The Wonder Garden by Lauren Acampora – 368 pages – Short Stories
Book Blurb:
A man strikes an under-the-table deal with a surgeon to spend a few quiet seconds closer to his wife than he’s ever been; a young soon-to-be mother looks on in paralyzing astonishment as her husband walks away from a twenty-year career in advertising at the urging of his spirit animal; an elderly artist risks more than he knows when he’s commissioned by his newly-arrived neighbors to produce the work of a lifetime.
In her stunning debut collection, The Wonder Garden, Lauren Acampora brings to the page with enchanting realism the myriad lives of a suburban town and lays them bare. These linked stories take a trenchant look at the flawed people of Old Cranbury, incisive tales that reveal at each turn the unseen battles we play out behind drawn blinds, the creeping truths from which we distract ourselves, and the massive dreams we haul quietly with us and hold close.
My Review: 4 stars
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The Wonder Garden is a beautiful selection of connected short stories. Some of these stories were absolutely brilliant, even though I’m not an ardent fan of this type of storytelling. It’s a judgmental juxtaposition at its finest.
I loved the characters and most definitely Acampora’s writing style, so what’s my problem? I suppose when I get hooked in, which is simple to do in this collection, I wanted more. I needed each story developed further. Her acuity and perception into this suburban town is entirely relatable. Thankfully, because the stories were loosely linked, I did get some closure for some of the characters. My favorites were Visa and Aether.
I recognize that it was probably more difficult to connect these short stories than to write a novel, but I beg this author to do just that. Her writing deserves our attention.
Quotes I liked:
Curiosity, he read somewhere, is part of the recipe for happiness. Perhaps following its pull is the only way to upend the mind’s more tedious, workaday functions. Perhaps happiness is nothing more than that—the cessation of logistics, a broad clearing of the decks.”
– “She had so easily, eagerly, fallen into the habit of trust. In their wedding vows, when they had promised to help each other achieve their dreams, to stand beside each other through any difficulty, it had seemed that the words were skewed to her benefit. It had never occurred to her, really, that she would be called upon.”
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