Cool

In this collection of short stories, Mary Walters plumbs the depths of the human spirit and shines a light in each dim corner. Here you'll find a teenage girl who *seems* more bothered at the prospect of a hug from a family friend than by the death of her mother, a cat that comes to embody all the rage and conflicting emotions of her mistress, a much younger girl who unexpectedly seizes the upper hand from her tormentor, a too-perfect mother who's not above manipulating circumstances to ensure her children will learn every necessary life lesson, a frazzled, fearful mother who sees nonexistent threats along every mile of the highway, and a motley assortment of other characters who aren't quite what they seem at first blush. Very often, the characters themselves only come to understand their own true nature or circumstance at the exact moment it's revealed to the reader. This collection reminded me quite a lot of the work of Flannery O'Connor. It's not quite as dark and definitely not as violent, but maps similar territory in the human heart and soul.

You really must read Cool. And then read it again. And maybe one more time after that. The first time through, I let the characters carry me along through each story, one after the other. I recognized people I know. I recognized myself. Each story and situation evoked different emotions; each challenged my preconceptions in different ways; each revisited something old and revealed something new. At the end of each story, I thought either "Yes, that's the way it is" or "So that's the way it is." I don't feel any need to tell you how good the writing is. It's that good. I'm going to allow a week or so to go by, and then I'm going to re-read Cool. It's that kind of book. I will probably re-read it a third time as well. You'd better get started. You're already behind!

Mary Walters is a Canadian writer with her finger on the pulse of her fellow man. Like all great writers, she begins as an observer, and Walters observes with uncanny clarity. From her observations she is able to put into words experiences shared in the collective consciousness of humanity. I don't know how often I've seen interviews with some famous and talented comedien where the performer's work is described as "holding a mirror up to society" or something of the sort. Walter's writing is like that. "Cool" is a collection of short stories and these eighteen pieces cover a wide gamut of the human condition. My personal favorite is "The Perfect Parent", written more than a decade before Bree showed up on "Desperate Housewives", about Polly, a woman so determined to always do the right thing for her children that she doesn't know what to make of it when real life intervenes. Polly thinks that she has been nothing but the perfect parent until she reads in a supermarket magazine that she hasn't prepared her children to deal with loss. Polly's efforts to correct this and the responses of her family are priceless. In this collection we meet characters of flesh and blood complexity and Walters always has something to SAY that makes the reader feel a little more human and attached to the world we share. Only recommended for humans. Who read. In English.