LOVE STORIES IN THIS TOWN

Author: Amanda Eyre Ward ISBN: 9780812980110 4/2009 FICTION Publisher: BALLANTINE

From San Francisco to Savannah, Montana to Texas, Amanda Eyre Ward’s characters are united in their fervent search to find a place where they truly belong. Annie, a librarian in a small mining town, must choose between the only home she’s ever known and the possibility of a new future. Casey, a suburban New Yorker with a wry sense of humor, braves the dating scene after losing her husband. And in six linked stories spanning a decade of her life, Lola Wilkerson navigates elopement, motherhood, and lingering questions about who she wants to be when she grows up. Whether exploring the fierceness of a mother’s love or the consolations of marriage, Amanda Eyre Ward’s stories are imbued with humor, clear-eyed insight, and emotional richness.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

First off, let me start out this review by saying that LOVE STORIES IN THIS TOWN wasn't at all what I expected it to be. Maybe if I had read the synopsis (I usually never do with review books, because I want them to "surprise me"), I would have known that this title is a bit misleading. LOVE STORIES isn't about romantic love stories, per se, such as romances between men and women, but about so many other kinds of love: of self, of life and of others without condition. Hope, despair, redemption—these emotions are all here, too, in this neatly packaged collection of brilliantly written short stories.

Should I Be Scared? is the first, but my least favorite story in this book. A 9/11 themed story, the woman here (neither her name or her husband's are ever given) is so paranoid and consumed with self-preservation, that she's a very hard character to like.

The saddest story I found to be The Way the Sky Changed, another 9/11 themed story of two people who both lost loved ones on that terrible day. A moving story in so few pages, this tale of two people trying to move on, yet unable to for so many reasons, is the story that struck me the deepest.

Some of the stories have more than one narrative, while others, such as the Lola stories, blend together events of the main character through various stages of her life. All the stories are good, but the Lola stories, six stories which make up the last half of this book, are definitely my favorites. It was just like reading chapters in a really good book, the previous one keeping you moving forward because you just have to know what's going to happen next.

In Lola's case, there's a lot of living to consider. She's left at the alter in Miss Montana's Wedding Day; early flashes into her parents' relationship is told by her mother to her hairdresser in Nan and Claude; and She Almost Wrote Love observes Lola, now married, traversing her rocky relationship with her father. Changing location, Motherhood and Terrorism takes Lola and her husband to Saudi Arabia, where he's happy doing what he likes, but she's dealing with various insecurities and unhappy in a place that's foreign to her. By the time The Blue Flame begins, Lola's had her first baby—and her mother-in-law comes for a visit. Lola's not coping well, and the relationship between Sissy, Lola's mother-in-law, and her husband Preston is explored, while at the same time a bond begins to form between Sissy and Lola. Finally ending this mini-saga, Grandpa Fred's in Love finds just that: Grandpa Fred in love for the umpteenth time. However, for the first time in her life, Lola learns to say no, to put her family and husband before the roller-coaster relationship and manipulative demands of her father.

Amanda Eyre Ward is an author whose sharp wit and masterful storytelling are combined to create an impressive collection of short stories, making LOVE STORIES IN THIS TOWN a powerful and very worthwhile read.

Nancy Davis