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Mother Box and Other Tales
The eleven stories and one novella of Mother Box, and Other Tales bring together everyday reality and something that is dramatically not in compelling narratives of new possibilities.
In language that is both barb and bauble, bitter and unbearably sweet, Sarah Blackman spins the threads of stories where everything is probable and nothing is constant. The stories in Mother Box, and Other Tales occur in an in-between world of outlandish possibility that has become irrefutable a woman gives birth to seven babies and realizes at one of their weddings that they were foxes all along; a girl with irritating social quirks has been raised literally by cardboard boxes; a young woman throws a dinner party only to have her elaborate dessert upstaged by one of the guests who, as it turns out, is the moon. Love between mothers and children is a puzzling thrum that sounds at the very edge of hearing; a muted pulse that, nevertheless, beats and beats and beats.
In these tales, the prosaic details of everyday life—a half-eaten sandwich, an unopened pack of letters on a table—take on fevered significance as the characters blunder into revelations that occlude even as they unfold.
In language that is both barb and bauble, bitter and unbearably sweet, Sarah Blackman spins the threads of stories where everything is probable and nothing is constant. The stories in Mother Box, and Other Tales occur in an in-between world of outlandish possibility that has become irrefutable a woman gives birth to seven babies and realizes at one of their weddings that they were foxes all along; a girl with irritating social quirks has been raised literally by cardboard boxes; a young woman throws a dinner party only to have her elaborate dessert upstaged by one of the guests who, as it turns out, is the moon. Love between mothers and children is a puzzling thrum that sounds at the very edge of hearing; a muted pulse that, nevertheless, beats and beats and beats.
In these tales, the prosaic details of everyday life—a half-eaten sandwich, an unopened pack of letters on a table—take on fevered significance as the characters blunder into revelations that occlude even as they unfold.
- GenresShort Stories
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 12, 2013
Filled with hapless characters who spend their days misreading their confusing worlds. Magic.
"The Silent Woman" has a languor and disorienting quality that reminds me of Joy Williams.
"The Silent Woman" has a languor and disorienting quality that reminds me of Joy Williams.
March 20, 2017
Sarah Blackman was a senior at my alma mater when I was a freshman. She won the college's prestigious Sophie Kerr literary prize, so when I saw her collection of short stories at work, I put it on my tbr. I'm glad that I read it, but ultimately it's not for me.
Blackman's writing was very beautiful but I couldn't connect much to her magical realist stories. I was hoping that I'd particularly like her 60-page novella, "The Silent Woman," at the end of her collection, but I often felt that her descriptive writing and unmoored narration detracted from the piece. It dealt with a woman who swallowed a fly and met a ghost at a rest home, plus the complications of identity of self vs as wife and mother.
My favorite story was "Category of Glamour," about a woman's affair (at least sensual if not outright sexual) with a mysterious stranger in her garden, years after being more or less abandoned by her husband. It was also a bit about the idea of motherhood and identity, as she was pregnant at the time that her soldier husband was deployed, and the resulting son seemed to be her closest relationship.
When it comes to Blackman's evocative imagery, I appreciated it most in "A White Hat on His Head, Two Wooden Legs," which was basically a fairytale about two creatures who came together, took human form, lived in a town for awhile and then disappeared. Perhaps the final lines were the most powerful--"They clung to the fountain's lip and sung their songs. They lived their brief life and bore no witness."
Of the nine other stories in here, none really made an impact on me. Though I know in large part that this is a matter of personal taste. I'm always grateful to at least try something out.
Blackman's writing was very beautiful but I couldn't connect much to her magical realist stories. I was hoping that I'd particularly like her 60-page novella, "The Silent Woman," at the end of her collection, but I often felt that her descriptive writing and unmoored narration detracted from the piece. It dealt with a woman who swallowed a fly and met a ghost at a rest home, plus the complications of identity of self vs as wife and mother.
My favorite story was "Category of Glamour," about a woman's affair (at least sensual if not outright sexual) with a mysterious stranger in her garden, years after being more or less abandoned by her husband. It was also a bit about the idea of motherhood and identity, as she was pregnant at the time that her soldier husband was deployed, and the resulting son seemed to be her closest relationship.
When it comes to Blackman's evocative imagery, I appreciated it most in "A White Hat on His Head, Two Wooden Legs," which was basically a fairytale about two creatures who came together, took human form, lived in a town for awhile and then disappeared. Perhaps the final lines were the most powerful--"They clung to the fountain's lip and sung their songs. They lived their brief life and bore no witness."
Of the nine other stories in here, none really made an impact on me. Though I know in large part that this is a matter of personal taste. I'm always grateful to at least try something out.
October 13, 2025
The stories in Mother Box turn the ordinary, the daily-ness of being into magical works of fiction. One of my favorite tales - The Silent Woman - she's "sent" to a "facility", though details of her stay are "not in the paperwork." That is all we are told, but the meaning off such words - often in throw-away lines - require the reader to turn the page - ready to face whatever disturbing scenario may turn up next - and feeling that things within may not go well at all. This is real life - not science fiction, not horror - turned inside out in wonderfully clear, gorgeous, precise, and distilled language that hits at the worst of everything as well as gamma rays of transient joy - never blurted out - always held back and squeaked out, repressed, guessed at--so that we must read on with curiosity, with delight, and sometimes: with unnamed dread. PS: the story of a person raised by a cardboard box? You can't top that.
August 21, 2025
Sarah Blackman composes some of the best paragraphs I’ve ever read. The included novella is especially amazing.
February 21, 2014
A tremendous debut--beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews