new authors in the South, and they are funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the South Carolina Arts Commission and donors all across South Carolina.
What it's about: What Luck, This Life focuses on a fictitious small town in deep East Texas in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. It mostly looks at a bunch of different people in the town, their lives, and how they were affected by seeing pieces of the shuttle (and the people that were in it) all over their tiny town.
What Luck, This Life moves around to different people, and we get to see through the eyes of many of the townspeople, plus a couple others as well. The constant switching between people and all the names did get confusing for me, but overall I did like getting many of the perspectives Schwille gives us.
This novel is very dark and gritty; not only looking at the Columbia tragedy, but also looking at other disturbing occurrences around the town. People can be cruel, and you see that a lot in this book. What Luck, This Life isn't overly graphic, but there is definitely a decent amount of disturbing content that will not be for everyone.
Final Thought: What Luck, This Life is very short, and it is rather amazing the picture Schwille is able to paint in just over 200 pages. I appreciate what she tried to do in this novel, but I also felt like I was left with a few unknowns that I didn't like. If you are looking for a book that focuses on life after an IRL tragedy, I would definitely give this one a try as long as you can handle the heavy content.
First off, I am very grateful to Hub City Press for providing me with a copy of What Luck, This Life by Kathryn Schwille in exchange for my honest review. Hub City Press is an independent literary press that was founded in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1995. They focus on spotlighting new authors in the South, and they are funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the South Carolina Arts Commission and donors all across South Carolina.
What it's about: What Luck, This Life focuses on a fictitious small town in deep East Texas in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. It mostly looks at a bunch of different people in the town, their lives, and how they were affected by seeing pieces of the shuttle (and the people that were in it) all over their tiny town.
What Luck, This Life moves around to different people, and we get to see through the eyes of many of the townspeople, plus a couple others as well. The constant switching between people and all the names did get confusing for me, but overall I did like getting many of the perspectives Schwille gives us.
This novel is very dark and gritty; not only looking at the Columbia tragedy, but also looking at other disturbing occurrences around the town. People can be cruel, and you see that a lot in this book. What Luck, This Life isn't overly graphic, but there is definitely a decent amount of disturbing content that will not be for everyone.
Final Thought: What Luck, This Life is very short, and it is rather amazing the picture Schwille is able to paint in just over 200 pages. I appreciate what she tried to do in this novel, but I also felt like I was left with a few unknowns that I didn't like. If you are looking for a book that focuses on life after an IRL tragedy, I would definitely give this one a try as long as you can handle the heavy content.
May 30, 2021
In a series of short episodes, Schwille details the lives of the people of a fictionary small East Texas town following the Columbia space shuttle disaster. Body parts and shuttle parts have rained down on the town and the surrounding area, affecting individuals in all sorts of ways sometimes while searching for debris in the woods, sometimes years later. Schwille is so tender with her characters, intimate, exact - she gets inside their heads and made me understand what it might be like to be them. She describes alcoholism, family relationships, failing marriages, and senior abuse. These aren't happy stories but they are beautifully told. And the final snippet of an astronaut's joy as he looks at the Earth was very moving. (I listened to it as a audio book, and although it was very well read by a number of people, at times it was a little hard to follow because some of the pieces were so short. I would love to get a physical copy at some point.)
September 8, 2018
✨Thank you @hubcitywriters for the free copy of WHAT LUCK, THIS LIFE by @kathrynschwille . This book is out in the world on September 18th.✨
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“What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle’s break-up, as the people of the Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. In a chorus of voices spanning places and years, What Luck, This Life explores the Columbia disaster’s surprising fallout for a town beset by the tensions of class, race, and missed opportunity. Evoking Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the novel’s unforgettable characters struggle with family upheaval and mortality’s grip and a luminous book emerges - filled with heartache, beauty, and warmth.”
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Hub City Press is a non-profit independent press with an emphasis on Southern experience. Now that I’ve lived in Texas for almost TEN years I find myself particularly drawn to Southern literature although I’m still working on my sweet tea addiction 😉. You may remember earlier this year when I spoke about my love for the novel Whiskey and Ribbons. This was also published by Hub City Press. I’m excited to see what comes next from this #indiepublisher .
