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Staten Island Stories
A fresh, compelling collection of stories by a serious new voice on the literary scene. Winner of the Hornblower Award by the New York Society Library, Honorable Mention for the International Latino Book Best Collection of Short Stories by Empowering Latino Futures New York City's Staten Island is often described as the forgotten borough. But with Staten Island Stories , Claire Jimenez shines a spotlight on the imagined lives of the islanders. Inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, this collection of loosely linked tragicomic short stories travels across time to explore defining moments in the island's history, from the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash and the New York City blackout to the growing opioid and heroin crisis, Eric Garner's murder, and the 2016 presidential election.
192 pages, Paperback
Published December 3, 2019
18 people are currently reading
427 people want to read
About the author
Claire Jiménez
5 books239 followersClaire Jimenez is a Puerto Rican writer who grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York. She is the author of the short story collection Staten Island Stories (Johns Hopkins Press, December 2019), which received the 2019 Hornblower Award for a first book from the New York Society Library. Jimenez is a PhD student in English with a concentration in ethnic studies and digital humanities at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She received her MFA from Vanderbilt University. Recently, she was a research fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. In 2020, she was awarded a Mellon Foundation grant from the U.S Latino Digital Humanities Program at the University of Houston. Currently, she is an assistant fiction editor at Prairie Schooner. Her fiction, essays and reviews have appeared in Remezcla, Afro-Hispanic Review, PANK, The Rumpus, el roommate, Eater, District Lit, The Toast and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 22, 2020
Staten Island Stories presents an often offbeat collection of tales that converge on (you guessed it!) Staten Island. As a native New Yorker, it remains that far-off borough with which I've had the least firsthand connection or interaction. In light of that, Jimenez's guileless accounts of Staten Island through her characters were a curiosity that satiated.
*Any textual references made unfortunately will not include page numbers, since I read the the novel in digital format.
While there were definitely some stories I liked and that stood out more than others, I can't say that there was a single one included that felt like an utter waste of my time as a reader (which is truly saying a lot, considering past short story collections I've invested in). In fact, Jimenez's uncluttered and engaging writing style made even my least favorite stories in the collection feel tolerable. In general, I often found myself relating to and empathizing with aspects of the characters' day-to-day lives, particularly the ones pertaining to dilatory and depleting commutes on mass transit, as well as many of the characters' palpable love-hate relationship with the place that shaped them and that they call home ("The Grant Writer's Tale").
I appreciated that Jimenez's characters ran the gamut of the ethnic spectrum - the vast majority of the main characters are Latino, but white, black, and Asian supporting characters abound. Subtle mention is even made of Staten Island's lesser-known - Liberian, Sri Lankan, Algerian, Russian ("The Take of the Angry Adjunct," "What It Is," "Underneath the Water You Could Actually Hear Bells," "The Grant Writer's Tale") - immigrant populations. I admire Jimenez for not necessarily adhering to the aesthetic of what is often stereotyped as the "typical" Italian or Irish-descended Staten Islander. Many stories also touch on the themes of xenophobia and racism ("What It Is," "The Grant Writer's Tale," "Who Would Break the Dark First") that characterize the lives of many. For me, her approach lent an unexpectedly absorbing element to her stories as a whole.
I also liked that Jimenez incorporated Staten Island-centric events (both historically distant and not-so-distant) in a way that didn't feel heavy-handed: Pantaleo's acquittal in the Eric Garner case ("What It Is," "The Grant Writer's Tale"), the pre-Ellis Island Tompkinsville hospital ("Who Would Break the Dark First"), the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash ("As Luck Would Have It").
Staten Island mainstays like the notorious landfill ("Great Kills, "The Knight's Tale"), the ubiquitous housing projects ("What It Is," The Grant Writer's Tale"), the ferry, and the Goethals and Verrazano bridges also make multiple cameos throughout.
My favorite stories were "The Grant Writer's Tale" and "Who Would Break the Dark First" (the haunted theme and nostalgic references to Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Pinky and the Brain, Mario Kart, and TGIF made this one a shoe-in for me). Staten Island Stories is among the very short list of enjoyable reads I've endeavored this year.
Notable quotes and passages:
"In the terminal, I sat down next to a family of French tourists. They didn’t know that they were destined for Staten Island, not the Statue of Liberty, and I was too tired to tell them otherwise, because that is always the way it is in life: you hope you are headed somewhere important and memorable, then end up landing on some strange, fucked-up island." ("The Tale of the Angry Adjunct")
" "I feel like ink,” I told her. “Really, man. I just feel like pure ink.” " ("Great Kills")
"You pretend to laugh, but even beneath your laughter, you feel as if you are irredeemably wrong, as if your body is a puzzle piece with one side that the universe has bitten off." ("Do Now")
"... when the state tried to move the hospital to the South Shore, the Island residents, fed up, went to the unfinished building one night and torched it. Which now, thinking about it (after ten years of living here), is such a Staten Island thing to do: “Not in my backyard!” As if they had forever owned the land which was never theirs to begin with."
