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I Have the Answer
If you thought the suburbs were boring, think again. Kelly Fordon's I Have the Answer artfully mixes the fabulist with the workaday and illuminates relationships and characters with crisp, elegant prose and dark wit. The stories in Fordon's latest collection are disquieting, humorous, and thought-provoking. They might catch you off guard, but are always infused with deep humanity and tenderness.
In these thirteen short stories, Fordon presents people dealing with the grayness of reality and longing for transcendence. Characters within these stories are often as surprised by their own behavior as that of their neighbor's. In "Jungle Life," the narrator attempts to clarify and document the stories of his father, a war veteran, before he descends into dementia. In "Where's the Baby?" a woman reflects on her difficult childhood as she grudgingly cares for her more successful, yet exasperating sister. In "In the Dog House," a woman visits an estate sale and sifts through the layers of lifetimes past while grappling with her long-standing jealousy of a mysterious neighbor. In "The Shorebirds and The Shaman," a woman who has just lost her husband winds up at a kooky weekend retreat role-playing her way out of debilitating grief.
Award-winning author Desiree Cooper has called the stories in I Have the Answer "pitch perfect . . . Fordon takes us to the precipice where trauma and triumph are equal possibilities. The people in these stories are so hauntingly real that long after I put the book down, I found myself wondering what had become of them." Readers of contemporary fiction and short stories will enjoy mulling over the complicated feelings this collection evokes.
In these thirteen short stories, Fordon presents people dealing with the grayness of reality and longing for transcendence. Characters within these stories are often as surprised by their own behavior as that of their neighbor's. In "Jungle Life," the narrator attempts to clarify and document the stories of his father, a war veteran, before he descends into dementia. In "Where's the Baby?" a woman reflects on her difficult childhood as she grudgingly cares for her more successful, yet exasperating sister. In "In the Dog House," a woman visits an estate sale and sifts through the layers of lifetimes past while grappling with her long-standing jealousy of a mysterious neighbor. In "The Shorebirds and The Shaman," a woman who has just lost her husband winds up at a kooky weekend retreat role-playing her way out of debilitating grief.
Award-winning author Desiree Cooper has called the stories in I Have the Answer "pitch perfect . . . Fordon takes us to the precipice where trauma and triumph are equal possibilities. The people in these stories are so hauntingly real that long after I put the book down, I found myself wondering what had become of them." Readers of contemporary fiction and short stories will enjoy mulling over the complicated feelings this collection evokes.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
188 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2020
6 people are currently reading
1396 people want to read
About the author
Kelly Fordon
9 books86 followersKelly Fordon’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review Online, Rattle, The Florida Review, The Windsor Review, The Montreal Review and various other journals. Her novel-in-stories, Garden for the Blind, was published by Wayne State University Press in 2015 and was chosen as a Michigan Notable Book, an IPPY finalist for the short story, a Foreword Reviews' Indiefab finalist, a Midwest Book Award finalist and an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist. A poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House, was published by Kattywompus Press in 2019 and another short story collection, I Have the Answer, was published by Wayne State University Press in 2020. She is also the author of three award-winning poetry chapbooks. She teaches online and for Springfed Arts in Detroit. She is the podcast host of Let's Deconstruct a Story. www.kellyfordon.com
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 27, 2020
Not one of the thirteen stories in this collection disappoints. Fordon's characters are by turns cynical, vulnerable, relatable, maddening and sympathetic. Most of all they are believable. But Fordon's real talent is holding up a mirror and making us acknowledge ourselves, our petty jealousy, our deadly anger, our earnest sympathy and our unfailing loyalty. The writing is elegant and the plots brilliantly executed. A must read for those who like short stories, stories about women, stories set in Michigan, or largely realist fiction.
April 9, 2020
Kelly Fordon's wonderful new book. Too bad it has to come out at this time when the bookshops are closed! Here's the text of a radio review I did of it for Michigan Radio's "Stateside." Audio link below
I Have the Answer
by Kelly Fordon
Wayne State University Press, 2020
Several Michigan authors had the bad luck of publishing new books in the days or weeks just before the lockdown we find ourselves in right now. Bookstores are closed. Libraries are closed. All public events have been cancelled. The media is understandably preoccupied with events that might change history. New books have been forgotten for a while, which is a loss for their authors and for their readers too. Some of those books might be among the most enjoyable published this year.
For instance, take Kelly Fordon’s new collection of short stories called I Have the Answer. Most of us, particularly at this moment in time, are going to look at that title and smile at the irony of it. “Yeah, sure! Who has the answers for anything right now!” Fordon takes it that way too. Most of the protagonists in these stories are women, and women of a certain class--those college educated suburban women we hear so much about these days; the people who have come to decide elections.