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Small town life in East Texas is so expertly portrayed in this novel. Each chapter voices a new narrative in this story allowing us to have a richer connection with the community. Do note that it can be a bit confusing at times as narration changes quite often and sometimes not returning to characters for awhile.
This poignant short novel packs an emotional and heartfelt punch that will stay with you long after.
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What are some of your favorite novels with a great sense of place?
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“What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle’s break-up, as the people of the Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. In a chorus of voices spanning places and years, What Luck, This Life explores the Columbia disaster’s surprising fallout for a town beset by the tensions of class, race, and missed opportunity. Evoking Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, the novel’s unforgettable characters struggle with family upheaval and mortality’s grip and a luminous book emerges - filled with heartache, beauty, and warmth.”
.
Hub City Press is a non-profit independent press with an emphasis on Southern experience. Now that I’ve lived in Texas for almost TEN years I find myself particularly drawn to Southern literature although I’m still working on my sweet tea addiction 😉. You may remember earlier this year when I spoke about my love for the novel Whiskey and Ribbons. This was also published by Hub City Press. I’m excited to see what comes next from this #indiepublisher .
.
Small town life in East Texas is so expertly portrayed in this novel. Each chapter voices a new narrative in this story allowing us to have a richer connection with the community. Do note that it can be a bit confusing at times as narration changes quite often and sometimes not returning to characters for awhile.
This poignant short novel packs an emotional and heartfelt punch that will stay with you long after.
.
What are some of your favorite novels with a great sense of place?
.
October 8, 2018
This book was a little bit challenging at first. I don't like to read reviews before I read a book but it would have helped in this case. At first I thought "wow, she sure is introducing a LOT of characters, I'm having trouble keeping them all straight"......well it took a few chapters to realize that each chapter is its own vignette about someone in the town (a la Olive Kitteridge) and they have tenuous ties to each other. After that I really loved it.
September 25, 2018
LOVED. THIS. BOOK. All the stars and all the hearts for this southern author! The interconnected story format really helped the book move along and keep me engaged, and I love how they all intersect throughout the telling. If you loved the format of Olive Kitteridge, and/or are a fan of strong Southern voices, this one is for you. This one will be going on my favorites list for 2018!
September 17, 2018
Thank you @hubcitywriters for sending me an advance copy of What Luck This Life which releases tomorrow. I really enjoyed this fictional tale based on the historical details of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. It helped me recall the details of the aftermath which I had completely forgotten and it’s so important to remember lost heroes like the astronauts aboard this flight. As Columbia finished its mission and re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, the shuttle broke apart over Texas scattering debris, including the crew’s body parts, across small towns like the fictional town, Kiser.
The stories of each inhabitant of or investigator visiting the town of Kiser were loosely connected except for their commonality of how the disaster affected them. Chapters about struggling and impoverished locals trying to make ends meet were gritty. Chapters about deeply empathetic souls like Frankie who found a torso in a tree were poetic. On the surface the book feels disjointed with time frames and perspectives until you look at the book as a whole for its message of the affect the disaster had on individuals and towns for years after.
The stories of each inhabitant of or investigator visiting the town of Kiser were loosely connected except for their commonality of how the disaster affected them. Chapters about struggling and impoverished locals trying to make ends meet were gritty. Chapters about deeply empathetic souls like Frankie who found a torso in a tree were poetic. On the surface the book feels disjointed with time frames and perspectives until you look at the book as a whole for its message of the affect the disaster had on individuals and towns for years after.
February 13, 2022
Well-written and moving, this debut novel, consisting of linked stories, jumps around a bit in time, in tense, and in viewpoint characters. The plot concerns events in Kiser, a fictitious small Texas town before, during, and after the Columbia shuttle disaster on February 1, 2003. The tragedy has immediate effects, as debris rains down on the town along a mile-long swath. The book focuses on the lives of people affected in one way or another. The narrative is not linear, but characters in many of the stories appear in others. NASA investigators move in and begin the arduous task of collecting mechanical and human debris. Before and after they do, the town's citizens are dealing with their own mistakes and catastrophes, both small and large. It's a novel that will repay a re-reading, and I intend to make that investment soon.
