Welcome to Litsy!

I've had this on my shelf for ages, as in, maybe 15+ years. I don't know why I hadn't read it yet, since I knew it would be amazing (and it was). She's had more work come out since this collected edition, so now I need to get my hands on those. #storyaday2023

This is a special collection, four books of short stories where every line has impact. It reads fast leaving the reader with the sense of the many scars of a real life presented in short sharp fictional bursts.

“I picked up coffee in town, but skipped the doughnuts and scones; after fifty-two years, my body owes me nothing.”

Sorry, so many quotable lines

“On the last night of the marriage, my husband and I went to the ballet.”

- opening line in this story.

So, instead of going to the radiologist‘s office, I walked into a nondenominational church where the artist‘s presentation was advertised on a plaque outside: “Finding the Mystery in Clarity.” Was this not the opposite of what most people sought? I thought, I will learn something!

(A few minutes reading before I head into work)

“My visit was years too soon. I did not make the most of it. I should have pressed him about the difference between originality and creativity, about his feeling that confusion was caused by the lack of genuine feeling.”

“The worst of it is over now, and I can‘t say that I‘m glad. Lose that sense of loss—you have gone and lost something else.”

I‘m trying to slow down and find the right reading pace, but in these early stories she comes at the reader very fast with all these lines that say a lot of different things at once, and then she‘s onto to something else.

First lines.

I‘ve had this sitting around since 2007. Trying it out this morning.

Bookish birthday present from a man of impeccable taste 😊👌 Have you ever read any Amy Hempel? I've never heard of her before 😬 (⬅️ bad reader, BAD!)

"One of the 10 best New York Times Book Review books of the year" according to the badge on the cover. #booktober #awardwinning

"Like a discus-thrower going for the record, he hurled Suzy's dentures on to the roof of Rancho Libido."

How big of a book nerd am I? I brought collected stories of Amy Hempel to the bar. About that big I guess.