A review by christine_queenofbooks
She Was Like That: New and Selected Stories by Kate Walbert
4.0
Thank you to Scribner & NetGalley for a free e-arc of She Was Like That for review.
I leapt at the chance to request an early copy of Kate Walbert's collection of stories because I really liked His Favorites (published last year). I don't recall the experience of reading that book to be as anxiety-inducing as reading this collection.
Throughout, it felt to me that the stories were about the feeling of being alone and of trying to make sense of things. Grief, pain, confusion, trauma - these pop up continually, to the extent that, at times, the stories ran together for me (i.e. I'm not sure I could distinguish between some of the main characters). And that might be the point - that all women encounter such difficulties and feel such ways. That, although our circumstances may be unique, we have such shared experience.
The focus in this collection is on women who aren't poor (I interpreted them as occupying the range from lower to upper middle class). Many of the main characters also are mothers - the relationships both with their children and their own mothers are explored. Race, if I'm remembering correctly, was only mentioned once - identifying a woman's hired help as black.
I like that She Was Like That is part of a larger conversation beginning about the (often emotional) labor women take on. I did like some of the stories better than others - while some were just okay, others were so deeply felt.
Content warning: suicide, mental illness, substance abuse, autism, eating disorders
I leapt at the chance to request an early copy of Kate Walbert's collection of stories because I really liked His Favorites (published last year). I don't recall the experience of reading that book to be as anxiety-inducing as reading this collection.
Throughout, it felt to me that the stories were about the feeling of being alone and of trying to make sense of things. Grief, pain, confusion, trauma - these pop up continually, to the extent that, at times, the stories ran together for me (i.e. I'm not sure I could distinguish between some of the main characters). And that might be the point - that all women encounter such difficulties and feel such ways. That, although our circumstances may be unique, we have such shared experience.
The focus in this collection is on women who aren't poor (I interpreted them as occupying the range from lower to upper middle class). Many of the main characters also are mothers - the relationships both with their children and their own mothers are explored. Race, if I'm remembering correctly, was only mentioned once - identifying a woman's hired help as black.
I like that She Was Like That is part of a larger conversation beginning about the (often emotional) labor women take on. I did like some of the stories better than others - while some were just okay, others were so deeply felt.
Content warning: suicide, mental illness, substance abuse, autism, eating disorders