Also note: the book has a KILLER last line.
Also note: the book has a KILLER last line.
April 15, 2024
I knew I liked it because the one complaint I had was that I wanted MORE.
February 12, 2022
I love Friday Night Lights and books by Elizabeth Strout, so therefore I love this book. I think Schwille does a great job depicting the nuances of small-town relationships and networks, within and across race, gender, and class lines.
CW for rape
CW for rape
January 18, 2021
I love an original, creative turn of phrase. Kathryn Schwille is about as creative and original as any author I’ve read. And, wow, can she ever turn a phrase!
The stunningly-crafted WHAT LUCK, THIS LIFE is set in fictional Kiser, Texas against the backdrop of the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. Told in brief vignettes, WHAT LUCK, THIS LIFE is not so much a story as it is a character study of raw honesty of the desperate, yet somehow hopeful, residents of the small town.
Accustomed to tales that tie up characters’ lives with neat little bows by story’s end, I was delighted to find each vignette ending in delicious ambiguity, making me want more…more…
The stunningly-crafted WHAT LUCK, THIS LIFE is set in fictional Kiser, Texas against the backdrop of the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. Told in brief vignettes, WHAT LUCK, THIS LIFE is not so much a story as it is a character study of raw honesty of the desperate, yet somehow hopeful, residents of the small town.
Accustomed to tales that tie up characters’ lives with neat little bows by story’s end, I was delighted to find each vignette ending in delicious ambiguity, making me want more…more…
October 5, 2018
This novel sucked me in on the first page, as the author describes the moment the space shuttle Columbia cracked apart over east Texas in 2003:
"Coyotes, weasels, green flies, crows. The animals heard it first. Along the weedy edge of Route 20, a turkey buzzard quit the possum she'd lucked into and took cover in a stand of pines. The wild pig under Cecil Dawson's oak trees snorted twice and froze. To us, it came from out of nowhere: two blasts and the roar of a crashing train that rumbled far too long."
Kathryn Schwille, trained as a journalist, has the eye of a reporter and artistry of a poet. I attended a book event where she described the research she did in east Texas. Her description of the disaster – shuttle and human body parts raining down on a small town – is accurate. But then she imagines the town of Kiser, Texas, and introduces us to citizens dealing with life – a failing marriage, failing business, alcoholism – suddenly thrust into the spotlight when a national tragedy lands, literally, on their doorstep. It's a vivid, moving story. I loved it.
"Coyotes, weasels, green flies, crows. The animals heard it first. Along the weedy edge of Route 20, a turkey buzzard quit the possum she'd lucked into and took cover in a stand of pines. The wild pig under Cecil Dawson's oak trees snorted twice and froze. To us, it came from out of nowhere: two blasts and the roar of a crashing train that rumbled far too long."
Kathryn Schwille, trained as a journalist, has the eye of a reporter and artistry of a poet. I attended a book event where she described the research she did in east Texas. Her description of the disaster – shuttle and human body parts raining down on a small town – is accurate. But then she imagines the town of Kiser, Texas, and introduces us to citizens dealing with life – a failing marriage, failing business, alcoholism – suddenly thrust into the spotlight when a national tragedy lands, literally, on their doorstep. It's a vivid, moving story. I loved it.
November 1, 2018
Published by a small press, this first time author could pass for an Elizabeth Strout sound a like. The ability to convey so much with brevity is amazing.
A novel told in stories, much like Olive Kitteridge, the focus on a small Texas town revolves around the aftermath of the 2003 space shuttle that literally crashed on and over their heads. For the local residents, life was already pretty bleak. Faced with an unimaginable search and clean up, the toll mounts in different ways for all of them. The writing here is succinct and emotionally ravishing without being graphic or overdone. Kathryn Schwille is a wonder.
