A spare and graceful collection of linked short stories about a boy, then adolescent and young man, growing up in Texas. McNeely is unsentimental about the many ways small hurts accumulate in a life and how unfairness, perpetuated in the name of love and need, seeps in over the years to define it. The portrait is sad but not sorrowful; there's hope in Buddy's story somewhere, and the fact that it's hard to pin down speaks to the strong strand of compassion running through the book and the fact that McNeely never loses hold of his love for his characters. ( )

Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely

Pictures of the Shark is a series of short stories whose central characters are Buddy and his embattled parents. Each story is a snapshot of their lives. Lives filled with pain and angst as they needle each other, testing, probing. Love is a weapon to withhold or to smother. Unable or unwilling to communicate their feelings, they lob verbal bombs at each other or try to convince themselves that ‘tickle torture’ is a sign of affection. Alcohol becomes a balm to hide from the pain until it becomes its own weapon of destruction.
Margot hadn’t planned on getting pregnant. Arlene suggested giving Buddy up for adoption. No one, not even Margot’s own mother, thought it was a good idea for Margot, a single woman nearing forty, to have a child. Jimmy had insisted on marriage. But Jimmy, it turned out, had no real interest in being married. He had hated it…
Pictures of the Shark is a painful look at a dysfunctional family. There are no happy endings here. I felt uncomfortable reading these passages, angry at Buddy’s mother for putting up with her mentally abusive husband, outrage at him for his treatment of her and Buddy, anguish for a child whose life is destroyed by those who should be protecting him. Maybe he should have been given up for adoption, at least he would has stood a chance. ( )

Stories that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

With so many great books yet to read, I’m not usually one to re-read many. But Pictures of the Shark: Stories may prove to be an exception. Frankly, I sat down and read this book in one sitting, and I was captivated from the start. But as I raced through, page after page, I am certain I missed things. I really feel the need to go back and do it again, slowly.

Buddy Turner’s life is presented to the reader in a unique fashion in this collection of stories. We see him first as a young boy, but then he appears as a teen, only to reappear later on as a child again. Each story is self-contained, so I didn’t feel confused by the back and forth even as I watched the breakdown of a marriage and the impact this wreaked on the young Buddy and its manifestation in his older self as he displayed more and more of his father’s characteristics. The non-linear storytelling may not be to everyone's taste.

The stories reveal personal dramas of the kinds happening around (or to) each of us. I’m reminded that you never know what’s going on at the house next door and don’t have any idea what other people may have endured to get to the moment you encounter them. I was emotional reading about Buddy’s life; those feelings continue to surface. These stories hit me surprisingly hard, and their memory seems to want to linger. As a mother of sons, I hope my impact on them was positive, strengthening, and affirming, but I can’t help but wonder if I couldn’t have done better myself.

I highly recommend PICTURES OF THE SHARK: STORIES to readers of literary fiction.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Book Blog Tours. ( )