#372 Better Latitude- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

#372 Better Latitude- Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

A single mother is raising her child and trying to make sense of his father’s disappearance. The whole story is written like a letter that will never be sent. Laureano, used to his father’s sparse company, only believes his father has taken a long trip and will soon come back. His mother knows better, although she herself is in some denial:

“I realized you had a capacity for disposing of people like they were ziplock bags, but I considered this trait of yours the same way I did tragedy or bad luck, only affecting other people, never myself.”

There is something both noble and tragic about this delusional mother, hanging on to any thread of hope, her son in a state of suspended emotional development. The end will not be good, no matter how hard she works as a mother, something is missing. Maybe it’s not just his father, maybe the missing truth is more damaging.

Rating: 7-7-8-8 Total= 30

#362 The Dive Bar- Katherine Heiny

#362 The Dive Bar- Katherine Heiny

This is the first story in the debut book by Katherine Heiny, Single, Carefree, Mellow. This is my first time reading anything by Heiny…she had me at Dive Bar. I like dive bars, I like drinking at dive bars…hell I just like drinking. Of course this story isn’t really about a dive bar.

What I do like about this story is the setting, New York City. There are a lot of writers that are from, have lived in, or pretend to understand NYC. Not all of them succeed. Having moved away from NY just a year ago, and recently returned, reading about the bar and singles scene in Manhattan makes my heart twitch just a bit.

It’s small things, but familiar things, like Sasha and Monique deciding where to drink by walking towards each other on Broadway, and just stop in whichever bar they meet in front of.

“Sarah looks up and sees Monique down the block, and has that thrill you get from seeing someone familiar on the streets of New York, like looking through a box of old paperbacks at a garage sale and finding a copy of a novel you love.”

This collection is about being single. Heiny’s writing style is easy and treats this topic without pretense. So far, she gracefully avoids stereotypes of gender norms, which is hard when dealing with such a topic.

Now I want to go hit up a dive bar and talk with a friend about topics, both meaningful and not.

Rating: 8-8-8-8 Total= 32