A novel told in stories, much like Olive Kitteridge, the focus on a small Texas town revolves around the aftermath of the 2003 space shuttle that literally crashed on and over their heads. For the local residents, life was already pretty bleak. Faced with an unimaginable search and clean up, the toll mounts in different ways for all of them. The writing here is succinct and emotionally ravishing without being graphic or overdone. Kathryn Schwille is a wonder.
December 21, 2019
Somber, disturbing, and a semi-realistic look into what life is like for many in deep East Texas. (Just speaking from experience here.)
The small town relationships and drama, mingled with the sense of being trapped in the area and its traditions (having nowhere else to go, money, race, sexuality, and harassment issues)--on top of dealing with the Columbia disaster--adds up to create a short, but hard-hitting little novel.
No, I don't have too pleasant of a view when it comes to deep East Texas. :'D
The small town relationships and drama, mingled with the sense of being trapped in the area and its traditions (having nowhere else to go, money, race, sexuality, and harassment issues)--on top of dealing with the Columbia disaster--adds up to create a short, but hard-hitting little novel.
No, I don't have too pleasant of a view when it comes to deep East Texas. :'D
October 10, 2018
This book is beautiful. Poetic. Subtle. It springboards from a real moment in history, but paints a wonderful, fictitious picture of a small Texas town in the aftermath of a spaceship crashing. The characters are fleshed out and varied, allowing Schwille to make commentary without being heavy handed about anything. I loved the weirdness and sadness and beauty and connection and awfulness and simplicity. A gem of a book.
March 5, 2020
Hub City Press - “What Luck, This Life”
“There’s nothing wrong with Kiser that a few funerals wouldn’t fix.”
Kiser, Texas is an unassuming town, all but forgotten in a sparsely populated region of a massive, sprawling state. Like many small towns, Kiser’s younger folk are forced to bend to the will of the old. But the early morning hours of February 1, 2003 changed all that - even if only for a little while.
What Luck, This LIfe is an historical fiction account of the effect of the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia on this small Texas community. As debris from Columbia rains down on the unsuspecting townsfolk of Kiser, Author Kathryn Schwille immediately thrusts the reader into the midst of the action with a jabbing, staccato prose that lends an urgency to the unfolding tragedy.
The story shifts around in time, offering a slowly blooming picture of the town and its occupants. Disaster is an underlying current throughout this tale - there are numerous mentions of 9/11 and of a nearby tornado - and how they seem to affect the minutiae of lives far from where they took place.
Some of the descriptions of the recovered debris are gruesome - random body parts dropped in unexpected places - which felt especially heart wrenching to me, a child of the space coast, the generation of awestruck children that watched the first shuttle go up, and who saw the last one return home. The names and some of the details of the crew have been changed in the book but it is jarring nonetheless.
While there are some highlighter-worthy turns of phrase in this novel, the story seemed to lose its way, flashing through character after character like flicking channels on the TV. A few chapters in, the book inexplicably shifts from a third person narrative to the first person perspective of a completely new character, and then back again. It lurches back and forth in time, sometimes by years, seemingly at random. We meet people and become attached to them, only to have them disappear without us hearing any more from them. And perhaps that is the point - to have these characters taken away as swiftly and as without warning as our ill-fated astronauts.
The pacing of the story is good and the exposition deft. There are some finely poetic chapters - brief descriptions from the point of view of a bird and the like. It’s hard to say if I would recommend this book or not as it does have some superb moments scattered among the confusing timeline.
“There’s nothing wrong with Kiser that a few funerals wouldn’t fix.”
Kiser, Texas is an unassuming town, all but forgotten in a sparsely populated region of a massive, sprawling state. Like many small towns, Kiser’s younger folk are forced to bend to the will of the old. But the early morning hours of February 1, 2003 changed all that - even if only for a little while.
What Luck, This LIfe is an historical fiction account of the effect of the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia on this small Texas community. As debris from Columbia rains down on the unsuspecting townsfolk of Kiser, Author Kathryn Schwille immediately thrusts the reader into the midst of the action with a jabbing, staccato prose that lends an urgency to the unfolding tragedy.
