Heart Attack Watch

by Alyson Foster

Heart Attack Watch is built around disasters large and small--those we know enough to fear but for which we can never prepare. The blackout. The car crash. The diagnosis. In these moments of reckoning, Alyson Foster's characters grow achingly alive. There is Julia, the dreamy school-bus driver of "The Theory of Clouds" whose cohabitation with her partner, Danae, long unremarked-on in their factory town, becomes an issue when a group of environmental scientists arrive, galvanizing the community's hatred and suspicion. There is Nina, the scrappy, home-schooled girl in "The Place of the Holy," who helps her mother care for the battered women who arrive at their door--and for whom the arrival of a new male helper is the greatest threat. Jane, the recent college dropout in the titular story, ponders the reaches of outer space and the limits of her own brain from atop a lifeguard chair during the eerie, early-morning hours at the swimming pool, trying to ward off the moment she might need to act.Alyson Foster is a writer of fierce lucidity, and Heart Attack Watch shows her at the peak of her craft.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

Paperback

First published May 3, 2016

About the author

Alyson Foster was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. She studied Creative Writing at the University of Michigan and received her M.F.A. from George Mason University, where she was a Completion Fellow. Foster lives in the D.C. area with her husband and her son.

Reviews

[Michelle_Mck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review to come, the last story in this collection is magnificent, Blight is heartbreaking, wonderful and subtle and made me weep... It was a pleasure to read

[Naoise Nickolay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in this collection are beautifully written. There is extreme clarity in the language and each one left me with something to ponder on to the extent I could not go directly from one to the next.
I did receive a free copy but that has not influenced my opinion.
A great read and I will be passing my copy along.
Looking forward to reading God is an Astronaut!

[Sarah Nodarse Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this down. Such a beautiful rendering of anxiety and tragedy and the beauty pulled between it. No surprise a Michigan grad wrote this!

[Joseph Cope · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a hard one to review. The writing is very good, in that it is well constructed and describes situations and characters evocatively. But I felt like I was missing the point of the stories. I'd reach the end feeling like there should have been more. Not necessarily a dramatic twist, but more of a conclusion. These felt a bit like watching a part of a film rather than the whole thing.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of short stories all unified in their address of disaster, both emotional and natural. I enjoyed all of the stories, but none of them emotionally struck me, and they don't feel like ones that will remain with me as time goes on.

[Tiffany Guthrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heart Attack Watch is a collection of many stories. I enjoyed all of these stories, and I would have to say some of them hit close to home. It is a nice quick read.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 2 out of 5]

short stories are not my biggest love and this collection does nothing to make them so

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heart Attack Watch is a collection of moments. The one that got under my skin was Blackout- when there is a moment Leah is not where she should be, when it seems anything could have happened.. just a moment when a mother is looking for her child reminded me of all the uneasiness I felt as a mother. These stories aren't explosive but they do hum and the writing is lovely. Blight was quietly heartbreaking. Sight, like all our senses, is easily taken for granted. The terror of losing one's vision, and as a reader.. well.. "Halfway into a stanza, Katherine lost the line on the page. It disappeared as if into a sunspot, a blazing white corona with a dark preposition on either side. She blinked twice, and then a third time before it came back into focus." I have migraines, the first severe one I had in England, I lost my eyesight for an hour and you just don't think about it until it's gone. In Katherine's case, well... when she hears 'irreversible' and thinks the doctor's look says 'why NOT you' it hit me. "The problem had been solved, his intellect was no longer required." That is a coldness many patients feel when given hopeless news. Peter's feeling of 'there are times when you wish your anguish on someone worthier than you, someone to give the terrible scene it's due' took a little bite out of my heart because those who have been through their own storms have thought that, if even for a hopeless second.
This collection moves along on a silent belly and if you are still with them, it makes you think. I liken this book to slipping into a stranger's mind on any given day and tuning into their sad moments.

[lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have found that with most short story collections that I either love them, or hate them. This one I didn't have strong feelings about either way. The stories weren't bad, but there are much better short stories out there, such as Night at the Fiestas by Kirstin Valdez Quade, or In the Country by Mia Alvar.

[Patricia Geller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked some of the stories and found some of the others hard to get through. Pick and chose.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

blight (the last story) is my favorite one by far