People I Wanted to Be

I looked forward to reading this collection after enjoying her first collection, The Necessary Grace to Fall, and after reading in the New Yorker magazine Gina's brilliant story The Fractious South. I'm fascinated by the sparkling touches of magic realism, the deeply imagined Eastern European settings, and the way she weaves her own sense of fairytale through the stories. From ghosts who are alive as characters and narrators, to miniature people who interact with the artist who drew them, to birds and dogs with special powers, and even a machine devised to hurl away burdens including hearts, the creative surprises never cease to amaze. That said, the realism is painstakingly detailed and incredibly believable. Strange occupations are portrayed with all the nomenclature and duties so well described the reader is immediatly acclimatized inside these other worlds. While the settings are often exotic - Russia, Prague, they are handled lightly and never overdone, so that we feel as if we suddenly live there too. Every story is a beautiful work of art.

Gina Ochsner's writing is fresh and risky and tender and an utter joy.

I loved this book. Gina Ochsner has a wonderful voice. Her first book The Necessary Grace to Fall won the Flannery O'Connor Writing Competition with the University of Georgia Press. Beautifully written. I recommend those who love People I Wanted to Be also purchase The Necessary Grace to Fall.

I first discovered Gina Ochsner when I read a short story by her published in The New Yorker last summer. I was so impressed and moved by it that I bought her first book, which I loved. This new collection is even better. Ochsner has an incredibly rich and original voice, and the varied characters and settings of these stories make the book a true joy to read. Highly recommended.

This is a beautifully written collection of stories. Ochsner writes about loss, faith, redemption and love, and each story seems to explore a different aspect of human nature. Many but not all of the stories are set in Eastern Europe. There are a number of stories in which animals play a role, and there's even one about a bird who speaks what its owners don't want to hear. I was especially moved by "Articles of Faith" which is about a Russian couple longing to have a child, and "Halves of a Whole" about twin sisters who work in their family's Hungarian funeral home and who are polar opposites. I also really loved "A Darkness Held" in which a recovering alcoholic substitute teacher returns to her old catholic school to look after an unusual group of students. Each one of the stories in this book was special in its own way, and though sometimes when I read short story collections I get bored or stop reading after the first couple of stories, I was actually sad when I finished this book. Overall, I was really moved, and look forward to reading more by this author.