You Are Not a Stranger Here

Haslett's collection immediately brings to mind Lydia Davis' Break It Down, how each tale is of the intricate relationship between two people and the often harrowing world in which these delicate bonds are made. Haslett, however, has an inimitable knack for building the most unlikely relationships and, by extension, the most unique stories. An aging, manic inventor tries to reconcile the severed relationship with his son; a high school boy admits to himself that he's "the only kid at his school who gets his romantic advice from a schizophrenic"; a brother and sister, living together, alone, await a visit from a man they both once loved twenty years before. Nothing is as it seems - even a man's hometown, draped with those typical childhood memories, is punctuated with grief: Emptier still, the train moves on, past the tennis courts and baseball fields where Daniel played as a child, past the supermarket here he bagged groceries after school and the police station where he and his mother used to file the missing person reports. But Haslett's stories are beautiful even in their harshest moments, as they bear with them an overwhelming emotional intensity. The normal lives of his characters are ultimately shattered by loss or the realization of its inevitability. So often the characters end up exhausted, faces in hands, at the end of a long journey of reconciliation - and in doing so, the stories also show great promise and hope in the human spirit.

Adam Haslett's "You Are Not A Stranger Here" is the best collection of short stories I have read in a very long time. These are wonderfully engaging stories, rich with a menagerie of misfit and off-beat (but next-door-neighbour type) characters, each moving through depressive and manic events and circumstances, narrated by an exquisitely-familiar voice. Most of the mini-masterpieces deal with suppressed homosexuality, mental illness taking various shapes and forms, love unrequited, and the curses of extra-sensory perceptions. If only this brilliant wordsmith Haslett had more than one book.

It is a rare thing to find fiction that deals with flawed and wounded people without driving into the ditch of sentimentality. It is rarer still to find prose that grabs the reader while we are learning about these people's lives. Haslett writes simple stories about complex people and offers no easy answers and no trite endings. They are just honest stories about regular people, many of whom are dealing with emotional disturbance or staggering loss. His skill is presenting these biographies without judgement and with an attention to detail that allows you to notice every flick of a cigarette and every lock of hair twisted between nervous fingers. You learn about these people in a way that is often uncomfortable. As I read these stories I was reminded how much we learn of strangers on long train rides or airport layovers. In a few hours and in a confined space many secrets are shared and sometimes a rare intimacy can occur. Haslett's stories capture rare intimacies and his language is lyrical without distracting from the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the human condition and especially to anyone who works with the mentally or physically ill. It is a revelation.

I always enjoy being able to discover a new author whose talent reminds me of why I got a job at a bookstore in the first place. Adam Haslett's debut collection has done that once again. Incredibly emotional and heartbreaking, the stories in this collection are still resonating within me. Everything about the settings and characters is just right. They do what they should do, but you don't expect it.The first story in the book, "Notes to my Biographer", stunned me. I read it again as soon as I finished the story. Then I went on.If you like this, try Dan Chaon's "Among the Missing" or Michael Chabon's "Werewolves in Their Youth."Highly Recommended!

Started and finished the book in one sitting and wanted moreThe complexity, depth of characters crafted and the situational anxiety they are placed in was emotionally draining. I felt my life was improved at the same time becoming more troubled.Amazing writing.