The story shifts around in time, offering a slowly blooming picture of the town and its occupants. Disaster is an underlying current throughout this tale - there are numerous mentions of 9/11 and of a nearby tornado - and how they seem to affect the minutiae of lives far from where they took place.
Some of the descriptions of the recovered debris are gruesome - random body parts dropped in unexpected places - which felt especially heart wrenching to me, a child of the space coast, the generation of awestruck children that watched the first shuttle go up, and who saw the last one return home. The names and some of the details of the crew have been changed in the book but it is jarring nonetheless.
While there are some highlighter-worthy turns of phrase in this novel, the story seemed to lose its way, flashing through character after character like flicking channels on the TV. A few chapters in, the book inexplicably shifts from a third person narrative to the first person perspective of a completely new character, and then back again. It lurches back and forth in time, sometimes by years, seemingly at random. We meet people and become attached to them, only to have them disappear without us hearing any more from them. And perhaps that is the point - to have these characters taken away as swiftly and as without warning as our ill-fated astronauts.
The pacing of the story is good and the exposition deft. There are some finely poetic chapters - brief descriptions from the point of view of a bird and the like. It’s hard to say if I would recommend this book or not as it does have some superb moments scattered among the confusing timeline.
October 3, 2018
What Luck, This Life, a brilliant exploration of what happened to people on the ground when the space shuttle Colulmbia exploded over east Texas in early 2003. One by one, Kathryn Schwille's characters react to discoveries: a silver piece of metal the size of a turkey platter, a shoe containing the foot of a black man, a piece of pipe that looks like a fingerbone, a man in a flight suit caught up in a tree.
The lives of the people of economically devastated Kiser, Texas, rise to meet this destruction with moxie, mystification, larceny, and heart, making this moment of utter failure on a national scale a uniquely American moment, tinged with hope, patriotism, and an eye for the main advantage.
Schwille did in-depth journalistic research to uncover the grisly findings of Columbia's crash -- virtually unreported in the national news, repressed by NASA, and ignored after the run-up to the Iraq War. She also dug deep into her love of hard-luck people to tell the stories of children, marriages, lovers, fragmented lives stressed by economic privation and on the cusp of disastrous comings-apart. Shcwille writes gorgeous prose, with insight and compassion into the hardscrabble lives on the ground.
As I mull What Luck,This Life, by Kathryn Schwille, I think this: This is a novel about the dream we say we are as Americans, and the disaster we really are on the ground. The novel is deeply compassionate, yet unblinking, looking at these two worlds and the jagged space between them.
The book is getting lots of attention and fine blurbs and reviews:
“A deeply thought-provoking novel” – Booklist
“Quietly contemplative and affecting”—Kirkus
“Unespectedly moving”—Andrea Barrett
“Just thinking about this book makes me feel more alive.” – Elaine Neil Orr
The lives of the people of economically devastated Kiser, Texas, rise to meet this destruction with moxie, mystification, larceny, and heart, making this moment of utter failure on a national scale a uniquely American moment, tinged with hope, patriotism, and an eye for the main advantage.
Schwille did in-depth journalistic research to uncover the grisly findings of Columbia's crash -- virtually unreported in the national news, repressed by NASA, and ignored after the run-up to the Iraq War. She also dug deep into her love of hard-luck people to tell the stories of children, marriages, lovers, fragmented lives stressed by economic privation and on the cusp of disastrous comings-apart. Shcwille writes gorgeous prose, with insight and compassion into the hardscrabble lives on the ground.
As I mull What Luck,This Life, by Kathryn Schwille, I think this: This is a novel about the dream we say we are as Americans, and the disaster we really are on the ground. The novel is deeply compassionate, yet unblinking, looking at these two worlds and the jagged space between them.
The book is getting lots of attention and fine blurbs and reviews:
“A deeply thought-provoking novel” – Booklist
“Quietly contemplative and affecting”—Kirkus
“Unespectedly moving”—Andrea Barrett
“Just thinking about this book makes me feel more alive.” – Elaine Neil Orr
January 29, 2019
This book fulfills the Reading Women Challenge #22: A book you picked up because of the cover
This cover caught my eye sitting on its shelf at my local library. I didn't realize until I read the author bio at the back that Schwille was local too! The publisher is a small one that focuses on the "Southern experience", and that very much describes this book.
