Stories: The Collected Short Fiction
Perceptive and virtuosic ... The images across this collection are memorable ... These visceral, incandescent stories treat us to Garner’s companionable brilliance.
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Garner’s writing is salutary; if you’re heartsick or world-weary, you’ll feel better after a few pages of it ... So it was surprising to drop into Stories and find myself confronted with a different Garner: coarser, colder, and dismayingly hemmed in by the short form ... Closer to outlines or character sketches than to fully fledged pieces of short fiction ... Those written in the first person are typically far more successful than those written in the third ... The 'I' restores a thrilling specificity lost elsewhere in Stories. Our faith in her candor is renewed. Insight, wisdom, her sharp wit—all seem wrestled out of long experience, hard-won rather than engineered.
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Spare and often enigmatic ... Without doubt, Garner is a versatile, skilled writer, with a sure command of voice and a style that can’t be pigeonholed ... Chameleon-like ... Anyone who appreciates intelligent, well-crafted prose will find much to enjoy in this collection. Those who prefer more conventional storytelling will have to look elsewhere.
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