The Kind of Things Saints Do: Volume 1

The Kind of Things Saints Do is a guided tour through the bars and streets of South Florida, where heartbreak and melancholy meet heady tropical breezes and dazzling sunshine. The characters in this collection are conduits for the many sides of South Florida--cruel, indifferent, chaotic, self-absorbed, unknowable, spicy, seductive, passionate and wonderful. The relationships depicted here contain all of these characteristics, making these stories unfailingly faithful to their setting. Reading these stories, I felt as if I were really hearing the din of conversations in a Miami cafeteria, or studying the "melancholy features of mismanaged buildings on Hollywood Beach" or strolling the cafes and art galleries of Lincoln Road . . . Buy this book, it's cheaper than a plane ticket. Besides, you'll get to see the real South Florida, a thrilling peek way, way below the surface.

"This book of short stories was an emotional tour through different dysfunctional relationships: a teenage girl coming to terms with her father's abusiveness and her own complicated sexual desires; a young woman caught in a triangle between a former love, a new one, and a safe one; an angry man confronting his father about having left him and his mother... In each and every one, the main character acknowledges some kind of deeper need that is at the root of their destructive behavior, but in the end there is always a tone of hope and redemption, a way of "seeing" that leaves the reader feeling like the characters' secular experiences have a spiritual resonance. Growth comes wiht pain, but it's Valeri's ability to dance subtly between hurt and hope that make these stories special and profound. The characters feel real and the situations both familiar and new. You will come at the end of the book feeling like you know these people, have known them all your life, and you may find yourself thinking about them long after you put the book down."

Valeri writes in lush yet precise sentences that vibrate with emotional honesty. Her willingness to explore even the darkest corners of the human psyche is matched by her near-prescient ability to understand--and accept--human behavior.

At its best The Kind of Things Saints Do got under my skin and wrapped itself around my soul holding me captive from sentence to sentence. At its worst i was simply engaged. This collection of short stories is worth the five or six hour investment of time it takes to finish the read. Throughout the book there is a wide range of psychologically charged characters. Valeri does a fine job depicting complex characters whether a young girl or an old man. The Miami setting in many of the stories also helps push the tales along for Miami is always a complicated and interesting set.