Schwille's writing is quite poetic and simple at the same time. She conveys a lot of emotion in few words. It's a skill that creates a very distinct voice, in my opinion. I loved it.
Each chapter features a different set of characters that are all entwined in some way. Following the Columbia space shuttle explosion, each person deals with the aftermath in a different way, taking something unique to them from it (sometimes literal debris from the shuttle, most often figurative lessons).
It's a very quick read. I wished it had been a little bit longer, and that the vignettes had seemed a little more balanced. Some chapters were significantly shorter than others, and I just wanted more.
This cover caught my eye sitting on its shelf at my local library. I didn't realize until I read the author bio at the back that Schwille was local too! The publisher is a small one that focuses on the "Southern experience", and that very much describes this book.
Schwille's writing is quite poetic and simple at the same time. She conveys a lot of emotion in few words. It's a skill that creates a very distinct voice, in my opinion. I loved it.
Each chapter features a different set of characters that are all entwined in some way. Following the Columbia space shuttle explosion, each person deals with the aftermath in a different way, taking something unique to them from it (sometimes literal debris from the shuttle, most often figurative lessons).
It's a very quick read. I wished it had been a little bit longer, and that the vignettes had seemed a little more balanced. Some chapters were significantly shorter than others, and I just wanted more.
September 30, 2018
Karen Schwille's debut novel explores what happened to the people under the path of the Columbia space shuttle that broke up over rural Texas in 2003. The series of interlocking chapters moves forward and backward in time, with characters either literally picking up the pieces of the disaster or reflecting back months or years later. Their collective stories touch on issues of race, religion, domestic violence and family relationships. That's a lot to take on in a couple hundred pages.
The promotional material likens this to Sherwood Anderson's 1919 breakthrough short story cycle, "Winesburg, Ohio." I can see the resemblance, but the individual stories here do not construct a coherent picture of a community. The stories and characters are spread out much like the shuttle's debris field, distracting the reader from Schwille's beautiful writing. I wish she had focused on the most compelling characters and developed their stories more fully.
The promotional material likens this to Sherwood Anderson's 1919 breakthrough short story cycle, "Winesburg, Ohio." I can see the resemblance, but the individual stories here do not construct a coherent picture of a community. The stories and characters are spread out much like the shuttle's debris field, distracting the reader from Schwille's beautiful writing. I wish she had focused on the most compelling characters and developed their stories more fully.
June 8, 2019
How the explosion of the space shuttle affected the lives of the people in East Texas where the debris fell was a fantastic story. This book was beautifully written! Ms Schwille has a gift for beautifully written descriptive prose. The only reason I give it less than 5 stars is that the vignettes and the associated characters were too loosely tied together. I had trouble following characters and the several different perspectives--points of view. I happen to know that Ms. Schwille originally submitted this book to the publisher as a collection of short stories, but the publisher had her rewrite it in the form of a novel. I think the publisher made a mistake and Kathryn Schwille knew what she was doing.
July 21, 2019
"People think that small Southern towns treasure their eccentrics, but Kiser wasn't one of those storybook places."
What luck, picking up this book! My expectations were high after reading the comparison to Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (one of my favorites) on the front bookflap, and this is definitely in that vein. Schwille has a gift for the pregnant phrase, if that's a thing, and most chapters end with them. I very well recall the day of the Columbia disaster that's at the heart of this book, but I was never aware of the fallout, which along the way, in the midst of the fiction, Schwille very well details.
First lines:
"Coyotes, weasels, green flies, crows. The animals heard it first."
What luck, picking up this book! My expectations were high after reading the comparison to Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (one of my favorites) on the front bookflap, and this is definitely in that vein. Schwille has a gift for the pregnant phrase, if that's a thing, and most chapters end with them. I very well recall the day of the Columbia disaster that's at the heart of this book, but I was never aware of the fallout, which along the way, in the midst of the fiction, Schwille very well details.
