Going Away Shoes

Thoroughly enjoyed these short fiction tales, told by a series of female protagonists. Snarky, heartfelt, and intriguing, each story read had me hooked, which is extremely rare for a short story collection. Listen not to the naysayers, not every woman's life is a bed of roses, and these stories, though often heartbreaking, show hope within the wrinkles. Highly recommended.

Prior to reading Going Away Shoes, I was not a major fan of the short story, but now, after reading this collection, I am tempted to go out and search for more. The stories in this collection are exceptionally well crafted and are able to deliver a Dickens length novel's worth of character development and emotion in a surprisingly short number of pages. The characters and topics in each story are so different that each story seems to deliver the impact of an entire novel. Wow. Most of the stories in the collection tickled my funny bone and touched me..... great combination.

Even if your preferences lean toward novels rather than the short story form, you should still give Jill McCorkle a try. The author of several novels, she has also produced a number of excellent short story collections; her latest, GOING AWAY SHOES, is wonderful. All of the eleven stories in this volume center around a similar theme--women leading lives of varying degrees of quiet desperation, or as one character puts it, "the comfort of discomfort." They examine their less than satisfactory relationships and regrets for what might have been. And then they go on the best they can. Yet the stories here are more than a series of vignettes of depressed, frustrated women. How each of these women cope with their lives makes for a touching, heartwrenching, yet often funny mix of emotions. Each story is as memorable as the last; from the regretful "Another Dimension," to the frightening "Magic Words" to the lovely, heartbreaking "Intervention," to the bitterly funny "P.S.", each examines a similar theme, yet each is special in its own way. My favorite is "Happy Accidents," in which the heroine manages to gain spiritual guidance from noted philosopher Bob Ross, the star of the old PBS series, THE JOY OF PAINTING. How she manages to hold onto her bearings through paint-by-number kits and a TV painting show is by turns funny, sweet and profound. The book is expertly summed up in its last story, "Me and Big Foot," in which the protagonist experiences a "perfect" relationship--does it exist, or is it as illusory as the legendary creature known as "Big Foot"? By the time you reach this final story, you may realize the answer. And you may look back on these stories as you might remember a month's worth of enjoyable novels.

Each story is one that every woman can relate to. I loved every one!