And I Do Not Forgive You Lib/E: Stories and Other Revenges

by Amber Sparks, Chelsea Stephens (Reader), Wayne Mitchell (Reader)

Populated with such heroes as time-traveling queens and video-game designing goddesses, and such specters as clingy ghosts and mediocre men, And I Do Not Forgive You is tethered intricately by shades of rage.

Boldly blending fables and myths with apocalyptic technologies, Amber Sparks holds a singular role in the canon of the weird. Having garnered acclaim for her shimmering collection The Unfinished World, she reaches uncanny heights with And I Do Not Forgive You. In prose that beats with urgency, these contemporary stories read like the best of fairytales—which are, as Sparks writes, just a warning disguised as a wish.

In “Mildly Happy, With Moments of Joy,” a friend is ghosted by a simple text message; in “Everyone’s a Winner at Meadow Park,” a teen precariously coming of age in a trailer park befriends an actual ghost. Indeed, the depths of friendship are examined under the most trying circumstances.

Humorous and unapologetically fierce, other stories shine an interrogating light on the adage that “history likes to lie about women”? as the subjects of “You Won’t Believe What Really Happened to the Sabine Women” (it’s true, you won’t) will attest. Sparks employs her vast knowledge of the morbid and macabre in “The Eyes of Saint Lucy,” in which a young girl creates elaborately violent dioramas of famous saints with her mother. And in “A Short and Speculative History of Lavoisier’s Wife,” the great efforts of French chemist Lavoisier’s widow to ensure his legacy are chillingly revealed.

Taken together, this hypnotic and otherworldly collection seeks to reclaim the lives of the silenced. And what is history, Sparks asks, but the chance to dig up our skeletons and give them new stories? Humorous and unapologetically fierce, And I Do Not Forgive You offers a mosaic of an all-too-real world that too often fails to listen to its goddesses.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Feminism, Magical Realism, Audiobook, Adult

Audio CD

First published February 11, 2020

Reviews

[Roxane · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are very imaginative stories. I really appreciated the ways in which Sparks blurs genre. There is a fable like quality to many of the stories here, always some important lesson to be learned, but that lesson is imparted in really clever ways. I also appreciated the mix of longer and shorter stories. It made for a really dynamic reading experience. If there is a flaw in these stories, it’s that some of the stories that are surreal or magical realism don’t seem to follow consistent rules for world building. At times, the blending of the world we know and the world Sparks imagines seems jarring. That said, I love the stories. I was engrossed. And when the book was done, I found myself wanting more. That, is always the hallmark of a really great book.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, these stories are brilliant. There is just something about the way in which Amber Sparks writes short fiction that hits all the right spots for me. This is the third collection she has written and she still does everything I adore in the format: her stories are weird enough to be exciting and realistic enough to be grounded, she focusses women and their experiences, her sentences are as wonderful as they have always been. Of the three collections, this is the one most grounded in reality – and it works because it is also the most angry collection and anger is needed at the moment (or possibly always, but there is just something about these last few years that particularly make anger feel neccessary). Amber Sparks is angry, viciously so, and I love it. I love what it does to the tone of her stories and to the premises she chooses, but most of all I love how her anger does not mean her stories are any less beautiful, quite the opposite actually.

Sparks’ short stories are on the shorter side, something that I am learning is my personal preference. She tells her stories in vastly different ways but I always find something to adore. Often she hooks me from the very first sentence in a way that I do not encounter very often. I cannot quite put into words what works about her first sentences, but just look at the brilliance of “I’ll bet you think ghosts are so fucking romantic.” or “At the end of the world, you discovered words could change.” or “The queen woke up one morning to te furious sound of the Future invading.” I have said it before and I will say it again, Amber Sparks is my favourite short story author and I eagerly awaited this collection and I will read whatever she chooses to write next – because I can just trust her to wow me.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Liveright. This did not affect my opinions. Quotations are taken from the unfinished copy and might have changed during the final edit.

You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

. . . hope is the thing with feathers, and I have always been allergic to down.*

A strange and mesmerizing collection of 22 stories. Many start quite humorously, then veer off into dark, unexpected places. Things are definitely moving around under the surface . . . things you may not want to see.

Dearborn, Michigan: Here is where I told you not to buy that fucking 7-Eleven franchise. You couldn't even remember to pick up the kid from the sitter, so how were you going to keep track of how many Hot Pockets to buy and whether or not the hot dogs had been cooking for days or weeks? How much green shit to put in the Slurpee machine?**

I think I laughed and cringed in equal measure. And for me, that's a good thing.

* from DEATH DESERVES ALL CAPS: On Planning for My (Very Far-Off) Funeral
** from Our Geographic History


This book will be released on February 11th.

[TXGAL1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a “sorry your book delivery took so long” gift. I was grateful and looked forward to reading something a bit different.

Well, I loved the word construction and appreciated the author’s way of grabbing you by the neck and insisting that you pay attention to each story’s point of view. The story I liked best was “Is the Future a Nice Place for Girls”.

AND I DO NOT FORGIVE YOU pretty much sums up my feeling about reading this series of short stories. Throughout, I noticed ideas such as:
*dissatisfied/angry women
*ghosts
*gambling
*the color blue
*castles
*dioramas
repeated in different stories and a whole LOT of crazy (to me)!

Needless to say, I did not like this book, but felt it at least deserved 2 stars for the few things I did like.

[Cody | CodysBookshelf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bummer. This collection shows flashes of brilliant writing—hence the two star rating—but it too often falls flat. Many of the stories are too short, incomplete, to the point I found myself shrugging and wondering what the point was of what I’d just read. And a couple stories are too long. Weird. It’s like no story here is the fitting length for its subject matter.

Also, many of the stories take strange and unexpected left turns into the fantastical, which I’m usually fine with . . . but I just don’t think this author writes that sort of thing well. It didn’t grab me, anyway. I preferred the down to earth, contemporary stories. The ones that feel like try-hard parables drag the collection down.

I’m much disappointed in this collection, given the brilliant synopsis and exquisite cover art. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC. This book releases in February 2020.

[TraceyL · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, I hated this collection. A lot of the stories just ended without any real conclusion. Since I listened to this as an audiobook, many of the stories blended together and I didn't realize a new one had started. I didn't see the point to most of the stories. The writing wasn't very good. I had pre-ordered the audiobook because it seemed really interesting, but it wasn't.

[Niki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third time this year that I thought a book would be about [x thing] because of the title, and the book ended up being anything but (OK, I'm exaggerating, but the books were absolutely only loosely connected to their own titles) First time was The Glass Hotel, second was Supper Club, and now this book.

So, by looking at that bold ax cover and that emphatic "And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories & Other Revenges" title, you probably think this is a short story collection about revenge, right? Of course not! There are stories about revenge in this, but no more than the average "anything goes, let's explore a theme or two maybe, but just collect all the semi-finished stories you have and let's put them in here" short story collection. So no, this is not a revenge-themed short story collection, and that was only my first problem with this book.

Most of the stories are utterly forgettable. There are 22 stories in here but I hardly remember them, even while looking at the table of contents. "Mildly Unhappy, with Moments of Joy" (I thought that this was setting the tone for the rest of the collection [it was the first story], but it didn't), "Everyone's a Winner in Meadow Park", "The Eyes of Saint Lucy" (the most memorable of the stories, in my opinion, and it WAS about revenge), "Rabbit by Rabbit", "The Noises from the Neighbors Upstairs", "Death Deserves All Caps", and "When The Husband Grew Wings" were fine but the others? I couldn't remember them right now if my life depended on it.

Special mention goes to the historical/ mythological retellings, because those were the worst by far. Maybe it's a "me" problem and not an Amber Sparks problem, because I don't care about retellings to begin with, but the fact remains: I skim-read those and couldn't care less about them.

So no, I wasn't satisfied with this book at all. I will be giving Amber Sparks a try again because I believe in second chances, though.

[Rach · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt like maybe this book was trying to be too edgy? Too conversational? I do know it -- was forgettable for me. I really was intrigued by the idea of this collection of short (and i mean short) stories, and the blending of fairy tales/mythological elements in a very immediate and "now" time. Almost thought of it in like a modern Bloody Chamber situation, but it fell short for me.

This book seems like it is constantly grasping and is so so desperate to be edgy/new, modern, and feminist. Which seems like a win all the way around, if it worked. But, the stories just never connect, and they always feel unfinished. You are wanting more at the end of each, and not in that i-am-going-to-keep-reading sort of wanting.

[Jerrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far from being as strong as her prior short story collection, I found these stories flat and uninteresting for the most part.

[Brend · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

The good parts were really good and worthy of sticky tabs, but the boring ones in between were truly dull.

[Samantha Manning · Rating 1 out of 5]

This collection of completely incoherent short stories desperately tries to be modern, feminist, and funny but fails miserably. I haven’t felt such strong second-hand embarrassment from reading someone’s work since peer-reviewing essays in high school. Oof.

[Stefani Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley!***

The best thing that I can say about this book was that it was forgettable. The worst thing I can say about this book was that it is forgettable and pointless. The short version of this review is that these aren’t actual short stories. They are pieces of stories. Not a single one of them actually has an ending. They end, but they don’t have an ending. Even the one story that I liked just….ended with no resolution. And several of them were three paragraphs long and left me wondering what the point of even reading it was.

Add in the rampant, militant feminism that every male in the stories is a bad man, hurting women and doing terrible things and every woman needs to be avenged for the collective sins of men and I just couldn’t bear this book at all.

WARNING: Spoilers from here on out.

The one story that I enjoyed was about a couple who can’t stop thinking about the great amount of noise their upstairs neighbors make in the middle of the night. Are they moving bodies up there? Do they own ten Great Danes? Teach midnight tap dancing? Everyone who has had upstairs neighbors knows this feeling. So it was very relatable and fun. But then it was just over. The male of the couple goes upstairs to confront the neighbors about the noise and she just keeps waiting for him to come back, the end. Very abrupt and ended right in the middle of the resolution. This made it so forgettable that it took me ten minutes to remember the premise of this story when I sat down to write this review.

There were also some fact problems with this book. For example, the story about the Sabine women. I am familiar with the story and I am familiar with the varying interpretations of the story over the years. Basically soldiers from Rome invade the city of Sabine killing all the men and taking the women as war trophies to rape and force into marriage. It was a fine story but when the Roman soldiers invade Sabine the women cry out to the goddess Demeter for assistance. Why? Demeter is a fierce goddess to be sure and a great defender of women, but she’s also a Greek goddess. Five minutes on Google will tell you that Sabine was part of the Roman empire in, what is now, Italy. So why would they be crying out in anguish for a Greek goddess’ assistance? That made zero sense and took away from the story.

Also, none of the women actually have to take responsibility for their actions in these stories. Men are bad and women cannot have freedom or happiness until men are eradicated from the world. That’s the main premise of every story in the book. Even when you are living with someone who is obviously mentally ill, has proclaimed themselves a messiah and is planning a massive murder/suicide plot….just blame him for your decision to stay with him and complain that he just abandoned you for his delusions. Don’t try to intervene to get him help or anything, let him go along with his plan but bitch about it every step of the way because obviously he’s the bad guy. Where’s the accountability? Where’s the compassion to try and get someone who you love the help that they obviously need? No, he’s obviously the bad guy and the poor woman doesn’t have to take any accountability for her choices. This is just one example out of many.

Some of the stories even stretch plausibility to the breaking point to make men the bad guy. At one point a girl just randomly happens on the janitor from school abducting her friend and fights to free her. It didn’t fit the story at all and was so unexpected that I just couldn’t get there. I almost thought about abandoning the book at that point because it was nonsensical and only happened to make janitor guy a monster. Or the story about a historical woman who helped her husband achieve greatness while remaining in the darkness herself, despite being more accomplished. This should have been a fascinating story to tell. But instead we got two women joking over text messages about how religion is ridiculous and men are stupid. With almost those exact childish words. Really? I’m supposed to take these women seriously when you paint them as immature children?


At the end of the day I will have forgotten about this book by tomorrow because it was just that pointless.

Read this and other reviews at my blog: Written Among the Stars

[JimZ]

This was disappointing. I was enjoying some of the short stories at the beginning of this collection and then story after story after story became weird, hard to comprehend, like “what is the point of this”, and it kept on happening and I was no longer enjoying reading….it became a chore….so I am bailing after p. 93 of this 176-page collection of short stories.

Perhaps after I read some Goodreads reviews, I will read one or more of the remaining stories if other GR folks really likes them. Otherwise this will be a DNF.

Stories that I liked at the beginning were:
• Mildly Unhappy with Moments of Joy
• You Won’t Believe What Really Happened to the Sabine Women
• A Plow for Hiding Precious things
• Everyone’s a Winner in Meadow Park (this was really good…it was 5-stars for me)

Reviews (all reviews are positive…so I am an outlier):
• https://www.npr.org/2020/02/12/804887...
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
• https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliantly haunting and quirky, Amber's collection runs the gamut - through space and time, fact and fiction, and yes, even a near apocalyse! In her capable and twisted hands, we're bounced between the fairy-tale-esque lives of kings and queens and their daughters to the disasterous marriages of everyday couples with very unusual issues. We're visited by a trailer park ghost and ghosted by a BFF. And we're tortured by the sounds of something going terribly awry in the apartment upstairs.

These are stories of women who have been wronged, robbed, or written off. But rather than lie down or hide, they each, in their own way, rise up and get their revenge. As with any collection, some of the stories failed to hit the mark, but the ones that did... soared.

[Rachel León]

Amber Sparks is such a charming, creative writer!

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m willing to admit that the current trending variety of feminism alarms me. I appreciate it, agree with the fact that this might absolutely be historically the best time to be alive for women, but there’s something terrifying about militant feminism (or militant other things, for that matter), what it does to one’s mind, the way it warps perspectives. It’ll probably be a while before some sort of reasonable balance is achieved. For now, it did spawn a variety of feminist fiction, some of which, like this collection, is pretty terrific. But the preamble of this review was to highlight the fact that this book’s appeal for me wasn’t its feminist nature. More so something about the title and the cover. You know, the pedestrian approach to reading selections. But also there was the blending of myths and apocalyptic scenarios and potential for something like magic realism or even supernatural and all those things I do like. So in fact, this was the book that did it all, it absolutely delivered on the cover promise, it completely met its description and it was actually thoroughly feminist without doing that thing where the message overwhelms the story. The writing was absolutely magical, from the first and longest story about a girl in a trailer park and her ghost friend, each of these stories succeeds at drawing the reader in. Each tale is an original, singular delight. The author straddles genres, mixes and matches, thematically and stylistically and the results are pretty freaking awesome. Obviously, all of the stories feature female protagonists and, obviously, all of them have a moral, something along the lines of how one can’t hold a good woman down for long, they shall rise and shine. And again, that’s all good and great, it just wasn’t the main draw for me. I simply enjoyed great storytelling, lovely command of language and notable displays of imagination. The moral was more along the lines of garnish. So basically, I’m trying to say that you might enjoy this book no matter where (within reason) you stand on feminism. The message in these stories is inspirational more so than selfcongratulatory. It doesn’t high five the characters for their gender, it showcases their inner strengths in face of adversity and so on, ability to persevere and rise above. And that’s a good message for any audience. A very enjoyable quick read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

[Moira Allbritton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two of the stories were intriguing. One was really good. And one was exceptionally titled. Alas, the majority (18 more stories) struck me -- apparently a person lacking in imagination for the macabre -- as overdone or filler.

"Mildly Happy, with Moments of Joy" provided a reasonably auspicious start.
Then two tedious stories.
"Everyone's a Winner in Meadow Park" was a creative-enough ghost-story.
I really liked "A Short and Slightly Speculative History of Lavoisier's Wife."
But from that point (bottom of page 60) to the conclusion, the stories were consistently dark and experimental. With the exception of a 2-pager, "In Which Athena Designs a Video Game with the Express Purpose of Trolling Her Father," which was clever and mercifully bloodless.

At least I can check off the PopSugar "genre hybrid" prompt from the challenge list. :)

Editorial factoid: The term "Elysian Fields" can be found in two different stories.

[Amanda D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I pick up this ARC because of the cover? Yes, I shamelessly did.

While Sparks has a bunch of fun and snarky one-liners, a lot of the stories here are a bit of a bummer. They're just so...depressing and someone is always getting sexually assaulted or groped without their consent.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid collection of stories. The prose was great; a lot of the stories had a fable vibe.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories vary in size, anywhere from three-page pieces to a general forty-pager, and every single one of them is enchanting. In its contents you will find fairy-tale revenge, quiet & loud acts of rebellion, and bizarre encounters that will leave you craving so much more. Two favorites stand out to me in this collection-- an apathetic teenage girl who befriends a centuries-old ghost in her trailer park, and a couple who debate on whether or not to confront what's making those bumps in the night one floor above them. And I Do Not Forgive You is packed with quick punches of magical realism at its finest.

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooh revenge. I love reading stories about women saying fuck it to situations that don't suit them.

It may not always work out in their best interest. There may be pain. Broken hearts. Anger. Rage. Murder.

But what's life without some pain. Broken hearts. Anger. Rage. Murder. ???

A lot of these stories were weird in the exact way that I like my shit to be weird. Some were incredibly short and left me squinting my eyes and saying: that's it? That's all Amber Sparks wanted to say about that particular topic or that particular experience of that particular character? But then, that tickled me. It tickled me that she just stopped talking about shit when she wanted to stop, or that she felt that she had gotten her point across, and she did, so she was like - that's enough of that, on to the next story. Stories like that include: Our Geographic History, and Our Mutual (Theatre) Friend.

Some stories were incredibly well-paced, clever, inventive and gave me palpitations when reading them. We Destroy the Moon was an amazing, drawn out, poetic, angry story of a girl waiting for love from a man too preoccupied with his own bullshit, and it sounds really simple on the surface in my description but trust me, it's not.

Another incredible story was The Eyes of Saint Lucy; a phenomenally crafted story of an outwardly typical family inwardly carrying around incredible dysfunction. It stars a mother named Wendy who you have to admire for her artistry and resolve.

Then there were stories that just bordered on random and meandering, all with a point, but random, completely random, nonetheless. Death Deserves All Caps is one of those stories and it starts with the line "1. Get it right, or I will haunt you all." - it's wild.

All in all, I could see myself reading this book a few more times this year. It's exactly the kind of writing that I like and now I'm going to have to look up ALL her other work.

She thanked Kate Zambreno in her acknowledgements and I thought, YES! It all makes sense.

[Sarah A-F]

I unfortunately only made it through 50% of this before DNFing. I think the title and cover art made me think this would be more about revenge than it was. The stories here felt largely unrelated to that and were also so frustrating to read. Either a story would feel unfinished altogether, cutting off where it felt like it was just starting, or I would feel completely uninvested until the last paragraph, having it end just as I was getting excited. I hadn't realized going in that I had tried to read another of Amber Sparks' collections and DNFed that as well for similar reasons, so I think her work just isn't for me. Below are my ratings and minor comments for the stories I did end up reading:

Mildly Unhappy, with Moments of Joy, ⅘. thought i would cry at the end.
You Won’t Believe What Really Happened to the Sabine Women, 2.5/5.
A Place for Hiding Precious Things, ⅗.
Everyone’s a Winner in Meadow Park, 2.5/5. felt unfinished, didn’t get invested until the very last page and then wanted more.
A Short and Slightly Speculative History of Lavoisier���s Wife, ⅕.
We Destroy the Moon, ⅖.
In Which Athena Designs a Video Game with the Express Purpose of Trolling Her Father, ⅖.
Is the Future a Nice Place for Girls, ⅖.

[David Keaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd read a couple of these stories before, but it's good to have them all in the same place, and a theme (women dealing with fucking doofs in and around fantasy or fantastical situations) certainly emerges. Lines like "because there is no God, my mother married a man name Barney Arnie" made me snarf the milk out my nose, and (at least for me) it also has the requisite Amber Sparks "I can't *quite* follow what's going on here" story or two, but that's never an unpleasant experience. It reminds me of my confusion with poetry, or what constitutes a prose poem (is that what more abstract stories are? something to do with the margins? need more funding to continue research...), but I always find myself slowing down a bit to enjoy those puzzles, which can be tough when so many of these stories (even the ones set in "olden times") seem so pointed and up-to-the-minute so you want to plow right through. And don't let the fairy-tale setting of many of these tales cause you any hesitation. Though there can be "morals" to the fables, and there's a princess or three, the punches aren't pulled. There's plenty of anger here, and it feels right. It's no accident the first edition had an ax on the cover.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great to have another Amber Sparks collection out in the world. I devoured these inventive, imaginative, beautifully written stories. Sparks is both a masterful sentence-level writer and a brilliantly original storyteller. What a combination. I'm in awe.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe my expectations were too high, but I thought The Unfinished World was more satisfying.

[Rachel McKenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

And I Do Not Forgive You is a 2020 release, and the short story collection from Amber Sparks with the subtitle “and other revenges.” Boy does it live up to that subtitle. At its heart, the collection shows modern people in the quasi-fantastic, mostly-all-too-real world of technology, familial betrayal, and city life. The princesses, kings, and queens which people some of the most fairy-tale-esque of the stories don’t reside in some 1400s Europe that never was– they live now, here, and struggle as we do now, here. A stand-out in that department was “The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines,” where the magical-realist elements meshed so nicely with the themes that I found myself bookmarking it again to read later.

While I didn’t love every story in the collection, I could find myself wanting to read them all again to find new depths. My absolute favorite story was “A Short and Slightly Speculative History of the Lavoisier’s Wife,” which was honestly one of the best short-stories I’ve read in a while in terms of form and voice.

In general, the stories have distinct tones and themes, but each shine with a lush mixture of gritty vernacular (“#Bullshit, I said, and you said the #endtimes was no place for #haters”) and taut phrasing.

And I Do Not Forgive You is a collection you’ll want to share and discuss, both for its feminist themes and commentary on modern life as well as for its prose. Brava to Sparks.

Thank you to Netgalley, who gave me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[zac carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this. the title drew me in pretty quickly (as i currently avoid doing some forgiving in my own life) and i found there are a lot of moments worth savoring in these powerful woman-centered stories.

my favorite piece was "everyone's a winner in meadow park." seek that shit out! it's great.

(i'd likely give the book 5 stars if i'd read a physical copy, but i listened and it was not my favorite audiobook experience. the performances were strong, but the timing and structure of the recording left me confused as to when some stories began and ended. and then i was slightly lost around some characters. so maybe don't go the audiobook route unless you'll be able to consistently look and keep track of the stories.)

[Krystina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shout out to Existential Suffering, USA.
Birthplace of a nation.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well. This is a book. That I've read.

I liked the act of reading this but as soon as I put the book down I forgot nearly everything I read. I'd like to give this 2.5 but I'll round up for snarky will writers.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

As in Sparks' previous books, these stories range across modes from the fabulist to the supernatural to the science fictional. But with so much variety what's striking is how fully realized or "lived in" the worlds of these stories are, because even in the shortest among them I felt dropped not into a premise or conceit from an author but instead into a character's actual, everyday experience — even when the experience was something beyond the realm of my own world (so far!). I've seen reviews focused on the "anger" of the collection, and sure it's here (have you seen the world lately?), but not in a mechanical, didactic way. The characters earn it through their particular circumstances and each story does so on its own terms and in its own mode, so while there's cohesion and synergy to the lives of the characters and the obstacles they encounter, nothing is taken for granted or assumed from one story to the next. That's exactly what I want from a collection of stories (or of other genres): the sense of an authorial mind at work, engaging things deeply, and showing me through both isolation and accumulation a richer way of seeing the world.