Morse Code for Romantics

by Anne Baldo

Wretched, reckless and haunted by the past, the men and women in Anne Baldo's Morse Code for Romantics try to restart their sputtering hearts, seeking to turn their pain into pearls through connection, understanding and hope.

208 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

Reviews

[Megan Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walking home alone in the dark on a residential street in Southern Ontario, the illuminated windows of the kitchens and living rooms give glimpses into worlds that are not my own, but could be. I can’t help but glance at each one as I walk past, and though I can only see one solitary scene in the lives of these people, for a split second I’m connected to them. Not because our homes look anything alike, not because I recognize the people inside, but because we are human and we are alive now, together. Reading Morse Code For Romantics is just that, a street of vignettes illuminated just enough to remind the reader that there is meaning in the mundane and behind every interaction there is a web of complicated emotion and history that has led to this moment. And just as that web reveals itself to the reader, just as they begin to appreciate the intricacies of the lives they are peering into, the story ends, and the reader walks on to the next house, the next window, the next story.

This collection is empathetic in a way that I find so many literary stories fall short. In “Last Summer,” Lucy, a kindergarten teacher in her thirties, romanticizes her college days—“Opaline eyelids. Rhinestone earrings. Nail polish with sparkly chips.” Baldo weaves a tight, beautifully written story that speaks to every person who has ever asked themselves, “Is this my life now?” Several of my favourite lines from the collection are in this story. Among them: “it is sheer necessity that drives the promiscuity of humming birds.” Ugh, the shiny, flitting imagery is just too good in this one.

The exploration of class in Morse Code For Romantics is complicated and rich (no pun intended). “Marrying Dewitt West” is one of my favourite examples of this. Dewitt West is pretentious yet naive, a stark difference between the humble and covertly wise Nora, a resident of the tiny Canadian town that Dewitt, the American amateur naturalist, is visiting in his search for lake monsters. Dewitt diminishes everything that Nora does and wears because of her class and lack of education. This story was such a satisfying read, and one that I’ll be coming back to again and again.

When I recommend this book, and I recommend it to everyone, I suggest reading one story per night, letting the bitter-sweetness melt on your tongue and haunt your taste buds like a square of dark chocolate before bed. That is how the stories in Morse Code For Romantics should be savoured, slowly with time to mourn each carefully crafted character after you close the pages and close your eyes.

[Calypso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not finished this book yet, but I consider it a complete diamond in the rough; having found this book at a pop-up sale on my University Campus, I am so taken aback by the quality and complexity in this book. The most important thing for me personally, especially in short stories, is that the characters background and complexities are shown not told, and Anne Baldo does this with aggressive and direct metaphors carefully woven into the relevance of the plot. To quote a line from the text: "The interviewer asked Franco to name his favorite spice. Franco had demurred; he could never choose... ...Say black salt, Cedar thinks. Say cardamom. Say anything at all." Independently, this statement is anecdotal of the scene, but combined with the tensions and conflicts of the chapter forms a beautiful realization of how the people around Franco think his greatest flaw is being so uptight its draining, and how Franco doesn't consider striving for perfection to be a flaw at all. Maybe we realize this at the same time as these characters?

Overall, I was so pleasantly surprised to find a book i expected to be an artsy compilation of romance stories with a cool narrative theming (morse code) to be a genuine masterpiece of different, immensely complex and diverse expressions of love. I will be happy to update this review when I am done, as I have been annotating this book aggressively to give to my boyfriend when I am finished. <3

[Vanessa Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woot! Go Anne! Congratulations on your first (of many!) books! Reading Anne is like reading a quilt - layered, unique, heavy, yet comforting. What I enjoy most about Anne's writing is its delicate yet poignant paying attention. Anne knows how to pay attention to detail and transfer it, with all its myriad meanings and layers, into characters who are believable, vulnerable, sometimes sad, but real. She knows the era she writes in from the clothing to the music to the make-up and the moral/cultural landscapes therein. There's a subtlety to Anne's work...a whisper of wisdom that, like a quilt, when stitched together, gives warmth and comfort, even if it's weighty. Well done, Anne! I look forward to more!

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Morse Code For Romantics’ is a short fiction collection of stories that, although brief, consists of very telling narratives. The plots consist of characters that carry through the storyline with complex emotions, thoughts, and descriptive scenes. I particularly enjoyed how the author managed to navigate the dark and mysterious parts of the story. The cover design brings out intrigue and wanting, which is perfect for this mystery fiction.

If you are into reading short stories and are not so much of an avid reader, you will enjoy this book as you can find delight in several stories and still have them in short terms.

I recommend this book to those who like collection stories.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters in Anne Baldo’s captivating debut story collection, Morse Code for Romantics, are searching for connection, hoping for love, or even just a little human warmth, amidst the lonely tedium of aimless days and anxious nights. Many of Baldo’s characters are young and aware of a world of promise and opportunity that awaits them, but are unsure how to reach that world and attain that promise, or else they’re indifferent to its existence. Baldo sets her stories in a distinctly unpromising landscape: a desolate and backward version of small-town southern Ontario, a place scarred by neglect where rust and rot spread unhindered, where gardens are left to become tangled and chaotic. “We lived on a dead-end street,” Ophelia observes in “The Way to the Stars,” a statement that succinctly sums up the lives of many of the people we meet in these stories. Ophelia loves Tamás, but Tamás loves Molly. He has time for Ophelia too, but only after a bust-up with Molly, who, he knows, will always come back to him. “I existed for him in the voids between,” Ophelia reflects despairingly, “and what exists in voids is nothing.” The title story takes place at a wedding. Trevor and Livvy are tying the knot and Jordan, who narrates, slowly reveals why the mood is anything but celebratory: this is not a happy event but instead a forced union between two very young people who made a life-altering mistake. Baldo’s stories generate a strong sense of time passing, of opportunity slipping away, and are often steeped in melancholy. Lucy, in “Last Summer,” spends her break from university with friends Sadie and Rhea and boyfriend Arthur, binge drinking, drifting from party to party, from one encounter to the next, obsessed with cheap jewelry, lip gloss, nail polish and Everett, with whom she’s infatuated. Lucy's is a life of inconsequential distraction, but Anne Baldo’s prose digs beneath the veneer to reveal unexpected complexity in her characters’ yearnings and regrets. Baldo’s families are invariably broken, often beyond repair. Young Colt, in “Fish Dust,” is terrified of—and fascinated by—his estranged father and rough half-brothers. Jumping at a chance to go fishing with them, the experience teaches him what his mother already knows, that his father is a man who leaves only destruction and sorrow in his wake. And in “Wishers,” Demetria is searching for her lost daughter. Cora, a university student, has fallen under the sway of an older man, Hayes, a black-sheep son of privilege, and an addict. When she finally tracks the pair down at a fleabag motel, she is unable to persuade Cora to leave Hayes and so finds a way to make generosity her revenge. Throughout Morse Code for Romantics, Baldo’s prose shines. Her writing effectively evokes a world that is familiar and strange at the same time, pulling the reader into lives scarred by loss and loneliness. These are poignant, wise, memorable stories by a writer whose vision may be bleak, but it’s a vision that rings true on every page.

[Dorothy Mahoney · Rating 5 out of 5]

After hearing Anne Baldo read at Biblioasis Bookstore in Windsor, purchasing the book was a must. She pushes her characters into deep water and lets us watch them turn into mermaids. Witty details
and local references liven the prose.

[Jade Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually one of my favourite short story collections ever. A must-read for fans of Southern Ontario Gothic literature.

[Lori Twining · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful writing!