Krik? Krak!

These stories didn't give me the emotional experience I thought was in store. A few brief tugs on the heartstrings here and there, but at the end of the book I thought, “That's it? That's all she's got?” My suspicion is that these stories have more going on beneath the surface, and if you can decipher the symbolism you'll get a lot more bang from this book. I'm more of a surface reader - I enjoy the actual story being told and am not willing or able to look for extra meaning in a river or a cat or a cloud - and so this book didn't give me much enjoyment at all.

Stories of heartbreak and longing and political strife that I didn't always understand the history of...nevermind because under each tale is a strong current of hope (and in many cases, love). I was impressed by this collection of short stories, and I'm pretty sure I had encountered Between the Pool and the Gardenias in a textbook somewhere. The stories, all of them, left me breathless as each topples just above the crevice of devastation, the end of the main character or, in some cases, entire families. I normally read story collections out of order, picking the order by how much I like the story's title, but I read this one in order and was glad I did because some of the stories reference others and when those characters appear, it's like being greeted by an old friend. Lovely work.