Sorrow, joy and moments of grace are characteristics of Simon Van Booy's stories and novels. In his earlier novel, Father's Day, he explored the relationship between an orphaned six-year-old girl and her disabled, ex-con uncle who becomes her surrogate father. Out of tragic circumstances, the two learn how to adapt and form a bond that changes them in profound ways.In The Sadness of Beautiful Things, a collection of short fiction, British-born and Brooklyn, N.Y., resident Van Booy mines similar terrain and themes. This time he gathers eight short works that focus on a host of ordinary people who suffer devastating life losses, but find ways to go on--dramatically changed.
Each of these haunting, at times mystical, fictions are, at their core, love stories in every conceivable sense of the word. A daughter tells of her absent, volatile father and the lengths her long-suffering, yet forgiving mother ultimately goes to for their star-crossed relationship. Familial love takes center stage when the mental deficiencies of old age lead an unfeeling father into a labyrinthine depression. His devoted wife and their daughter connect with an eye doctor in Chinatown who offers a remedy. Grieving parents in a quest for healing after the death of their young daughter rely upon robotic, artificial intelligence, only to face chilling, unforeseen consequences.
"Not Dying," the longest and most inventively told story in the collection, probes a father's love for his wife and daughter--and their lives' meaning and purpose--amid impending fears of the apocalypse. The kindness and the loving generosity of strangers are central to another tale, about a mysterious shut-in with a heartbreaking past, who becomes an anonymous benefactor to a struggling family in town. Forgiveness anchors the story of a rough-and-tumble boxer who unexpectedly befriends a thieving, down-on-his-luck man. A search for the self imbues a piece about two lost souls: a 17-year-old vagabond hitchhiker gets picked up by a lonely 34-year-old woman struggling with the weight of the past. And the lives of a passionate, female blind pianist and a Chinese American jazz trumpeter surprisingly intersect via a humble and unassuming doorman.
Van Booy is a wise, philosophical writer. His spare prose is incredibly illuminating and is further enhanced by unexpected resolutions that allow graceful themes to expand and flourish. What makes this collection all the more compelling is that Van Booy claims, in the preface of the book, to have based most of the tales on true stories, told to him over the course of his travels. The dark, sad circumstances that germinate each of these poignant, unpredictable gems will lead readers to refreshing glimpses of transcendence and hope. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines.
Shelf Talker: A wise and deeply affecting collection of vividly told short stories that centers on the inner lives of ordinary people shaped by personal tragedy.