#111 The Harvest- Amy Hempel

#111 The Harvest- Amy Hempel

It took me a minute or two to get into the rhythm of this one, but once I did, the payoff was worth it. This is a kind of bait and switch story. The narrator tell you of her accident and her recovery.  The she tells you she left out some stuff:

“I leave a lot out when I tell the truth. The same when I write a story.”

Writers like to write about their writing a lot. When they do it in the context of a story it can sometimes sound pretty narcissistic or at least come across as gimmicky. Not here, I loved it. Hempel is a meticulous author, and leaves no rough edges to get caught up on.

In the end we’re left not knowing which story is real, or if any of it is real via the fictional narrator or the real-life author.

Notable Passage: “I exaggerated even before I began to exaggerate, because its true—nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.”

Rating: 9-9-10-8 Total= 36