For the most part the women in these stories, which usually take place in southeastern Michigan, are struggling with careers or have given them up because of the grueling demands of wife-ing and mothering. It isn’t easy, and it isn’t rewarding. Their husbands play golf and ignore their responsibilities. The women don’t have time to make the friends they would like to make. They see the women around them struggle with illness, depression and abandonment. Their children either ignore them or despise them. Life is not the easy suburban bliss they are too smart to expect but still secretly hoped for.
And what’s most amazing about Fordon’s accomplishment is that she reinvigorates this story. On the edges of despair it is even sometimes funny. For instance, the last story in I Have the Answer – wonderfully entitled “Why did I Ever Think this was a good Idea?” – begins like this:
Bridget Flanagan stood in the middle of what used to be her studio. A discordant sound (could it really be called music?) was coming from her son William’s room directly above her head. She could ask him to turn it down, but that would require interacting with him, possibly screaming at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t bear the thought, so she remained amid the thumping and screaming surrounded by shopping bags.
That choice is kind of sad, of course, but most of us who have had children can understand it. But I don’t think I’m perverse in seeing just a little bit of humor in the knowledge that the parent is almost helpless.
Don’t get me wrong. There is more to these sharply observed stories that are told in Fordon’s crystal clear prose. Amid all their struggles these very real characters find their moments of love and the possibilities of their hopes fulfilled, even if that dream is very faint, off on a distant horizon. These are stories of our time – or what was our time before the pandemic and what we hope might be our time again – and of our place and of the people we recognize living there.
Audio on the show for April 9, minute 27:30
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/st...
I Have the Answer
by Kelly Fordon
Wayne State University Press, 2020
Several Michigan authors had the bad luck of publishing new books in the days or weeks just before the lockdown we find ourselves in right now. Bookstores are closed. Libraries are closed. All public events have been cancelled. The media is understandably preoccupied with events that might change history. New books have been forgotten for a while, which is a loss for their authors and for their readers too. Some of those books might be among the most enjoyable published this year.
For instance, take Kelly Fordon’s new collection of short stories called I Have the Answer. Most of us, particularly at this moment in time, are going to look at that title and smile at the irony of it. “Yeah, sure! Who has the answers for anything right now!” Fordon takes it that way too. Most of the protagonists in these stories are women, and women of a certain class--those college educated suburban women we hear so much about these days; the people who have come to decide elections.
For the most part the women in these stories, which usually take place in southeastern Michigan, are struggling with careers or have given them up because of the grueling demands of wife-ing and mothering. It isn’t easy, and it isn’t rewarding. Their husbands play golf and ignore their responsibilities. The women don’t have time to make the friends they would like to make. They see the women around them struggle with illness, depression and abandonment. Their children either ignore them or despise them. Life is not the easy suburban bliss they are too smart to expect but still secretly hoped for.
And what’s most amazing about Fordon’s accomplishment is that she reinvigorates this story. On the edges of despair it is even sometimes funny. For instance, the last story in I Have the Answer – wonderfully entitled “Why did I Ever Think this was a good Idea?” – begins like this:
Bridget Flanagan stood in the middle of what used to be her studio. A discordant sound (could it really be called music?) was coming from her son William’s room directly above her head. She could ask him to turn it down, but that would require interacting with him, possibly screaming at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t bear the thought, so she remained amid the thumping and screaming surrounded by shopping bags.
That choice is kind of sad, of course, but most of us who have had children can understand it. But I don’t think I’m perverse in seeing just a little bit of humor in the knowledge that the parent is almost helpless.
Don’t get me wrong. There is more to these sharply observed stories that are told in Fordon’s crystal clear prose. Amid all their struggles these very real characters find their moments of love and the possibilities of their hopes fulfilled, even if that dream is very faint, off on a distant horizon. These are stories of our time – or what was our time before the pandemic and what we hope might be our time again – and of our place and of the people we recognize living there.
Audio on the show for April 9, minute 27:30
https://www.michiganradio.org/post/st...
August 20, 2020
Kelly Fordon’s I Have the Answer brings the reader into darkly funny, awkward, and painful moments between family members, friends, neighbors, and strangers. Fordon travels beneath the surface of suburban normalcy. The worlds of her characters feel familiar, yet the specifics of each story are strange enough to reveal truths and feelings we may recognize but rarely acknowledge. I’m in a writers’ group with Fordon, so I had the privilege of seeing some of these stories in earlier forms. The finished collection engaged me from beginning to end. Like most good writing, these stories don’t leave the reader with all the answers, but with the sense of something experienced, questioned, and explored.
