#705 Wherever You Go, There You Are- Danielle Evans
This is an intertwined and somewhat scattered family, but nothing much out of the ordinary. A man is in the hospital dying, his daughter Chrissy is fourteen and needs someone to watch over her while he is attended to. The task falls to her cousin, just past college age. She has planned an overnight trip to watch het ex-boyfriend’s band play and meet his new fiancé. She takes Chrissy along for the ride.
There is a bit of a coming-of-age thing in this story, but i’m not sure if we’re supposed to follow Chrissy’s story or her cousin’s. Chrissy’s dad dies while theye are out of town, and while she is flown back, her cousin stays and contemplates making bad decisions with her ex. The whole story seems to be a long way to get to the last sentence:
“I should take you to your hotel’—but he doesn’t start the engine and he doesn’t get out of the car, and we just sit there like that, waiting for something better to present itself.”
There is a theme about letting go, or moving on, or self-reliance, but none of it really grabs me much. I have a similar feel about most of Evans’ collection. These are just not focused enough for short stories. Either expand them or tighten them, but for me, they fall too much in the middle.
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