Fall Together

by Sarah Strickley

Sarah Strickley's work is bold, honest, and confident. Her language is the perfect combination of lyricism and directness. Fall Together is remarkable for its inventive stories that carry the reader into dark territory. A remarkable debut! Chris Offutt, author of My Father, the Pornographer and Country Dark The sensibility overseeing these powerful stories is quirky and playful; Strickley is a connoisseur of a myriad of source materials, from contemporary tabloid fodder to age-old literature and legend. In each piece, a wholly human character comes to life to delight and instruct the reader, to make her revisit what she thought was the familiar world and find it, somehow, faintly shifted and newly fresh. Antonya Nelson, author of Bound and Funny Once This collection is both artful and absolutely ferocious. Sarah Anne Strickley calmly follows her stories into darkness. I honestly can't think of many writers who are this fearless. Chris Bachelder, author of National Book Award Finalist, The Throwback Special

176 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2018

Reviews

[Lee Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unpredictable, excellent story collection.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strickley has a powerful sense of characterization and knows how to throw us quickly into the worlds of her stories. Whether we’re meeting a voyeuristic artist who ends up drawing famous sketches of a missing woman he is the last to see alive, or a miner’s union scab caught in a cave-in, Strickley gives us characters who are emotionally torn and inspire us to be the same as we follow them.”The Collapse,” “Peek-A-Boo” and”Sole Survivor” were the stories that clung to me the most. Others, like “Girl Trash Noir,” started off strong but seemed to stagnate a bit, but Strickley starts out with such strong momentum it is no doubt hard to step it up further.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quotable:

It was easy to get pulled into all sorts of controversies when expecting. She endeavored to reserve judgement. It was how she’d want to behave if she were to encounter mothers on the playground or the grocery.

The friends I had weren’t the kind of friends who’d want to inherit my junk drawer of a life. They were drinking friends – people who recognize you in the bar because you were there the night before.

Don’t fall for those pregnancy help centers. There’s just a bunch of Christians in there, waiting to reform you. They tried to read me passages out of the Bible.

[Sara Gerot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best collections of short stories that I have read in awhile. The sentences remind me of Beattie and/or Carver. There is all the requisite attention to sentences in these stories. Love the rendering of the Ohio setting. My favorite was "The Roads Are Like That." Wow . . . what a great story. The "Girl Trash Noir" was dark, fun, trashy, girly noir. I really enjoyed all of them.

[Joe Sacksteder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially liked "Sole Survivor" and "The Collapse"; Strickley's amazingly skilled at the passage of a story into what reads like potential surreality/unreality, as of liminal states of sleep and death.

[Al Kratz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome short story collection. 8 stories total, but the 5 story stretch of The Collapse, Peek-a-Boo, Girl Trash Noir, Sole Survivor, and What Good Are You? Is as good as any I’ve read.

[MaryKate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful short stories.