The Running Trees

by Amber McMillan

A striking original, deftly humorous collection of stories that considers the quest for truth: how we come to it or alternatively avoid it.
A fervently comic debut, The Running Trees leads readers into a series of conversations — through phonelines, acts in a play, and a rewound recording of a police interrogation — to reveal characters in fumbling bouts of brutality, reflection, isolation, and love.
The relationship between two siblings disintegrates after one asks the other for the pen; a professor and his former student get drinks years after a "romantic" encounter; a book club meets only to find that they have wildly different opinions about a new memoir about their town; and a long-haired feline contemplates existence and consciousness while his cohabitant licks his butthole.
Whimsical, unconventional, humorous, and always pitch-perfect, The Running Trees explores how we desperately try to communicate with each other amid the gaps in meaning we create

218 pages, Paperback

First published September 7, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Barbara Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a collection of short stories. But the book is mainly acts in a play.
Lots of conversations.
The writer, excellent with dialogue.
It’
S bare bones bare. Uncluttered writing.

You will understand the running trees once you read the story. It is one of my favorites.

Quote:
We haven’t talked in such a long time because the last time we did, we’d had a fight and the fight never got resolved. We’d let the hurtful things we’d said sit between us like tacky lawn ornaments

[Mike Thorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exploring the full potential of dialogue-as-narrative, or narrative-as-dialogue, this collection of stories is as formally adventurous as it is emotionally robust. The book moves deftly between a range of formats: some pieces resemble short plays, some alternate purely between interior and exterior monologue, some read like dialogue-focused short fiction.

McMillan inhabits her characters' subject interiorities with amazing conviction, simultaneously incorporating elegant undercurrents of critique and satire. She taps into the organic essence of human interaction while still applying strong narrative architecture and momentum: this is the kind of balancing act that could only be achieved by an extremely skilled writer.

Indeed, the book is masterfully written (the language is so deliberate and elegant), burning with incisive observations about structural and intimate power dynamics, traumatic reemergence, quiet distances and even some instances of simmering anger that finally, cathartically boil over. This is one of the best new releases you're likely to encounter in 2021. So damn good.

[Astrid]

I loved these stories and am about to reread a few of them. Each story is a conversation, most often between two people. One set of stories (not appearing consecutively, which is fantastic - the first, subtitled Act 1, ends and you have an inkling more is to come but you don't know when or what) involves an increasingly growing number of people discussing a book written about their town (eventually including the author of that book herself). I especially loved "The Arsonist," a conversation between a detective sergeant with the Ontario police and a man whose brother is connected to at least one missing person.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just wanted to give a little shout out to this author from Fredericton. I enjoyed the stories and am remembering some of them a couple of weeks after finishing the book. Author: Amber McMillan

[Meaghan Laaper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I have technically read it twice already and I’m sure I’ll continue coming back to it years from now. The stories in the book all feel like conversations I’ve had, overhead, or thought about. With a few lines of dialogue the author alludes to an entire history of a character we will only know for a few short pages. In short, it feels like the characters have lived long before each conversation takes place, and like they will continue living even after you’ve read the last line.

[Jessica Mallery · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5 ⭐️

[M.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable group of short stories/scripts, especially the three "Book Club" stories.

[Sandra Bunting · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite original collection of short stories. Themes of relationships and misunderstandings. McMillian uses sparse language and a lot of dialogue to immediately bring you into the story even if you are not sure at first who is talking. Some of the stories deal with toxic relationships (a married professor and his student, a bitter poet, a dangerous brother). I love that one story is in three parts distributed throughout the book. My favorite story was the dinner party for its absurdity and clear images and situations that move the story on in a compelling way. Enjoyable read of interesting stories which are somehow connected. Find out how!