The Kind of Things Saints Do (Volume 1) (Iowa Short Fiction Award) - Softcover

Valeri, Laura

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877458197 ISBN 13: 9780877458197

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 2002

Synopsis

From the Anglo-American woman who makes a spectacle of herself trying to be Cuban in Miami to the estranged son leading his father on a hostile hike in New Mexico, Valeri's characters carry a heavy load of desire and anger. Proud, loud, and hungry for whatever comes next, each person desperately searches for an understanding that lessens his or her burden. The saints here are pure only in their anger, desperation, and desire to be loved, holy only in their quest to keep going.

These stories grow through subtle shifts—the bad becomes not so bad, the worst livable. It is the saintly moments of unexpected understanding that shape the collection: one gigolo's lover picks up another at a bus stop and they agree on his worthlessness, the love-worn man reminds the newly divorced woman of her physical power, the estranged son shelters his father from an unexpected storm.

Valeri navigates the reader through the bones and scars of those who ache with wanting something else and become a little older and a little wiser for it. The Kind of Things Saints Do is a collection of human imperfections and missed connections that grows into a kaleidoscope of aspiration and hope.

About this title

Reviews

The seven stories of Valeri's energetic debut collection range far and wide in their examination of the ins and outs of love and affection. In the title story, teenage Susan acts out on her suppressed attraction for her best friend, Dana, through self-mutilation and a sexual encounter with a boy Dana likes. "Whatever He Did, He Did Enough" describes the troubles of a man who rescues and falls in love with a beautiful Cuban girl, only to watch her behavior shift alarmingly after he brings her home to Miami. "She's Anonymous" offers a different angle on love, as a divorced woman in her early 30s takes up dating again and finds herself wandering in and out of a troubling affair with a damaged younger man she meets on the Internet. Writing is the subject of "A Rafter in Miami," as a Cuban hairdresser tries unsuccessfully to fulfill her prose dreams after she starts dating a prominent Miami writer. The final story is the longest and the most developed: "Turn These Stones into Bread" focuses on a father and son as they try to reconcile their various grudges during a hiking trip. Valeri rarely relies on expository prose to push her plots along, instead using dialogue and inner monologue to generate forward movement. A couple of the stories are murky and unfocused, and occasionally her prose turns melodramatic as she develops the different conflicts. But there's plenty of lively writing, which bodes well for Valeri's future, especially if she continues to explore unconventional characters and plot lines.
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Valeri rips through these pages with a fearless display of raw emotion. Whether she is writing from the point of view of a self-mutilating 17-year-old girl or a peripatetic twentysomething male, her stories are filled with urgency and pain. In "Turn These Stones into Bread," Valeri shows us the rage of an abandoned son and then turns around to reveal the suffering of the father who deserted him. No one is excluded from her compassionate, generous vision. This collection won the 2002 John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Joanne Wilkinson
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Edition details

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0877458197
• ISBN 13: 9780877458197
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 166