Review of How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capo Crucet

In How to Leave Hialeah, Jennine Capo Crucet explores south Florida and the world of the Cuban immigrant. This book of short stories mainly takes place in Hialeah, a city in Miami-Dade county that is home to a very high percentage of Cubans. Almost every story has some sprinkling of Spanish in it, which adds to the flavor of the book.

The characters in these 11 stories tend to be young and observant, often struggling with the disconnect between their parents' generation, born in Cuba, and their own, born in the U.S. Family plays a huge role in this book. In the title story, one of the strongest, the narrator, a young Cuban-American woman, heads off to the Northeast for college, the first person in her family to leave the Miami area. In "The Next Move," a widower relates memories of his wife while dealing with some unruly grandchildren. "Men Who Punched Me in the Face," we again have a young female narrator, this time documenting the various boys and men who have been violent toward her. I thought "How to Leave Hialeah" and "Men" were among the two best in the collection.

This book won The John Simmons Short Fiction Award from the University of Iowa, and I can see why. The stories are complex as are the characters, but they are clearly written with love and affection and an understanding of Cuban-American culture in Miami.

Below is a passage from "Men Who Punched Me in the Face:"

My mother declared him the The Best Looking Guy To Ever Talk To Me three minutes after meeting him. He had the hard-line chin and perfect eyebrows that looked like a professional Hialeah beautician had sculpted them. He never got carded when he ordered beer at El Rey Pizza. He could grow a beard in two hours. After a game, he smelled so much like man sweat and dirt that I worried just smelling him would make me pregnant. He was light brown but close enough to white that my abuela didn't hate him.


Just One Pink gives How to Leave Hialeah an 8.5.

Review of Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg

Writing about mental illness isn't easy. And I'm guessing that when that mental illness strikes your own child, it's that much harder. In Hurry Down Sunshine, Michael Greenberg takes on his daughter Sally's descent into manic depression. At age 15, Sally is "struck," as Greenberg puts it. She goes to a locked mental ward in Manhattan, where she is treated for almost a month. Greenberg writes about the hospital and several of its patients with care and respect, while at the same time trying to make sense of seeing his daughter, once so vibrant, so ill.

When Sally comes out, Greenberg does his best to help her back toward health. He and his wife Pat, who is Sally's stepmother, struggle to keep Sally safe and on her medication. His ex-wife Robin and son Aaron also appear on the scene, and the family works -- not always smoothly-- to keep the family together and to keep Sally healthy. At the same time all this is happening, Greenberg is caring for one of his brothers, who is also mentally ill.

Greenberg does an excellent job of detailing Sally's illness and the strain it places on his marriage and on him specifically. What is clear from this memoir is Greenberg's utmost love for his daughter and his willingness to do anything to help-- and save-- her. He even takes some of Sally's medication because he wants to see the world as she saw it.

I found this book incredibly compelling and sped through it. Greenberg was able to express his pain and explain both the loss and the hope he felt, and I'm presuming, continues to feel. The book gives us a very clear account of manic depression, a disease that is not completely understood and that, based on Greenberg's account, is extremely frightening.

I highly recommend this book, not only for those interested in mental illness, but also for those interested in memoir-writing.

Just One Pink gives Hurry Down Sunshine an 8.5.

Review of Girl Trouble by Holly Goddard Jones

Girl Trouble is one of the best books of short stories I have read in a long time. Like any short story collection, there are some stories that are stronger than others, but overall, this is a very well-written and interesting collection.

All eight stories take place in the fictional town of Roma, Kentucky, a small town in western Kentucky. Holly Goddard Jones knows a lot about this area-- she grew up in Russellville, Kentucky, which I'm guessing Roma is modeled after. As the title of the book implies, there is girl trouble, not only in the typical sense of the phrase, but also in many others. Not every story is told by a female narrator or revolves around a female character, but many of them do. One of the strongest stories involves a divorced woman who has lost her daughter to a brutal crime and follows how she tries to cope with the aftermath-- and with the news that her ex-husband is getting re-married. Another of the strongest stories is the flip side of this woman's-- it's about the young man who was responsible for her daughter's death and what led him there. Another story is about a young girl who visits her neighbors' pool on a regular basis-- not the makings of an especially exciting story, you would think. But we get some good information about a girl beginning to recognize the power of her sexuality.

All in all, this was an excellent collection and one I would recommend to those who are interested in the craft of short fiction.

Here is a passage from the story "Parts:"
I knew when Art called three weeks ago that he had news for me. He only calls to hurt me with his happiness, and he always prefaces his announcements with, "I wanted you to know first." Like it's a gift he's offering me, a neat little package of despair: Dana, I'm selling the house. Dana, I met a woman. Dana, we're getting married.

Just One Pink gives Girl Trouble a 9.

Review of Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh

Let me preface this post by saying that I read Mrs. Kimble awhile ago, and the fact that I still remember large parts of it speaks to the effect it had on me.

In theory, there is nothing novel (no pun intended) about the book. It is the story of Ken Kimble, a minister, and the three woman who play central roles in his life. A third of the book is devoted to his first wife, Birdie, a woman he eventually leaves. Another third is about his second wife, Joan, a wealthy-- and lonely-- woman. The last third revolves around Dinah, a woman he first met when she was a child and he was an adult, married to Birdie.

We learn about Ken through the eyes of Birdie, Joan and Dinah. We never get first person perspective from Ken, and I think this is what makes the book so interesting. We learn about Ken-- who he is, who he wanted to be, his faults, his strengths-- through the women in his life, each who has her own issues. Each of the women is complicated in her own way, adding another layer of complexity to the story.

Jennifer Haigh's book spans three decades, though the first few pages take place in the present-- and they were what drew me in. Here are the first few lines:

"The man died alone, in a baby blue Eldorado on Route A1A, waiting for the drawbridge to be lowered. As his heart seized, his foot lifted off the brake; the car crept forward and nudged the bumper of a lawn service truck. The driver of the truck radioed his office and waited for the ambulance to arrive. By the time it came, the man was already dead."

Just One Pink gives Mrs. Kimble a 9.