January 2024 MBR The Literary Fiction Shelf

The Literary Fiction Shelf

A Thread So Fine
Susan Welch
Muse Literary
https://museliterary.com
9781960876270, $25.99 Hardcover/$15.99 Paper/$0.99 Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/Thread-So-Fine-Novel/dp/1960876279

A Thread So Fine is a novel of family ties, childhood loyalty, and adult strife as two siblings come of age in the 1940s to find their lives and relationships tested by tragedy and loss. Despite the invisible thread that links them with love, Eliza and Shannon find their very different goals for their futures divide them in unexpected ways, sending each on a separate journey of discovery and revelation that tests their faith, their sins of omission, and their futures.

Susan Welch crafts a story that intersects the lives of different women who come and go from Eliza and Shannon's worlds, creating contrasts in perspective, values, and belief systems. These result in a compelling examination of each character's connections and perspective. Underlying all is a quest for life meaning that continues to buffet and influence each sister's growth process.

Time passes, as do opportunities for forming new and better relationships as the sisters navigate their separate lives and reflect on the forces which drove them to make disparate choices. From revised definitions of success and wealth to shifting social norms that bring with them new opportunities for different directions, Welch focuses on the moments of revelation that spin and influence these new life possibilities: "How playful and impromptu the photograph seemed - something she'd never noticed before. It occurred to her now that they actually loved one another."

The result is a powerful story of family ties and realizations that lead to renewed efforts to regroup. Libraries interested in starkly compelling stories of sisters will find this novel worthy of acquisition, but it's the book club reading group interested in women's experiences and connections that will particularly enjoy the directions and questions raised in the course of Welch's moving account. A Thread So Fine is highly recommended for general-interest readers to students of modern women's literature and stories about psychological growth.

Frontiers, Front Lines and Forehands
Brian Lee Gambill
Dorrance Publishing Company
www.dorrancepublishing.com
9798886835311, $17.00, PB, 180pp

https://www.amazon.com/Frontiers-Front-Lines-Forehands-Gambill/dp/B0C3PWXGXH

Synopsis: "Frontiers, Front Lines and Forehands" by Brian Lee Gambill is a story about a young man with varying interests - Education, Animal Welfare, Tennis, Linguistics, and Military Operations-and loads of determination and passion to find success within them. From this far-ranging tale, hopefully readers will be inspired to travel different avenues of life, to pursue their interests, no matter where their origin is or where they may take them.

Critique: Although a work of fiction, "Frontiers, Front Lines and Forehands" is drawn from author Brian Lee Gambill's personal and expansive studies of life and conditions in Serbia. The result is a novel that reads like a memoir (or quite possibly, a memoir that reads like a novel!). Inherently fascinating and exceptionally well written, "Frontiers, Front Lines and Forehands" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Frontiers, Front Lines and Forehands" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Brian Lee Gambill volunteered every week when he served in the United States Air Force for children's events in Schools, Marching Parades, Veterans' Affairs Events, assisting people facing Real Life Crisis Situations, and Arts & Crafts Events. He has devoted 100+ hours of personal time at The John Cochran Veterans Affairs Facility in St. Louis, Missouri as an Administrative Assistant to help with the process of assisting struggling Veterans.

The Thinning Veil: 13 Twisted Tales
Matthew J. Pallamary
https://mattpallamary.com
Mystic Ink Publishing
https://mysticinkpublishing.com
9780998680996, $10.95, PB, 175pp

https://www.amazon.com/Thinning-Veil-13-Twisted-Tales/dp/0998680990

Synopsis: Art imitates life and reflects our human condition which fluctuates from moment to moment along with our ever-changing life experience of the times we live in.

Author Matthew J. Pallamary's first short story collection, "The Small Dark Room of the Soul and Other Stories" was published thirty years ago and made references to the collective fears of those times. Much has happened over the last three decades since then with shifting geopolitics, explosive growth in science, technology, pandemics, school shootings, chaotic weather patterns, homelessness, and all the other problems we are still struggling with as we move deeper into the twenty-first century.

Twenty years later, his second short story collection, "A Short Walk to the Other Side" was published, following the similar theme of how close we all are to our demons, no matter how much we try to ignore and rid ourselves of them. We are all just a short walk away from a thought, act, or emotion that lets the monster out of its cage, taking us hostage into the abyss with it, sometimes with no escape.

Now his newly published third short story collection, "The Thinning Veil" follows the same train of thought. In this case it doesn't matter if the demons are locked in a small dark room, or just a short walk away, because the veil between the worlds is thinning and the boundaries have become blurred, bringing more weight to the question; what or where are the boundaries between what we believe to be real and what we imagine?

Critique: Erudite, eloquent, iconoclastic, "The Thinning Veil" once again showcases author Matthew J. Pallamary's mastery of the short story, raising this literary format to an impressively high level of literary fiction. Thoughtful, thought-provoking, entertaining, and memorable, the thirteen short stories comprising "The Thinning Veil" are especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Contemporary American Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Thinning Veil" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).

Editorial Note: The works Matthew J. Pallamary (https://mattpallamary.com) have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, French, and German. His historical novel of first contact between shamans and Jesuits in 18th century South America, titled, Land Without Evil received rave reviews along with a San Diego Book Award for mainstream fiction. It was also adapted into a full-length stage and sky show, co-written with and directed by Agent Red and performed by Sky Candy, an Austin Texas aerial group. The making of the show was the subject of a PBS series, Arts in Context episode, which garnered an EMMY nomination.

A Journey to St. Thomas: Tales for Our Time
Josiah Hatch III, author
Cathy Morrison, illustrator
Fulcrum Publishing
www.fulcrumbooks.com
9781682753347, $35.00, HC, 392pp

https://www.amazon.com/Journey-St-Thomas-Tales-Time/dp/1682753344

Synopsis: Hoping for an adventure (and at a discounted price), two dozen strangers set sail for balmy St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. As different from one another as strangers can be, they agree to pass the time by telling stories. As the passengers share their stories, they begin to learn some astonishing things about their neighbors.

Then, partway through the voyage, they are notified about a virus that has spread across the United States and their destination. The ship is quarantined, and they are destined to loll on the waves of the open sea until a port welcomes them.

Stuck together in the confines of the ship, the group continues to regale each other with ingenious tales.

"A Journey to St. Thomas: Tales for Our Time" by Josiah Hatch is a modern reimagining of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Hatch, who studied Anglo Saxon and Middle English languages at Oxford University, writes in iambic pentameter, craftily updating Chaucer's characters to those on the present-day cruise liner.

Touching on topics that include political differences and discord, elitism, economic hardship, and the perceived inability of the ordinary citizen to make a difference, "Journey to St. Thomas: Tales for Our Time" is richly textured and innovative novel that effectively captures the humor, insight, and pathos of the original Canterbury Tales -- all while telling a very modern story

Critique: Eloquent, entertaining, thought provoking, memorable, and embellished with the B/W images of artist/illustrator Cathy Morrison, "A Journey to St. Thomas: Tales for Our Time" by Josiah Hatch III is a truly extraordinary literary event and will have a very special attraction for readers with an interest in epic poetry and satire. A unique novel that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf, "A Journey to St. Thomas: Tales for Our Time" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and college/university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: #1: Josiah Hatch (https://www.fulcrumbooks.com/hatch) attended Princeton University, where he graduated summa cum laude, majoring in Ancient Greek and Latin with a minor in music theory. A Marshall scholar at Pembroke College, Oxford, he studied Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. He spent a year in Italy studying Latin literature, history and art. After studying at Oxford, Josiah moved to Washington, serving as a museum administrator at the Smithsonian Institution, a speechwriter and political aide, and, after obtaining a law degree from Georgetown, a lawyer.

Editorial Note #2: Cathy Morrison is a children's book illustrator working from her home studio in northern Colorado. Her studio overlooks the Mummy Range, the northern side of Rocky Mountain National Park. (www.artlicensing.com/artists/cathy-morrison-illustrates)

Little Rabbit
Alyssa Songsiridej
Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781639731657, $17.95, PB, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Rabbit-Alyssa-Songsiridej/dp/1639731652

Synopsis: When the unnamed narrator of Little Rabbit first meets the choreographer at an artists' residency in Maine, it's not a match. She finds him loud, conceited, domineering. But when he reappears in her life in Boston and invites her to his dance company's performance, their interaction at the show sets off a summer of expanding her own body's boundaries. Her body learns to obediently follow his, and his desires quickly become inextricable from her pleasure. This must be happiness, right?

But what does it mean for a queer young woman to partner with an older man, for a fledgling artist to partner with an established one? Does falling in love mean eviscerating yourself? Combining the sticky sexual politics of Luster with the dizzying, perceptive intimacy of Cleanness, "Little Rabbit" is a wholly new kind of coming-of-age story about lust, punishment, artistic drive, and desires that defy the hard-won boundaries of the self.

Critique: Vivid, iconoclastic, sensuous, electrifying, memorable, "Little Rabbit" by Alyssa Songsiridej raises a coming-of- age story to the rarified levels of fine literature. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), "Little Rabbit" is a truly extraordinary and highly recommended pick for personal and community library contemporary literary erotica collections.

Editorial Note: Alyssa Songsiridej (https://alyssasongsiridej.com) is an editor at Electric Literature. Little Rabbit is her first novel. A 2022 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree.

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