Everything We Hoped For

by Pip Adam

An unusually strong first book, this collection of short stories depends on exquisitely crafted surfaces that conceal shocking emotional force. Three of the stories are obliquely connected and feature young women on the edge. In the first of these, a new mother contemplates her new baby; in the second, a girl finds herself in rehab; and in the final story, the main character goes to jail. Other characters include a New Zealand serviceman returned from active duty in Dili, the employees of a $2 shop, and a vegan couple at a Samoan resort.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

PIP ADAM gained an MA in Creative Writing with Distinction from Victoria University in 2007. Her work has appeared in Sport, Glottis, Turbine, Lumiere Reader, Hue & Cry, Landfall and Blackmail Press. Her work has also appeared in publications produced in conjunction with two exhibitions at the Wellington City Art Gallery and her reviews have appeared in Metro. She is currently working toward her PhD Creative Writing at Victoria University. Her PhD project explores how engineers describe the built environment. She is using this research to write stories about our relationships with built forms and the structures that hold them up.

Everything We Hoped For won the NZ Post Best First Book Award in 2011 and is an unusually strong first book, distinguished by an exquisitely crafted surface and barely contained emotional force.

Her writing has been described as:
‘a kind of post-post modern fiction - nothing meta, no irony, no narrative arc, no insights or character transformations - the stories are flatline and searing and real’

- Helen Lehndorf PALMERSTON NORTH LIBRARY.


‘Adam knows how to brew a story to its essence and to infuse an emotional undercurrent that is deeply affecting’

- Paula Green CANVAS, NZ HERALD

Reviews

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotionally intense and technically dazzling first collection. These stories will stick with you, most of them are unlike any others you've read, there's a silent, fraught terror to many of them, a deep internalisation. Beautiful writing. Skillful and wise.

[Barnaby Haszard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how Pip Adam drops you right into someone's head and lets you figure everything else out for yourself. Her prose is sharp, not interested in labouring any point, not interested in showing off. There's no one else who writes like her. With so many stories, none longer than a few pages, all uncomfortable in some way, it's easy to lose the thread of any one of them if you read too many in one sitting - that's if there's a clear thread to pick up in the first place. The first story, about the first days in hospital after giving birth by caesarean, is the strongest. Bloody hell.

[Ignacio Peña · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant collection of stories. Pip Adam's writing can feel detached, but it works wonderfully in many of her stories, especially when reaching the emotional climax in her writing, as I found it often took me by surprise. Especially exceptional is her handling of some darkly tender moments at times when I least expected it.

[Kathryn Beek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[M]

this author's writing might be too stark and devoid of personality for me to enjoy.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to come back and give this five stars...these stories get lodged in your brain! Love Pip Adam's matter-of-fact style, and her skill at bringing you into the story so quickly. She touches on truth so lightly, leaving you with the feeling of having connected with another human for a brief moment in time. I sometimes find short stories unsatisfying, like you do all that work getting to know the characters, only for them to up and leave just when you are figuring them out. I didn't feel like that with this collection, I think because it didn't feel like work. Instead, it felt like a privilege.

[Shreyasi Majumdar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pip writes like a razor. Sharp, crisp, it cuts through all that is non-essential and gets right down to the brass tacks. In her stories, words move fast, things happen, and all the while layers are stripped like onion peels, to lay emotions and personalities bare. Most importantly, she drops the you into the thick of things without too much preamble, but at the same time she reveals the story skillfully, artfully, not all at one shot, but bit by bit like an archaeologist dusting secrets off a hidden tomb gradually. Unlike an archaeological discovery though which comes to light ultimately in the full glare of fact, with Pip's stories, she gives you all that you need to finally figure it out for yourself - that right there is mastery of the craft. I really liked the length of the stories - not too long drawn and not microfiction, just right. I must say though that there is an undertone of sadness in many of the stories - they leave a mark. Even so, a couple of them lingered in my mind longer than others - for example 'Everything', that spoke of love that might have been and missed chances, 'This is better' - a story about love that simultaneously is and isn't, against the backdrop of a $1.95 shop, and actions, consequences and regrets in 'Lightness' and 'A village' in which love turns to disappointment till nothing but nothingness remains. My favourite of the lot though has to be 'Hank Nigel Coolidge' - a delightfully crafted story about a woman who develops a relationship with an earthworm who she christens Hank Nigel Coolidge. It's a wee little five pager, but it really stuck with me.
All in all, a great debut collection, and it was a pleasure to read them. I'd recommend this to anyone who's looking for writing that addresses the ordinary that often goes unseen and unheard, in a rather extraordinary way.

[Emma McCleary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a good and enjoyable read and variously raved about and described as 'bleak' and 'brilliant' I felt like an observer reading this book - I never quite made the emotional connection.

I think the third person narrative in each short story had a lot to do with it and although I loved the first few stories, at times I felt a little 'he said she said.'

Maybe the emotional intensity of the last few weeks - Chch earthquake, death, destruction and what not - has made me into a robot but I didn't feel the emotional connection or intensity in this book that others (friends) have described.

It was a good read and I'd recommend it to friends certainly. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the stories but felt the book could have done without the final one.

What I did enjoy were the stories mainly in the middle of the book and the way the writer - with incredible restraint - brought the reader to the brink each time then snapped the story shut: this left me wanting more in a way that was teasing and pleasant rather than frustrating.

I think if you understand the academics and craft of writing then you'll get another layer of appreciation from this book than I did.

[Helen Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her writing has been aptly described by Helen Lehndorf as:
‘a kind of post-post modern fiction - nothing meta, no irony, no narrative arc, no insights or character transformations - the stories are flatline and searing and real’.

[Catherine Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are wonderful: crisp, smart, accessible, funny, dark - everything you'd hope for

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugely impressive stories for a debut collection, showing a great range of styles, with humour and pathos.

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a dark book. Very direct and Interesting style.