("Who Would Break the Dark First")
"... until I figured out the trick to talking to god. You can’t ask for specific things—because in the end you don’t know what’s going to be good for you. It’s like an Aesop fable: somebody makes a wish to be rich, they win the lottery or find a buried treasure, and then end up getting murdered in their sleep by their father for their money." ("As Luck Would Have It")
*Any textual references made unfortunately will not include page numbers, since I read the the novel in digital format.
While there were definitely some stories I liked and that stood out more than others, I can't say that there was a single one included that felt like an utter waste of my time as a reader (which is truly saying a lot, considering past short story collections I've invested in). In fact, Jimenez's uncluttered and engaging writing style made even my least favorite stories in the collection feel tolerable. In general, I often found myself relating to and empathizing with aspects of the characters' day-to-day lives, particularly the ones pertaining to dilatory and depleting commutes on mass transit, as well as many of the characters' palpable love-hate relationship with the place that shaped them and that they call home ("The Grant Writer's Tale").
I appreciated that Jimenez's characters ran the gamut of the ethnic spectrum - the vast majority of the main characters are Latino, but white, black, and Asian supporting characters abound. Subtle mention is even made of Staten Island's lesser-known - Liberian, Sri Lankan, Algerian, Russian ("The Take of the Angry Adjunct," "What It Is," "Underneath the Water You Could Actually Hear Bells," "The Grant Writer's Tale") - immigrant populations. I admire Jimenez for not necessarily adhering to the aesthetic of what is often stereotyped as the "typical" Italian or Irish-descended Staten Islander. Many stories also touch on the themes of xenophobia and racism ("What It Is," "The Grant Writer's Tale," "Who Would Break the Dark First") that characterize the lives of many. For me, her approach lent an unexpectedly absorbing element to her stories as a whole.
I also liked that Jimenez incorporated Staten Island-centric events (both historically distant and not-so-distant) in a way that didn't feel heavy-handed: Pantaleo's acquittal in the Eric Garner case ("What It Is," "The Grant Writer's Tale"), the pre-Ellis Island Tompkinsville hospital ("Who Would Break the Dark First"), the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash ("As Luck Would Have It").
Staten Island mainstays like the notorious landfill ("Great Kills, "The Knight's Tale"), the ubiquitous housing projects ("What It Is," The Grant Writer's Tale"), the ferry, and the Goethals and Verrazano bridges also make multiple cameos throughout.
My favorite stories were "The Grant Writer's Tale" and "Who Would Break the Dark First" (the haunted theme and nostalgic references to Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Pinky and the Brain, Mario Kart, and TGIF made this one a shoe-in for me). Staten Island Stories is among the very short list of enjoyable reads I've endeavored this year.
Notable quotes and passages:
"In the terminal, I sat down next to a family of French tourists. They didn’t know that they were destined for Staten Island, not the Statue of Liberty, and I was too tired to tell them otherwise, because that is always the way it is in life: you hope you are headed somewhere important and memorable, then end up landing on some strange, fucked-up island." ("The Tale of the Angry Adjunct")
" "I feel like ink,” I told her. “Really, man. I just feel like pure ink.” " ("Great Kills")
"You pretend to laugh, but even beneath your laughter, you feel as if you are irredeemably wrong, as if your body is a puzzle piece with one side that the universe has bitten off." ("Do Now")
"... when the state tried to move the hospital to the South Shore, the Island residents, fed up, went to the unfinished building one night and torched it. Which now, thinking about it (after ten years of living here), is such a Staten Island thing to do: “Not in my backyard!” As if they had forever owned the land which was never theirs to begin with."
("Who Would Break the Dark First")
"... until I figured out the trick to talking to god. You can’t ask for specific things—because in the end you don’t know what’s going to be good for you. It’s like an Aesop fable: somebody makes a wish to be rich, they win the lottery or find a buried treasure, and then end up getting murdered in their sleep by their father for their money." ("As Luck Would Have It")
December 10, 2019
Read Claire Jimenez’s “Staten Island Stories” if you admire the craft of the short story and you are curious about Staten Island, the forgotten borough. Her stories recall the heady short stories of Toni Cade Bambara who set her short stories in Brooklyn, SI’s illustrious sibling. What the setting Staten Island and the characters have in common is a sense of inferiority. Nearly every story alludes to the borough’s beginning as a garbage landfill. One of the best and funniest stories is “Tale of the Angry Adjunct.” The action of the story is marked with the impoverished angry adjunct rushing to be somewhere else – Manhattan, a job interview, her classroom, the ferry, the bus. She is trying to get out, and that is Staten Island, a place to leave. Jimenez also hints at Toni Morrison’s Paradise because she never reveals the race of her characters and their names are ethically neutral. She refuses to allow the reader to simplify and stereotype. The issue is the place regardless of race.
