~Post by Julie W.
I picked up Signs and Wonders mostly blind. I knew that the folks at American Short Fiction had good things to say about Alix Ohlin’s work, and that I’m always game for a new collection of short stories, and that she’ll soon be here to read from her new novel. I needed a book to read one weekend, this one offered itself. It seemed a small decision at the time. Now, of course, it’s clear that the fates intervened that serendipitous day to bring me and Alix Ohlin together. My God, what took them so long???
I read this collection without stopping (making things like cooking, walking down the street and sleeping a bit more complicated for a couple of days). The stories in Signs and Wonders are populated by regular people moving through all the irregularities of life, about a new wife who is not trusted by her stepchildren but there they are on vacation together; a sister trying to save a drug addicted brother, and the boyfriend who watches her struggle; a couple, long divorced, sitting next to one another at their grown daughter’s play; a divorced woman dragged on a cruise to the Galapagos island by her aunt. From the first sentence, Ohlin takes you right to heart of these characters, shooting them under your skin neat and quick with precise details of their lives, their loves, their pasts. She sends characters to the edge of a tailspin, brings them back, sits them down to a dinner table of Indian food with the mysterious, adorable man they met at a party only to have their children rush in, cause a commotion, propel them forward. Her stories do not stop moving, do not stop revealing, and what they reveal are the qualities of ordinary life that do not feel ordinary at all – how we connect with other people, how those connections wither or endure, evolve and transform.
I haven’t picked up Ohlin’s new novel yet, Inside, but suffice it to say it’s high on my list. You know that wonderful feeling you get when you’ve discovered a new author for yourself? Feels like finding a ten dollar bill on the sidewalk, doesn’t it? With Ohlin, it feels as if I’ve picked up a crisp, clean hundred.
Here’s Ohlin talking about the collection herself:
And here she is talking about writing:
Alix Ohlin will be here at BookPeople to read from and sign Inside as well as Signs and Wonders on Saturday, June 16, 6p. The event is co-sponsored by the brilliant, beautiful folks at American Short Fiction.
BookPeople 