January 19, 2021
This collection is by turns funny, haunting, and entertaining. The first story is hilarious! I think I will smile for the rest of my life when I hear the word “shorebirds.” The second story surprised me, in a good way. It’s so sad, and I love the longing in it of the son who wished he’d asked his dad more about everyday things. I wondered if the author could stay on a roll, and she did—I continued to be delighted, and at times astonished, by each the rest of the stories. Every one of them is a standout, engaging and beautifully written.
July 5, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed all of the short stories! It was easy to connect to the characters. I often was wishing the story would continue - and would come up with my own idea of how it would go. Thanks Kelly for providing a good escape!!
March 26, 2020
I've been having a hard time concentrating on reading, a shocker for me as there's nothing I love more than curling up with a good book.
That's why it was a pleasure to pick up Fordon's story collection, a little jewel box of tales. A widow's unwilling participation in a cultish group therapy weekend, a mystified mother's farewell to a recalcitrant son heading off to the Great Wall of China, a man who wakes up with a third arm, an abandoned wife's bizarre and weirdly satisfying tea party with a schizophrenic neighbor: ordinary people on the surface leading ordinary, suburban lives, but underneath is so much pain and laughter and magic.
Full disclosure: I've taken a workshop from Fordon, which is why I was eager to read this collection. She's a great teacher and a great writer. Highly recommended. Hint: don't sit down and read it all at once. Pick out a jewel at a time and examine all its facets.
That's why it was a pleasure to pick up Fordon's story collection, a little jewel box of tales. A widow's unwilling participation in a cultish group therapy weekend, a mystified mother's farewell to a recalcitrant son heading off to the Great Wall of China, a man who wakes up with a third arm, an abandoned wife's bizarre and weirdly satisfying tea party with a schizophrenic neighbor: ordinary people on the surface leading ordinary, suburban lives, but underneath is so much pain and laughter and magic.
Full disclosure: I've taken a workshop from Fordon, which is why I was eager to read this collection. She's a great teacher and a great writer. Highly recommended. Hint: don't sit down and read it all at once. Pick out a jewel at a time and examine all its facets.
May 11, 2020
Fordon is a master storyteller, a virtuoso of the form, and this collection brims with humor and compassion, with deep insight into the secret, authentic lives under the surface of the ordinary people in seemingly quiet suburbia. She has a wide range of points of view and moods in her stories, and I love them all. Here are some of my favorites:
“The Visit,” in which an eleven-year-old narrator in 1976 says, “Smiling with teeth was non-negotiable to my mother. I had been taught to offer up my smile like a slice of cake to everyone I met.”
“How It Passed,” a story told from the communal point of view of a neighborhood of moms. It chronicles, year by year for sixteen years, a gossipy group that only realizes how little they know each other once they attend the funeral of one of the husbands. In year one the wives, who are in a playgroup with their small children, decide to start a dinner group for couples. “We want to see these husbands in the flesh, these men about whom we know every intimate detail.” Or do they? Do they actually know anything at all?
“Tell Them I’m Happy Now,” about a too-good-to-be-true neighbor who turns out turns out to be much more troubled than she seemed on the surface.
“Afterward,” my favorite, a kind of braided story, one strand the death by overdose of a mother’s eighteen-year-old son, one strand about the waves, inspired by the Virginia Wolff book by the same name. The story is haunting and spare and visceral, the style mimicking the rawness of emotion. Afterward is the perfect title, suggesting this woman’s journey toward the life that needs to continue after this senseless death.
“The Devil’s Proof,” a story that starts by referencing the movie The Exorcist and ends with something much more real but no less sinister.
The stories will linger with you long after you’ve finished them. An impressive collection I would recommend to everyone!
“The Visit,” in which an eleven-year-old narrator in 1976 says, “Smiling with teeth was non-negotiable to my mother. I had been taught to offer up my smile like a slice of cake to everyone I met.”
“How It Passed,” a story told from the communal point of view of a neighborhood of moms. It chronicles, year by year for sixteen years, a gossipy group that only realizes how little they know each other once they attend the funeral of one of the husbands. In year one the wives, who are in a playgroup with their small children, decide to start a dinner group for couples. “We want to see these husbands in the flesh, these men about whom we know every intimate detail.” Or do they? Do they actually know anything at all?
“Tell Them I’m Happy Now,” about a too-good-to-be-true neighbor who turns out turns out to be much more troubled than she seemed on the surface.
“Afterward,” my favorite, a kind of braided story, one strand the death by overdose of a mother’s eighteen-year-old son, one strand about the waves, inspired by the Virginia Wolff book by the same name. The story is haunting and spare and visceral, the style mimicking the rawness of emotion. Afterward is the perfect title, suggesting this woman’s journey toward the life that needs to continue after this senseless death.
