The Literary Fiction Shelf

Ghost House
Sara Connell
Muse Literary
https://museliterary.com
9781958714034, $24.99 Hardcover/$15.99 Paper/$.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-House-Sara-Connell/dp/1958714038

Ghost House blends occult fiction with literary twists and turns, overlayin=
g its short stories with a sense of psychological depth and feminist inspec= tion. This makes for a delightful collection of diverse perspectives on gho= sts and haunted lives. From childhood, Sara Connell has been enthralled by = ghosts and the occult. Her early passion for haunts almost got her banned f= rom the sleepover party circuit, as her embellishments and storytelling pro= wess captured vivid horror scenes that chilled her peers. Thankfully, she n= ever 'grew out' of this fascination for the spiritual realm and its hauntin=
g possibilities. Thus, Ghost House represents not just a lifelong pursuit, = but a literary collection honed with the trappings of creative horror embel= lishments and tempered by adult perspectives on traumas that haunt and heal=
at the same time.

Not every story in this collection features the conventional ghost. One of = Connell's talents is to tackle the traditional image of the specter and its=
haunting capabilities to expand the notion of otherworldly encounters.

The collection opens with the title story 'Ghost House' and the delightful = prospect of a new home where the husband buyer sees opportunity and his wif=
e senses adversity. Few buyers are purposely looking for a ghost home. This=
couple's choice represents not just a bad decision, but good intentions go=
ne awry. Mostly because the ghost does not like Caitlin.

Each story harbors and evolves a different definition of and sense of a gho= stly encounter. Each provides readers with a spooky experience laced with a=
thought-provoking psychologist twist that turns the staid story or anticip= ated ending upside down. The result is a powerful literary work that offers=
the delightful juxtaposition of ghosts and unexpected insights and reflect= ions. Libraries that choose Ghost House for its promise of occult entertain= ment will find the collection evolves beyond the usual supernatural focus. =
It offers many satisfying points of discussion that book clubs will want to=
consider, whether they be focused on literature, supernatural fiction, or = women's writings, experiences, and issues.

Skins: A Novel
Adrian C. Louis
University of Nevada Press
Mail Stop 0166, Reno, NV, 89557-0166
www.unpress.nevada.edu
9781647790226, $22.00, PB, 284pp

https://www.amazon.com/Skins-Novel-Adrian-C-Louis/dp/1647790220

Synopsis: It's the early 1990s and Rudy Yellow Shirt and his brother, Mogie=
, are living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, home of the leg= endary Oglala Sioux warrior Crazy Horse. Both Vietnam veterans, the men str= uggle with daily life on the rez. Rudy, a criminal investigator with the Pi=
ne Ridge Public Safety Department, must frequently arrest his neighbors and=
friends, including his brother, who has become a rez wino.

But when Rudy falls and hits his head on a rock while pursuing a suspected = murderer, Iktome the trickster enters his brain. Iktome restores Rudy's you= thful sexual vigor (long-lost to years of taking high blood pressure pills)=
and ignites his desire for political revenge via an alter ego, the "Avengi=
ng Warrior."

As the Avenging Warrior, Rudy takes direct action to punish local criminals=
.. In a violent act, he torches the local liquor store, nearly burning Mogie=
alive while he is hiding on the store's roof, plotting to steal booze. Alt= hough the brothers reconcile before Mogie dies, he leaves the Avenging Warr= ior with one final mission: go to Mount Rushmore and blow the nose off Geor=
ge Washington's face.

Critique: By the end of the twentieth century, Adrian C. Louis (1946-2018) = had become one of the most powerful voices in the canon of Native American = literature. "Skins: A Novel", his best-known work, is now available by the = University of Nevada Press with a new foreword by David Pichaske. Louis's c= ritically acclaimed novel was made into a movie in 2002, directed by Chris = Eyre. Also now available for personal reading lists in a digital book forma=
t (Kindle, $15.55), "Skins" is an acclaimed and unreservedly recommended ad= dition to community and academic library Native American Literary Fiction c= ollections.

