Talking in the Dark: Stories

The short stories in Laura Glen Louis' "Talking in the Dark" are about things. Things we dare not talk about. Things we should talk about but we tell ourselves that we don't have the strength to confront our own words. A couple loses their only child to SIDS after years of trying to conceive. A divorced mother sleeps with her teenage daughter's boyfriend. A woman meets with her ex-husband, on the sly, to hear him complain about his new, young wife, and to enjoy intimacy. A young woman is stalked by a silent, obsessed man from the old country. Despite such topics, Louis uses well-crafted, poetic and subtle language to tell her stories. She infuses Chinese cultural elements gently but without hesitation. This is a truly beautiful collection of fiction that I recommend to all who care about language and our daily struggle to make sense out of things that happen to us.

I am not usually a fan of short stories. I am disappointed to just glimpse the lives of the characters, and explore some tiny, ellusive plot point. But these stories are dead on, honest and whole, told with such gentle, persistent care that they continue to amaze, even on second reading. We know these people without a wasted word, and we know their lives beyond the story's edge. All of this and the graceful language -- yes, Amy Tan and Stephen King, the language! Every one of these stories is a gem. If all short stories were as fully satisfying as these, I'd give up novels. I look forward to the next collection -- it can't come soon enough!