Amy Bonnaffons

I appreciated Bonnaffons’ efficiency. She has an effective sparsity of words that give you the whole story and do nothing extra for you. It’s a technique that makes her work emotionally bleak, but also gives you little enough that some story concepts work, and some fall. Instead of laboring through descriptions of what I didn’t care for, I will say that the sparse narration of “A Room to Live In” made it touching, the final image of “Doris and Katie” made the whole thing round and just the right size to hold in a hand, and I’m glad “The Wrong Heaven” was first and the title story; it deserved both.
My habit is arguing with book jacket quotes, and so, to Kevin Wilson, author of Perfect Little World and The Family Fang, I do not think this book altered me in all the necessary ways. I do not think this book altered me, I think it made me sad for part of the drive from Ohio to Michigan after I read while eating a pathetic lunch at a highway rest stop after five hours of interstate. That wasn’t really altering me, and it certainly wasn’t necessary.… (altro)