Beastmomma

I first heard about this book from Sonja who had given the book as a present to her sister Karen.  I did not plan to read the book until it was selected as the March/April selection at Planet Books.   St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves makes for good reading while in law school.  The short stories are easy enough to read quickly, but bizarre and filled with enough twists to keep my attention.  My one complaint was that I felt the stories did not have enough resolution; I found myself asking, "But, what about?"  Through the course of the Sunday Salon, I got to keep track of what I thought about specific stories.

"Accident Brief, Occurrence #00/422" and the flagship story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves." Both of the stories were sad. The main characters were frustrated with their current circumstances but did not have the power or resources to create a change.  This week, I also read, "Out to Sea." The main character in that story was an older man with one leg who lived in a retirement community that is made of boats.  After taking Elder Law this semester, I found myself wondering why he did not plan for better long term care.  The story was also sad because the main character's main source of companionship is a visit from a teenager who steals from him.   

I read "The City of Shells," which was surprisingly sad. The cleverness of the author's writing is how she manages to pack in a lot of subtle twist and turns, but then still manage to have a quick ending.  In some of the stories I found this frustrating because I wanted the characters to have more resolution.  I also realized that many of the short stories feature water--- either the ocean or rain.  This week I also read the following stories in this book: "from Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration" and "Lady Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows." Both of those stories featured characters with rough transitions.  Of the three stories, my favorite was the one about Westward Migration.  In that story, I liked the relationship between the father and son.  In the Lady Yeti story, I found myself disturbed by the sexual undertones. 

Recommend to a friend? Yes.

I am using this book as the "first name" selection for the What's in a Name Reading Challenge.

Other Reviews:

Care's Online Book Club