Book Review: The Blackbird & Other Stories
The Blackbird & Other Stories by Sally Thomas (Wiseblood Books, 2024).
Last summer, you may remember, I was blown away by Sally Thomas’s gorgeously written debut novel, Works of Mercy. This summer, Thomas is releasing a book of short stories (or, more precisely, eight short stories and one 86-page novella). “Blown away” isn’t the right term for the effect these stories have on a reader. It’s more like they slip up on you, insinuating themselves into your mind and heart.
The stories are strong on atmosphere, sometimes literally—weather and the environment play a significant role in several of them. Thomas’s stories evoke the place she knows best, the American South. Often one story is linked to the next by the simple device of a sudden rainstorm, the sound of footsteps in the night, the sight of stars in a dark sky.
Some of them (three of the stories plus the novella) are more strongly linked than that, following members of one family, the Mallorys, through the years. We meet them when Caroline Mallory is grieving the loss of her son and the emotional walls put up by her daughter; we follow her through the loss of her husband, Cash, then her own serious illness and encroaching dementia, until we reach the novella, “The Happy Place.” Here Caroline is gone and the point of view shifts to that of Amelia, her daughter (who, despite those emotional walls, has given her own daughter the family name of Mallory). This shift allows us to see Amelia as her own person and to comprehend what she didn’t realize about her mother—and what her mother didn’t realize about her.
Thomas’s stories, quietly but persistently, push against an era in which cutting off relationships is often seen as the only way to protect one’s dignity and autonomy. This is not to say that all the relationships in these stories are healthy and wholesome. Far from it. They’re often messy or complicated or cold; occasionally they’re horrible. In “A Fire in the Hills,” a pregnant young woman trying to escape her abusive family calls her mom to be with her in the emergency room after she starts bleeding. “Well, I had to call somebody. And, I don’t know. She’s my mom,” is all she can say when her therapist asks if she’s okay with the situation—a cry of helplessness that makes the heart ache.
It’s not that unhealthy relationships are worthy of maintenance, Thomas’s characters show us; it’s more that we can’t just erase them from our lives. Our pasts are always part of us, shaping who we are, and that includes the people in them. The characters in these stories have to find a way to live with that, however long and hard they struggle against it. Ex-spouses, ex-lovers, estranged parents, distant children all pop up like unquiet ghosts in these pages, demanding that some sort of peace be made. Some of them have no right to make any such demand—some of these relationships cannot and should not be salvaged—but at the very least, some sort of coming to terms is needed.
My favorite story of the collection, “In the Dark,” deals with a woman, Anne, trying to hold together the pieces of a broken family as best she can, while dealing with her youngest son’s rare and deadly disease. During the night hike when she meets her ex-husband’s new fiancee, Anne’s two older children start to draw closer to their mother than they have in a long time. Wherever one connection proves irrevocably broken, Thomas’s gentle but powerful stories suggest, another one may be tentatively beginning to heal.
The Blackbird & Other Stories releases in August. Unfortunately, no pre-order links are available yet; when they do become available, I’ll edit them into this post.
Update (7/8/24): You can now pre-order from the publisher at this link!
(Cover image copyright Wiseblood Books. Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy.)
Correction: I originally wrote that the title story is set in Ireland; it’s actually set in the American South, like the other stories. (I was confused by the focus on Irish dancing!) Thanks to the author for letting me know.
Announcement:
Dear, Strange Things will be taking a break this summer. For the next several weeks I’ll be dealing with an extremely hectic work schedule, plus there’s that little matter of the book I’m writing! So I need to focus all my efforts on those things for now. But I’ll really miss writing here and interacting with you. I wish you all a great summer and will be back mid-August!
Goodreads Links:
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of Our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age by Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, and Rachel M. DeSmith Roberts
Other Links:
G. Connor Salter interviewed me for Fellowship & Fairydust magazine about my favorite authors, my own books, and the book I’m currently working on. Go here to read the interview!