reviews_and_ramblings (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2021-11-16 09:02 am
reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2021-11-16 09:02 am
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2020-2021 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: What We Lost in the Fire and Other Stories
What We Lost in the Fire and Other Stories by Wendell Ricketts
I was consistently impressed with the number and variety of narrators and other characters. The author has clearly met many folks during his life and paid attention. The characters felt believably different, something many authors can’t pull off. The characters showed different mindsets, different classes, different religions and ethnicities, different ways of speaking, all done convincingly. While all the stories were good, one in San Francisco in the 1950s and one in Rome around the year 2000 were especially beautiful. In another story, one line illustrated the author’s skill at describing even ordinary things. “Untouched except for a rectangular gap where the name had been sliced away, the cake looked like a page from a redacted FOIA report.” Whether or not this book wins any awards, people should read it. I’m glad I did.
https://amzn.to/3CkzCHk
I was consistently impressed with the number and variety of narrators and other characters. The author has clearly met many folks during his life and paid attention. The characters felt believably different, something many authors can’t pull off. The characters showed different mindsets, different classes, different religions and ethnicities, different ways of speaking, all done convincingly. While all the stories were good, one in San Francisco in the 1950s and one in Rome around the year 2000 were especially beautiful. In another story, one line illustrated the author’s skill at describing even ordinary things. “Untouched except for a rectangular gap where the name had been sliced away, the cake looked like a page from a redacted FOIA report.” Whether or not this book wins any awards, people should read it. I’m glad I did.
https://amzn.to/3CkzCHk