June 3, 2022
A terrific voice. Humorous and, at times, quite moving stories. A powerful depiction of the forgotten borough's working class.
March 23, 2023
I very much looked forward to reading some stories about my hometown. Disappointing, however, were the regular smug voice that underlay every story and the fact that, other than their taking place geographically on Staten Island, there is very little in them specific to the island’s “culture.” A reader who is not from Staten Island may not find the stories to stand on their own. Some of the writing is weak and the content internally random without transitions. The stronger, sometimes moving, stories were unfortunately placed at the back of the book, taking the risk that a reader who reacts as I have might put the book down after a few stories. My wish for this young writer is that her style and content continue to develop in the coming years. Her heart is certainly in her writing.
November 1, 2022
I’m surprised by the high ratings for this book. It’s not that the stories aren’t valuable, but as someone who grew up in Staten Island there is little to no connection the place. I anticipated a unique perspective from these stories, though these could have been written anywhere. Perhaps I would have appreciated this more without the expectation of insight that gives voice to an overlooked and neglected borough.
February 8, 2020
Claire Jimenez's collection of short stories circle around the lives of Staten Islanders. Not only are they extremely engaging stories of contemporary urban life, but they also capture that special microcosm of Staten Island. Appropriately, the Staten Island ferry is on the book's cover, and it is a presence that hovers over many of the stories, exactly as it does in real-life when it's your commute. I worked on SI for seven years (full disclosure: I lead an arts organization that awarded Claire Jimenez a grant), and I love that crazy, complex community of folks. Claire's stories give a peek into some of the grittier realities, and I recognized SI in them. Even though these are stories of fiction, they are anchored in the real place that is Staten Island.
July 21, 2023
this is the first novel i've read that felt true to staten island culture, and it felt comforting to read a novel written by a staten islander as the settings were described in such a meaningful way. i liked how it covered a wide range of important topics/events from recent years and these stories definitely ring true/familiar with staten islanders that i know. i enjoyed the format of the short stories, just felt like they could have had more of a flow/connection to one another. it was also slightly confusing at times to understand what was going on in some of the stories. overall pretty enjoyable and it was nice to read something about my hometown and the people living in it whose voices are often not heard
July 12, 2024
I love short story books, but so often most of them don't get it right. THIS is how you write a book of short stories. The stories, the people, the dialogue were so very real and authentic. The last line in the book, "Sometimes, people are not as ugly as you think they are," really did me in. I read it as an ebook, but it it will be added to my 'buy after reading' list.
December 14, 2019
Witty, funny, moving, and profound stories. I felt seen in these stories and loved them. They’re all in first person and the voice of each one is so vivid and full of sharp energy. You feel like the narrators are speaking directly to you, sharing their insights, their struggles, their tales.
July 8, 2024
The stories in this book were all good, entertaining, some funny and sad shocking and relatable. My two favorite stories were “You are a strange limitation of a woman” and “As luck will have it”
I enjoy Claire Jimenez writing, I look forward for her future work.
I enjoy Claire Jimenez writing, I look forward for her future work.
August 29, 2021
Enjoyed the many Staten Island touches to the story in this modern series of related stories that share the same protagonist. It reads real and current. Or at least pre-pandemic current.
June 26, 2022
nice collection of stories which are funny, dark, but somehow optimistic at the end and bring depth to a place that can sometimes be the butt of jokes about angry italian cops who vote for trump and live on a landfill. also jimenez compelled me to finally visit staten island after spending most of my life in the tri-state area, so props to her for that.
March 11, 2023
Estos son muy buenos cuentos. Precisos, bien armados, graciosos. No te das cuenta cómo, y de repente ya te invadió esta sensación de "estar atrapada" (en el ferry, en las multitudes, en los empleos, en las relaciones). Chido. Gracias.
January 11, 2020
A fantastic collection of funny and dark short stories. Claire Jiminez adeptly captures many of the diverse voices and unique places in the "forgotten borough." James Joyce famously said that if Dublin one day suddenly disappeared from the Earth it could be reconstructed from his book "Ulysses" It is fun to think about future cultural excavators digging into this book to try and grok the strange and interesting place that is the Isle of Staten.
January 18, 2020
I loved the vivid descriptions of the passages in the different stories. How well the lives of the islanders, from Staten Island or New York, are represented letting my imagination see them and feel their emotions. Great read! Looking forward for more stories. I recommend this book to anyone looking for an enjoyable reading time.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews