After the Apocalypse by Maureen F. McHugh
My rating: 4/5 cats
when this came into the store, i thought, “huzzah,” because i’d already bought two of her other books ‘cuz they looked really good. of course, i have not read them. this is the way i operate—i buy books and i squirrel them away until it feels right to read them, frequently owning several books by a single author who appeals to me, without having anything upon which to base that impression. it is a very peculiar kind of madness. but then mike reynolds reviewed this book, and he specifically recommended it to me. and so i read it. four months later. for me, this is a pretty good turnaround.
and he was right—this is an excellent, and consistent, collection. she has an ability that she shares with authors like barry unsworth or richard powers or (i am told) stewart o’nan, to write gracefully in a number of different styles and with a number of different foci. she is able to geek out in The Kingdom of the Blind and still write a perfect tough little sad piece of working-poor-struggling-to-transcend-circumstances in Honeymoon, which was my clear favorite.
there is so much to admire here. so much to break your heart against. Useless Things is, among other things, a bitterly learned lesson about where to draw the line between being a good person and being a victim. and it is a perfection. The Effect of Centrifugal Forces…i genuinely don’t know where to start with discussing that one. i could write a thirty page paper on that story and only scratch the surface of its contribution to american literature.
After the Apocalypse and The Naturalist have less pure emotional appeal for me, but are so psychologically fascinating, they make my conscience itch. these characters are so refreshing. they are emotionally unmoored—clinically detached and determined to survive in a way that makes you root for them while never wanting to come across them in real life. it is all about the bottom line, here, and that line is survival, no matter what needs to be done to achieve it. amazingly complex characters for a short story.
and that’s what angers me so much. short stories! why are you so short? these characters—i would love to see them in a variety of circumstances! i could read multiple novels set in the worlds she has presented here. size matters! and i want more!
so, to recap: five perfect stories in a nine-story collection. you definitely need to read this.