Editorial Note: Adrian C. Louis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_C._Lo= uis) was a half-breed member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. In addition to S= kins, he published over a dozen collections of poetry, a collection of shor=
t stories, and posthumously, Ghost Dancers: A Novel. Louis is remembered fo=
r his aggressive refusal to romanticize life on or off the reservation.

The Woods: Stories
Janice Obuchowski
University of Iowa Press
100 Kuhl House, 119 West Park Road, Iowa City, IA 52242-1000
www.uiowapress.org
9781609388751, $18.50, PB, 212pp

https://www.amazon.com/Woods-Stories-Short-Fiction-Award/dp/1609388755

Synopsis: With the publication of "The Woods", short story writer Janice Ob= uchowski explores the lives of people in a small Vermont college town and i=
ts surrounding areas -- a place at the edge of the bucolic, where the land = begins to shift into something untamed.

In the tradition of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge and Sherwood Anders= on's Winesburg, Ohio, these stories follow people who carry private griefs = but search for contentment. As they try to make sense of their worlds, grap= pling with problems (worried about their careers, their marriages, their ch= ildren, their ambitions) they also sift through the happiness they have, an=
d often find deep solace in the landscape.

What do we find in the woods? An uplifting of spirit or a quieting of sorro=
w. A sense of being haunted by the past. Sometimes rougher, more violent th= ings: abandoned quarries and feral cats, black bears, brothers caught up in=
an escalating war, a ghost who wishes to pass on her despair, monsters who=
boom with hollow ecstatic laughter. But also songbirds: the hermit thrush = and the winter wren. Rushing rivers glossy with froth. A nineteenth-century=
inn that's somehow gotten by all these years. And far within, a vegetal tw= ilight and constant dusk that feels outside of time.

This remarkable short story compendium illuminates the ways we all carry wi= thin ourselves aspects stark, beautiful, wild, and unknowable.

Critique: Eloquent, erudite, inherently engaging, thought-provoking and fun=
, "The Woods" is an impressive collection of eleven original short stories =
by a master of this difficult literary format. While also available for per= sonal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), this Universi=
ty of Iowa Press edition of "The Woods" is unreservedly recommended for com= munity, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction colle= ctions.

Editorial Note: Janice Obuchowski (https://uipress.uiowa.edu/people/janice-= obuchowski" is the author of a number of stories that have appeared in Gett= ysburg Review, Crazyhorse, Alaska Quarterly Review, Story, Conjunctions onl= ine, and LitHub. Previously a fiction editor at New England Review, she cur= rently resides in Middlebury, Vermont.

Returning from Silence: Jenny's Story
Michele Sarde, author
Rupert Swyer, translator
Swan Isle Press
https://swanislepress.com
9781736189306, $30.00, PB, 418pp

https://www.amazon.com/Returning-Silence-Jennys-Mich%C3%A8le-Sarde/dp/17361= 89301

Synopsis: Sephardi Jewish culture and language flourished in Salonica for f= our centuries, but with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s, and th=
e sense of troubling times to come, Jenny's family felt impelled to leave t= heir much-loved city and rebuild their lives in France. Their years in Fran=
ce led to change that none could have fully expected, and then, the Holocau= st. The trauma lasts well into the post-war period, silencing both mother a=
nd daughter in unanticipated ways.

Based upon her own family's history, "Returning from Silence" by novelist M= ichele Sarde is a powerful saga that reaches deep into Jewish history, open= ing with the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and their settlement =
in a more tolerant Ottoman Empire.

Born in Brittany on the threshold of World War II, novelist Michele Sarde h=
ad long been silent about her origins. After her mother, Jenny, finally sha= red their family history, Sarde decided to reconstruct Jenny's journey, inc= luding her exile from Salonica, move to Paris in 1921, and assimilation in = France. The Nazi occupation then forced her and her family to hide and conc= eal their Jewish identity, and in this retelling, Sarde shows how Jenny fig= hts with everything she has to survive the Holocaust and protect her daught= er.

Through this family history, Sarde sensitively raises questions about ident= ity, migration, and assimilation while weaving fiction together with histor=
y, research, and testimony to bring the characters' stories to life.

Critique: A deftly crafted and inherently fascinating work of fact-based fi= ction, "Returning From Silence" by Michele Sarde is ably translated into En= glish for an American readership by Rupert Swyer. An impressive, extraordin= ary, memorable work of Jewish literary fiction, "Returning From Silence" is=
an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading li= sts, as well as community, and academic library Literary Fiction collection=
s.

Editorial Note #1: Michele Sarde (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mich%C3%A8l= e_Sarde) is a novelist, biographer, essayist, and professor emerita at Geor= getown University. She has been awarded by the Government of France the pre= stigious Chevalier dans l'Ordre National du Merite and Chevalier dans l'Ord=
re des Arts et Lettres.

Editorial Note #2: Currently residing in Paris, France, Rupert Swyer is an = independent translator and journalist. His translations include the works o=
f notable French philosophers, sociologists, and historians. (https://press= ..uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/S/R/au168621547.html)

And I Was like November
Rachael Biggs
Independently Published
9798986483801, $19.00, PB, 220pp

https://www.amazon.com/I-was-like-November/dp/B0BHMS257Q

Synopsis: In a world where everything is glossy and it seems that we're tri= ggered or offended by everything, "And I Was like November" by Rachael Bigg=
s is a compendium of fifteen short stories, each of which offers a glimpse =
of the other side. These are stories of what happens to the women that didn=
't get their happy ending, the ones who don't believe family is everything,=
and the women who know that live laugh love isn't the cure all.

Critique: Original, eloquent, erudite, riveting, thought-provoking, and tru=
ly memorable, the short stories comprising "And I Was like November" showca=
se author Rachael Biggs' genuine flair for a riveting and narrative driven = storytelling style. While available for personal reading lists in a digital=
book format (Kindle, $6.99), "And I Was like November" is a strongly recom= mended addition to personal, community, college, and university library Con= temporary Literary Fiction & Anthology collections.

Editorial Note: Rachael Biggs is an author, screenwriter, copywriter and jo= urnalist who divides her time between Vancouver, and Los Angeles. She start=
ed writing as soon as she discovered pens and paper and began creating stor= ies and winning contests as early as second grade. (https://www.goodreads.c= om/author/show/6883586.Rachael_Biggs)

Artifacts and Other Stories
Ronna Wineberg
www.ronnawineberg.com
Serving House Books
https://servinghousebooks.com
9781947175563, $14.95, PB, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Artifacts-Other-Stories-Ronna-Wineberg/dp/1947175564

Synopsis: A compendium of fourteen short stories by Ronna Wineberg, "Artifa= cts and Other Stories" explores the exhilaration, disappointment, and surpr= ises of love and connection. These original short stories portray relations= hips -- between lovers, spouses, parents and children, and friends.

In these stories, desire, longing, memory, marriage, betrayal, adultery, lo= ss, and fresh starts dominate lives. Men and women navigate their feelings = and domestic struggles, wrestle with the shifting tides of affection, aging=
, and illness. Past and present weave together, spilling into the futures a=
s these vibrant, deeply human characters face unexpected changes in their l= ives and in themselves.

Critique: Eloquent, erudite, original, entertaining, deftly crafted, inhere= ntly fascinating, thought-provoking, and memorable, "Artifacts and Other St= ories" showcases author and storyteller Ronna Wineberg's genuine flair for = the kind of narrative driven storytelling that holds her reader's rapt atte= ntion from cover to cover. While also available for personal reading lists =
in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), "Artifacts and Other Stories" is =
an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community,=
college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction & Short Stor=
y Anthology collections.

Editorial Note: The stories of Ronna Wineberg (www.ronnawineberg.com) have = appeared in American Way, Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, North=
Dakota Quarterly and other literary journals, and have been broadcast on N= PR. She was awarded a fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation fo=
r the Arts, a scholarship in fiction from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conferenc=
e, and residencies to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Rag= dale Foundation. She is also the founding fiction editor of the Bellevue Li= terary Review.

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Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
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To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugal= muse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publish= er, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number=
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James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review

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