Harriet's review
When the Messenger is Hot: Stories
by Elizabeth Crane
Harriet's review
When the Messenger is Hot: Stories by Elizabeth Crane
Harriet's review
rating:
bookshelves:
short-stories
I really liked Crane's second collection of stories, All This Heavenly Glory, but these stories were neither differentiated enough nor linked enough to be as satisfying as her second book. Most of the stories here deal with, at least in passing, a dead/dying mother and rehab and all feature the same kind of breathless narration and quirky interpolation of odd details and supernatural elements. It was a little too much of the same for me (I had a similar reaction when reading all of John Irving's books-- one is really unique and interesting, but after a while they all feel like they're the same book). "Year-at-a-glance" is one I'd definitely recommend and read again. It was the simplest and most eloquent of the stories about the dying mother, which I can only assume is drawn from Crane's own experience (the book is dedicated "for Mom, in memory). Here the breathless voice is harnessed as a sort of survival mechanism, its frenetic pace suggesting a thinly disguised g...more
