Resonant Blue and Other Stories

Description

The first collection of award-winning short fiction from the author of Bellflower and Things to See in Arizona; Mary Vensel White’s writing reflects “how we can endure and overcome our personal histories, better understand our ancestral ones, and accept the unknown future ahead.”

In “Driftwood,” a woman in a sleepy desert town willingly jumps into the back of a stranger’s pickup to escape her quiet house. In “Griffin,” an organized wife struggles to keep her family together and keep the beast of her husband’s mental illness away. And in the title story, “Resonant Blue,” an egotistical architect shatters everything around him as he tries to connect with his loved ones and build a better life. A game show for those seeking love, a family wedding that unveils another secret union, a woman’s impulsive trip to Greece to find her first love—in these twelve stories, Vensel White’s characters face turning points. Whether backed against a wall, reeling from a loss, or forced to confront a painful truth, each doggedly pursues the glimmer of possibility shining on the horizon.

*****

“White’s short stories observe everyday people at turning points in their lives.

The pieces that make up this collection provide revealing looks into the lives of their characters and quickly establish a sense of immediacy. In the title story, a high-powered architect fails to recognize signs in his own home indicating his relationship is failing (“She had ways of hiding things she didn’t want him to know about”). In “Cadmium,” a young man attending his mother’s second wedding learns to recognize her as a person separate from his relationship to her, and they begin to mend the damage she did to their relationship when he came out. In “Smoke,” a woman reckons with the remnants of her abusive marriage as her life literally burns around her. In the closing story, “What You Know,” an aspiring writer can’t seem to write his way past his parents’ tragic deaths. While the narratives in the stories are disparate, the overall theme of growth amid turmoil unites the collection. The writing is compelling and personal, quickly drawing readers into each entry with robust, fully fleshed-out characters. Although intriguing, “The Love of Your Life Show,” which follows a woman on a dating game show, feels out of sync with the other stories—the slightly off-kilter, alternate-reality feeling of this story doesn’t mesh with the quotidian yet profound nature of the rest of the collection. Most of the stories are well-paced, although “Par Avion,” in which an older woman takes off for Greece without telling her children, could have imparted the same message more succinctly. The stories flow neatly into each other, with the intimate atmosphere providing an underlying commonality to the otherwise unconnected characters. Similarly, each narrative builds to a crossroads—some dramatic and some much more muted—and provides an effective hook to grab the reader’s attention.

A quiet but captivating collection of stories with an affecting view of the commonplace.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Resonant Blue and Other Stories gathers stories about survival, endurance, escape, and reinvention, examining twelve characters whose lives reflect efforts to strive for something better (and, hopefully, different)… The emotional considerations aren’t all storms. Sometimes they are delivered in a wisp of windy portents of change or realizations. Other times, the stories are hard-hitting examinations of the undercurrents of change that surface in unexpected ways.

Libraries seeking short story collections filled with psychological connection, insights, solid characterization, and haunting inspections of quiet, desperate transformations will welcome the disparate lives represented in this collection. Resonant Blue and Other Stories holds moments of discovery that also will appeal to book clubs and women’s reading groups, revealing emotional ties that bind and growth processes that propel the characters towards new beginnings.”—Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“What a delightful collection of stories that felt very much like life, love and heartache bubbling up from a corner of the world and then recessing back into the matrix… the last (story) brings everything full circle and confirmed the message that I had already gleaned from the author which is that a single moment in time can loom large enough to write an entire 500 page novel however when condensed into a few pages it cuts like a knife into the heart of a fellow lonely traveler.” —Patti, Goodreads reviewer

“A brilliant compilation of stories that are heartfelt, engaging and entertaining, while delivering astute observations of the human dynamic and profound insights into her character’s personalities.”—Maureen, Goodreads reviewer