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Signs and Wonders

by Alix Ohlin (Goodreads Author)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 219 ratings · 41 reviews

These sixteen stories by the much-celebrated Alix Ohlin illuminate the connections between all of us—connections we choose to break, those broken for us, and those we find and make in spite of ourselves.

ebook, 224 pages

Published June 5th 2012 by Vintage

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Oct 29, 2012 Stephanie Flood rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Signs and Wonders by Alice Ohlin portrays succinct, crisp fiction writing that peers into conflicting, dysfunctional relationships occassionally seen in contemporary literature, puppeteering basic, flawed archetypes in current settings, that a wide audience can relate to. The stories navigate through relationships like broken marriages, love affairs with under-age children and a lack-luster partnership gone sour. These really set the stage for mediocrity with a twist. The twists tend to be forme...more Signs and Wonders by Alice Ohlin portrays succinct, crisp fiction writing that peers into conflicting, dysfunctional relationships occassionally seen in contemporary literature, puppeteering basic, flawed archetypes in current settings, that a wide audience can relate to. The stories navigate through relationships like broken marriages, love affairs with under-age children and a lack-luster partnership gone sour. These really set the stage for mediocrity with a twist. The twists tend to be formed through offbeat actions that affect the characters, driving the plot with a chisel and hammer, propelling the story along, line-by-line.

Don't expect to have room for imagination or getting lost in the art of thick, dripping metaphors like in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Ohlin's writing just doesn't embellish. The art of the short story is also something to consider, and what Ohlin does do is offer simplicity that can be refreshing, especially to those who read massive experimental or simply awful writing. The story-construction neatly implants a beginning, middle and ending, and finishes, often times with a summery, that enacts a “moral of a story” or reveals what happens to the characters. This is a style that can be appreciated and abhorred, since it gives the meaning with more articulation than what the writing craft can supply with the use of more artistic or experimental prose. What makes this writing so pronounced is that it uses the basic devices of story-telling {i.e. it is what it is }, so that the words become a device that sheds light on the subtleties suggested in characters, plot, and juxtapositions of conflicts, illuminating by not defining, even as Ohlin reveals summaries.

Meaning is preserved well with this functional, competent prose, especially as it dives into darker, complex issues like self-denial, obsession, and tragedy. The writing invites the strangeness that hum in the drone of mundane human connections, roping in more profound points with themes: eventuality, destruction, moral decay, freedom and death, hope, and insanity. Back to back, the stories display common similarities that may show familiar threads, relationships mainly and failed ones at that, but if you read slowly, from line to line, offbeat insight pours past the surface of clichés. By reading slower, putting the book down, and giving space for it to breath, the stories give a side-ways look at the fibers woven in our lives.

Drama plays, viewed from these complex, wounded and inadequate characters that show vulnerability. Like Alan in Forks, he asks: “You know how if you look at a word too long, you can’t tell if it’s a real word? I couldn’t even tell the difference between sand and the sky.” The composed lines in the final paragraph of this story may repel others who don’t like to be spoon fed literary tools, but Tom, the main character, reflects on this when he’s still in a relationship with Stephanie, as he isn’t able to tell which was is up or down, so the ending goes. This seems to indirectly explain the dilemma and solution to a problem that was never directly stated in the story, only shown with plays-by-play scenes, to produce the coils of a lack-luster relationship. This story is a great example of how the writing is an aid but not a pain, exposing the in-between stages of a successful relationship and stagnancy that happens over time, deliberately sedating the usual passion that a person has when in a prized relationship, and it’s this trained hand, that keeps the story crisp, saving the reader of abstractions and verbosity.

It is the gravity alone that is spindled by the art of short stories. The challenge is how to pull through the arcs of character and plot in a brief way without losing the reader. Writing is vulnerable in front of a demanding crew of literary enthusiasts when it's too simple, seemingly plain or aren't taking the flashy risks seen today. Stories can be good or bad, but what really matters, is what is discovered in the process of reading it. I discovered a lot with Ohlin’s Signs and Wonders. I was satisfied with all that it was, and wasn’t. Plain and simple.
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Feb 23, 2013 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Alix Ohlin has the uncanny ability to make you feel you know her characters as though you've read a whole novel about them, though in fact you've read just two or three paragraphs. By the time you get to the end of a story, you've got the entire arc of the character's life. You know her (most of her main characters are female, thought there are striking exceptions) in a way that you know everything that will happen to her. How far she'll go in fulfilling her wishes, desires, dreams. What she'll...more Alix Ohlin has the uncanny ability to make you feel you know her characters as though you've read a whole novel about them, though in fact you've read just two or three paragraphs. By the time you get to the end of a story, you've got the entire arc of the character's life. You know her (most of her main characters are female, thought there are striking exceptions) in a way that you know everything that will happen to her. How far she'll go in fulfilling her wishes, desires, dreams. What she'll do to undercut herself, no matter how good things may look. The other thing that is so strong about these stories is Ohlin's use of detail. In every story, she gives telling accents that let you know she's writing about this particular person and no one else in the world. The interactions between characters are equally unique and vivid. Every interaction has quirks that tell the reader this could only happen between these two people at this particular time in this particular place. Ohlin creates suspense not by building up to some catastrophic event, but by showing how her characters react to such events, which take place near the beginning. The most striking of these is The Teacher, where a grieving young widower reacts to the death of his wife in ways entirely unexpected yet entirely believable. Other times the events are more subtle. In Bruno, a man discovers what it means to be a father when his son, against all the man's wishes, decides he's going to live with him instead of his mother. In other stories people react to unexpected pregnancies, infertility, the disappearance of a son in ways that define who they are and give the reader the sense of a complete life unfolding in a few pages. Signs and Wonders is a brilliant collection by one of our most gifted young writers, Alix Ohlin has proven herself as adept with long fiction (Inside) as with short. There is a sense that her career is still in its early stages, and that what she will give us in the future will be more endlessly surprising tales, told with breathtaking richness in the language of the heart. (less)

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Aug 18, 2012 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

Piercing short stories about connections. It's a wonderfully written collection of stories with much insight into the human condition. In just a few pages, the author draws you completely into the characters. It captured me with its beauty and poignancy....very enjoyable read with a bittersweet tint to it, recommend it!

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Dec 22, 2012 Michael Estey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Signs and Wonders
Author Alix Ohlin
Book Review

What a kaleidoscope of colourful stories, brilliantly bright fading to gray then to black. I'm going to read her other book, titled Inside. From the mundane to sublime, twisting and turning, along the way, all sixteen stories. It was hard to put down.
Absolutely the best collection of short stories ever.

I looked at Alix's picture on the back cover. She is young for one so wise.

New York Times Editors' Choice,
Oprah's Book Club Summer Reading,
Scotiaban...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Kelsey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked this book. Each story was gripping, and strong, and made me invested in the characters. I was somewhat taken aback about halfway through when I realized that every story, or nearly, had involved a quite dramatic plot element--a shooting, a car accident, an affair. After a while I found it became almost a distraction. But like the story with the shooting says, it's not really about the shooting but about the absurdly human reaction in the few seconds after the shooting--which is pr...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Oliveoil124 added it · review of another edition

While I enjoy short stories by J. D. Salinger and Charles Bukowski (the greats) I rarely, if ever, opt to read short stories by an unknown writer because they often seem extremely indulgent or only partially formed. However, I picked this book up on a complete whim and flew through it in days. Each story captured my interest and after page 3 of a 7 page story, I was deeply invested in the outcome. This is truly brilliant writing when you consider how few pages the author took to form a complex,...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Captivating. I ordered this book not realizing it was a collection of short stories which I usually do not enjoy as much as a novel, but this collection definitely changed my mind. The characters were fully developed and as lovable or detestable in short story form as they could ever be in a novel. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always poignant, the stories capture people in relationships showing our human need for intimacy and companionship even when lacking the skills to make it work. I w...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, short-stories-worthwhile

This is the second short stories book I've read in a row and it's been a delicious treat. These snack sized bits to burrow into without the commitment of an entire novel. Of course I'm reading a novel right along side the stories so as to round out nutritionally.

Aliz Ohlin has managed to captivate me. It's as if I'm reading a whole story but in 10-15 pages or so. She has drawn characters, male and female and set the tone and various histories and situations that are so captivating and real yet a...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Anittah marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I'd never have heard of this writer, who apparently teaches not-so-far from where I live, had it not been for an essay, written by my husband, published today:

http://www.full-stop.net/2012/12/10/f...

(Recommended read if you are interested in writing, reading, critics, literature, elitism, Goodreads, etc.)

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Dec 28, 2012 Lara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

One of the characters is a truth teller and she loves commercials. "Some of them are so clever these days. They tell a whole story in under thrity seconds. They have this wonderful economy." And I compare Ohlin to this character, a truth teller whose stories are economical, but full of pith. Nothing life-changing for me here, but well written stories all the same.

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Aug 08, 2012 Becky Sandham Mathwin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very good book of short stories about significant moments/events in ordinary people's lives. I really liked almost all of them (I particularly liked the title story). Well written, thoughtful, engrossing and touching at times. In my opinion, a good short story should leave you wanting more and I felt that way about the vast majority of the stories in the book.

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Nov 11, 2012 Sandra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canlit, read-2012

There is something about these stories that kept me reading until I finished the entire collection. I know it is best to read short stories in small doses and let them simmer and I usually do this. There were different: I just kept saying one more until there were no more left. There are sixteen stories altogether. (To be Added to)

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Aug 04, 2012 Susanna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

yes!

Karen, I finished two weeks ago--very nice. Do you know Lori Moore? I recently got part of the way through the Ann Beattie New Yorker collection, but I needed a break for something more hopeful, but they are also worth the effort.

AND short short readers should know about the New Yorker fiction podcasts--pretty spectacular and free!

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Mar 23, 2013 Charlene Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I was about half-way through this book, I decided to read some other reviews, which is where I found out that the author is fairly young. This surprised me, because the writing seems to come from someone who has had a lot of life experiences. Many of the stories reminded me of situations or people I either know or have known in the past -- even the really peculiar ones, and this tossed me into a bit of a time-warp that was a little uncomfortable. But I suspect that "a little uncomfortable"...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Bertha Leal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A collection of short stories full of wisdom and emotional intelligence. I found myself Googling the author's age because she seemed too young to write about these complex characters with such sophistication. Alix Ohlin's "Signs and Wonders" is about people: who they are, whom they love, and what binds them. I found the book absolutely charming albeit a little sad.

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Aug 24, 2012 Patricia Geller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like her writing even though her last book was panned in the Times (I thought it was fabulous). Stories were inconsistent but I ate them up like candy. So a good read, but like candy, instant energy that don't stay with you. Look forward to her next novel. Read the new one.

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Jun 10, 2012 Jane Ciabattari rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wonderful novelist, each story packs a punch...mysteries, surprises, tragic moments....an observant, empathetic writer.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books...

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Jul 14, 2012 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Somewhat frustrating. Ohlin masterfully sets up three-dimensional characters with a sense of action and motivation, but too often the story ends without arriving at a satisfying conclusion. A few stories, including the title story, "Forks", and "You Are What You Like", are quite impressive, however.

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Nov 10, 2012 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really liked it. The only thing that got a little old for me was that divorce is a part of just about every one of the short stories. But there is something fresh in each story as well.

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Jan 03, 2013 Txkikind rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Such a wonderful book. It deals with different aspects of love in a very realistic way. And, I liked the short stories. They really kept my attention.

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Apr 07, 2013 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. These stories were captivating and insightful. Tremendous emotional intelligence.

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Apr 04, 2013 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

These short stories were very compelling, but I was unable to make sense of the thread that bound them all together.

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Dec 26, 2012 Kd rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not my cup of tea. Thought it would be better than it was...a collection of short stories, but the characters just were too unlikable and I just didn't see them developed enough to care about them. Oh well, no harm done!

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Jul 26, 2012 Shannon Stevens rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love short stories and she is on par with Richard Bausch, but one too many stories with car accidents.

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Oct 21, 2012 Allyson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love this cover and I love her writing style. These stories are so wittily and intricately crafted with such bitter and caustic words that I was enthralled.
Completely engaging and memorable.

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May 02, 2012 Elliott marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I loved Alix Ohlin's first story collection, BABYLON, and can't wait to read this one.

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Apr 02, 2013 Kat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Surprising, moving, witty, and deeply intelligent. Alex Ohlin's voice Reminds me of Anne Beattie. The best short story collection I've read in a long time.

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Dec 09, 2012 Melissa Mcdonald marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

NPR recommendation

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Jun 29, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

best new short story collection I've read in a long time.

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Jul 20, 2012 A'ndrea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very interesting book I have to say. It left me thinking more about each short story. There are 16 total, and none of them end the way you think it should. Sometimes the author leaves you hanging to decide your ending. My outcomes are usually of the happy nature. Nice change of reading. I would recommend it for sure.

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About Alix Ohlin

Alix Ohlin is the author of The Missing Person, a novel; Babylon and Other Stories; and Signs and Wonders, a new collection. Her work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best New American Voices, and on public radio’s Selected Shorts. She lives in Easton, Pennsylvania, where she teaches at Lafayette College.

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