“The Devil’s Proof,” a story that starts by referencing the movie The Exorcist and ends with something much more real but no less sinister.
The stories will linger with you long after you’ve finished them. An impressive collection I would recommend to everyone!
May 20, 2020
Stories highlighting the complexity of modern middle class life written without guile. A glimpse of routine moments of living from which form the backbone of a mother on her hero’s journey to be both a mother and an individual. Deftly written and relatable.
May 24, 2020
I love this collection. I thought the first story--"The Shorebirds and the Shaman"--was my favorite, but a few near the end--especially "When Did I Ever Think This Was a Good Idea?" really knocked me out. These are lovely, well-observed, and often heart-breaking stories.
March 27, 2020
Perceptive, quirky stories. Especially enjoyed the stories about mothers and children and neighbors and the swift passage of time. Lots to treasure here.
March 22, 2020
Kelly Fordon's exquisite collection of stories made me laugh out loud, and gasp in turn. With her graceful, lyrical prose, Fordon fearlessly tackles complex subjects ranging from teenage rape through addiction and dementia. She masterfully creates characters that evince compassion and respect - and that pierce our hearts with their vulnerability. Each story left me wondering what would happen to these people I'd come to care about. Fordon is at her most intelligent and incisive when engaging the complex truths of a middle class America frantically fleeing its own fragility.
July 13, 2021
Every Story Made Me Want to Know More
I loved every single story. Each one ended sometimes in a profound way and sometimes in a way that made you want to know more.
I loved every single story. Each one ended sometimes in a profound way and sometimes in a way that made you want to know more.
June 2, 2020
There's this acid test I apply to stories I read; do I find myself thinking about the characters and their journey, the next day? The next week?
Several of the stories in Kelly Fordon's collection have stuck with me. Most notably the story where a high school girl conflates her memories of the movie The Exorcist with a real life run-in with a college age sexual predator. That will haunt me for some time.
Several of the stories in Kelly Fordon's collection have stuck with me. Most notably the story where a high school girl conflates her memories of the movie The Exorcist with a real life run-in with a college age sexual predator. That will haunt me for some time.
April 22, 2020
Excellent short story collection from a Detroit author. Plenty of surprises and a heaping dose of truth.
November 2, 2023
I really, really enjoyed this book of short stories. Many of them were centered around high stakes or tense situations with very distinct characters. This author did a great job at depicting the mood the characters were in. While there were certainly some common themes like family, grief and mental illness, I felt like the author showed range in stories from depicting a woman forced to try out a new age therapy technique after losing her husband, to a boy with an invisible third arm, to a woman being visited by her neighbor’s daughter in the middle of a hallucinogenic episode. Some of these topics may not sound appealing when I describe them but I swear the author presents them in a really interesting way they certainly held my attention.
August 3, 2021
People who follow me here know I absolutely love short stories and it is a delight to find a new short story author as it has been awhile; and a local one to boot! Fordon has a talent for writing a first sentence that just pulls you into her stories, wanting more, more, more. My favorites in this, her latest collection, were "The Shorebirds and the Shaman," "The Visit, Summer 1976," and "Tell Them I'm Happy Now." Needless to say, I've already got my hands on her first collection, Garden for the Blind. I'll report back soon. If you love short stories and/or you live in metro Detroit, read this!
October 26, 2023
Thirteen dense and freighted stories that offer answers without resounding conclusions. These stories are frequently squeezed between the guardrails of suburban life, the confines of domesticity where families expand and contract in surprising twists of fate. All through, Fordon's prose evokes precise emotional borders, characters seeth and relent and mock and deflate in ways intimately familiar but rarely rendered with such keenness. A stunning collection.
July 18, 2022
Nice variety of stories
I enjoyed the references to Michigan locales. The stories featured well-developed characters and interesting situations. If you like short stories, get this book.
I enjoyed the references to Michigan locales. The stories featured well-developed characters and interesting situations. If you like short stories, get this book.
May 15, 2021
Some of short stories in this collection are based in Michigan. Published by Wayne State Press, it’s easy to put down & pick up without losing track of the story-a good travel read!
April 12, 2022
A terrific selection of short stories: vivid, captivating, intelligent and unforgettable.
October 29, 2022
A friend gave me this book because she went to college with the author. I really enjoyed these stories! Well structured, good descriptions, and such interesting situations and characters.
October 16, 2021
I love the suburban Gothic, bordering on magical realism feel of so many of these stories. They're definitely more realistic than anything else, but it feels like if you could see the vignettes from another angle there might be something fantastical woven in and around the people and events of each story.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews