I am always jealous when (Canadian) people win prizes for short stories, especially prizes to which I *may* have submitted. Sigh. I can’t even rightly be jealous because it isn’t like the stories in Faithful are bad. They are competent. Okay, they are more than competent. I can’t say that any of them will suddenly become my favourite short story in the world (Shout out to Guests of the Nation), and a few of the stories needed a bit more oomph (An Old Friend ends so quickly and not being a middle-aged, cheating man, I had trouble connecting with some of the motivations of Jake in the titular Faithful), but there’s a story about someone who realizes they’re never going to write a novel (Witness). I know that feeling (although I have written a novel); I know that feeling like I know my own skin.
Faithful are short stories that make me yearn to write short stories again.
Now if only I could come up with an idea (or maybe I’ll steal some of Karasik’s and make them my own; who knows).
Faithful by Daniel Karasik went on sale October 1, 2017.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.