First lines:
"Coyotes, weasels, green flies, crows. The animals heard it first."
October 2, 2023
Kathryn Schwille uses the 2003 Columbia disaster as the device to connect the disparate stories of people in a small town in Texas, where much of the shuttle debris is found. Her descriptions of the surroundings are poetic, and she does a good job portraying distinctions between the many characters. I had some trouble figuring out the POV voice in some of the stories. I had to go back to earlier stories to make connections between characters( and often there weren’t any), and the stories often describe life before the disaster, during it, and many years later, in the same paragraph! If you don’t dwell on these problems, you can read the book for the simple enjoyment of her prose and her character studies.
August 19, 2021
A really lively study of a town and it's people at a moment in time. Characters are rendered with complexity but not judgement so that you can see their deepest selves feel their successes and failures. The shuttle disaster that mists around the story brings agravitas and grounding, ironically, to the whole, rooting the events in a kind of shock fugue. Just Goldman suggested it is like olive kitteredge which spurred me to read it and I am so glad I did.
September 27, 2018
I had no idea that the space shuttle Columbia did not just explode into oblivion, but littered pieces of the ship and remains of the astronauts over rural Texas. This is the story of the town and the inhabitants and the effects of the shuttle on them, plus a look into their lives. Told in short stories that interconnect sometimes only a little, I thought it was a strong and interesting read.
October 11, 2018
Set against the backdrop of the Columbia space shuttle disaster, this novel weaves together the stories of the inhabitants of a tiny east Texas town. The search for debris is the common thread that connects the characters. Although the stories are pretty sad, the wrong and the tenderness that Schwille shows her characters make them poignant rather than bleak.
November 19, 2018
In 2003 the space shuttle Columbia broke apart after entering Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard and leaving debris and body parts all over eastern Texas. The people of the small fictional town of Kiser find their lives disrupted by their own discoveries and the swarm of NASA searchers, journalists, and thrill-seekers who descend upon their town.
November 27, 2018
There is a lot going on here. The stories of the people from this town are all intertwined, some more than others. I enjoyed reading this book. At points I found myself double checking the timeline, as it moves around a bit and I wasn't always reading carefully. Of course, some characters are more compelling than others and there were some I would have liked to hear more from.
December 27, 2018
Simply put, I loved this book. I loved the writing, I loved the characters, I loved the stories. As my friend Katie says in her review, this book is a lot like Olive Kitteridge in that the stories are intertwined and the characters interconnected. I knew this going in (thanks, Katie) so I was not confused as some were. This is an exquisite book, and I can't recommend it enough.
January 7, 2019
2/5
I was so excited to get my hands on this book, being from Texas. It's more about the individuals in Kiser around the time of the Colombia disaster, not so much the disaster itself.
Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the characters. The book reads more like short stories/essays instead of a novel. Each "short story" is narrated by a different individual and at different spaces in time made it confusing for me.
I was so excited to get my hands on this book, being from Texas. It's more about the individuals in Kiser around the time of the Colombia disaster, not so much the disaster itself.
Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the characters. The book reads more like short stories/essays instead of a novel. Each "short story" is narrated by a different individual and at different spaces in time made it confusing for me.
April 3, 2019
Beautiful, engaging read.
This novel soars, using the frame of a fallen space shuttle to reveal the stories of the people who find the pieces in their county, town, back yards. It’s woven together seamlessly so that by the end you see the big picture, a zooming out that feels like the whoosh of a shooting star.
This novel soars, using the frame of a fallen space shuttle to reveal the stories of the people who find the pieces in their county, town, back yards. It’s woven together seamlessly so that by the end you see the big picture, a zooming out that feels like the whoosh of a shooting star.
July 28, 2019
I wanted to like this book more. It’s about the break up of the space shuttle over East Texas, where my mother was living at the time. I had heard her stories and read about it, however this book didn’t resonate with me. The characters were never developed. Some story lines were left hanging and never resolved. The imagery was well done though.
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