I Want to Show You More

If there was an option for 3 1/2 stars, I'd go with that.I first encountered Quatro in Ploughshares with her story "Sinkhole." I love that story. I'll say that again: I love that story. It's idiosyncratic and heartbreaking. I found another of Quatro's stories in AQR--"Georgia the Whole Time"--which I also very much enjoyed. Finally, I ran into "Demolition" in the Kenyon Review. I enjoyed "Demolition" because it's sort of a bizarre account of a deviant religious cult.Anyway, I went into this collection with high expectations, but came away a bit disappointed. First, I found the recurring adultry/phone sex theme tiring and a bit bland. Many of these stories are thematically rich but lack a strong central plot (such as "Holy Ground" and "The Anointing"). Another recurrent theme is religion. The religious theme is somewhat elusive, and I didn't get a clear picture of the role that religion is supposed to be playing here (clearly, these characters are questioning their faith, but the end result is somewhat vague. Do they lose faith? Merely question it? Reaffirm it? I'm just not sure).Still, there are a few gems here, such as the ones mentioned earlier, as well as: "1.7 to Tennessee" and "Better to Lose an Eye" (which I enjoyed despite the fact that the idea may be a bit trite).Quatro does a fantastic job with language. I just wish the themes of these stories were a bit more unique and the plots were just a tad stronger. The phone sex thing really detracted from this collection.

I hate the cover art, but the stories themselves are quite good. Jamie Quatro manages to combine the sacred with the profane, the religious with the sexual, in ways that are quite compelling. The voices of the narrating characters are strong and unapologetic, even if from an objective standpoint the reader knows the characters themselves are flawed. The collection did something I've never run across before where in addition to the completely stand-alone stories, there are a couple sets of linked stories following one character or plot path. The linked stories are not necessarily in chronological order, nor are they grouped together in the collection, but you can tell from the plot that they are about the same character(s). One set is about a woman engaged in an affair, and another, smaller set, is about a family in which the wife is dying of cancer. Yes, these may sound cliche, but Jamie Quatro writes them to be anything but.

I liked Jamie Quantro's writing style quite a bit. Some of the stories had undertones to them that angered me so some degree. I found myself wanting the main character in many of the stories - especially the ones about infidelity - to take more ownership of her feelings and actions. She seemed to want to portray herself as a victim of these strong feelings and desires, and didn't recognize that she had any sense of agency about them, or have enough of a relationship with them to acknowledge how they may have been influenced by her religious upbringing or beliefs. I found that I didn't like the main character in these stories, although I could understand her and empathize with her. I wanted her to understand herself better. It was a good read.

I am not usually a fan of short fiction, but after the write up for this collection in the NYTimes, i ordered it immediately. Quattro's stories revolve around real life women in various stages of living. Old, young, they are similar in that they experience the rawness of life- infidelity, obsession, a mother who has her child-- all of these scenarios and stories are told with such a deft hand you feel like you might actually know these characters. could not put it down.

Short stories are almost always problematical for conveying an in-depth accounting of the human experience. At best, they are snippets or slices of life; they usually leave the reader hanging - wanting more. And so it is with this collection. One finds themes of death, sickness, aging, God, love, sex, infidelity, running, etc, but often within a fantastical, unrealistic, perhaps contrived, wrapper which confuses and dilutes the impact of the stories. There seems to be potential: there is insight and some of the stories touch a nerve. But, with a couple of exceptions, the stories taken together come up short.

A book of short stories set mostly around Lookout Mt. TN/GA If you want somewhat off stories centering around infidelity, death, and family set in the intense atmosphere of the "Christian" south this is a great collection. Thought provoking, open minded, the stories do not all share identical moods. I wanted her to show me more, but I think part of the point was there was no more.

4 stars is maybe a tad generous, but the author is clearly very talented. The writing is compelling and well-suited to the short story format (because you get kinda overwhelmed by how bleak they are! One or two stories at a time is the max I could handle...) The proportion of stories about adultery is strangely high. But overall it is beautifully written and worth your time.

There are a few gems -- "1.7 to Tennessee," "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Pavement," "Here" and "Sinkhole," not sure about "Demolition" or "Holy Ground." The very short pieces simply do not work. The sum may be less than the whole, but it's definitely an interesting book. Not as good as the New York Times review, but worth the effort. M. Adelman