Riveting Reads for Busy People
No time for a novel? You could read a story from one of these stellar collections during your lunch breakābut we bet you won't stop at just one.
By Mark Athitakis
3 of 4
We Are Taking Only What We Need
By Stephanie Powell Watts
240 pages;
Ecco
The protagonists
in Watts' debut collection are typically black
women in North Carolina who are making their first reckonings with grown-up
cruelty, embarrassment and betrayal. In
the title story, the narrator observes her parents' breakup
and her father's affair with a young white woman
that descends into its own infidelities. Pressed to share what she's
seen, she's stunned mute: "The
question that breaks your heart never wants an answer." And
in "Do You Remember the Summer of
Love?" a woman trying to head west and
start a new life in California is waylaid by a hotel bartender, opening up a
spiky commentary about how access to freedom differs across races. The success
of Watts' 2017 debut
novel, No One Is Coming to Save
Us,
prompted the reissue of this 2011 collection, first published by a small
university press. It deserves the bigger spotlight. Marked
by moments of rare sensitivity and humor, these stories
reveal an intimate understanding of the ways that families can stay resilient
amid change while being honest about the scars that change often delivers.
— Mark Athitakis
Published 04/02/2018