"Leaning in, he kisses her on the cheek. Like an old acquaintance, she thinks. As though there had never been any passion, nor love, nor rage, nor anything much, just some traces of innocuous familiarity between them. Live long enough, it seems, and every fire can burn itself out"
(If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black).
It has been far too long since I have been inspired to write about a book. It isn't the case that no book has peaked my interest in the past few months but more so that none sparked the desire to sit down and take my few precious moments of silence each day to write.
Thank you Robin Black for removing me from that funk. I will say, however, that I didn't approach this book without reservation. To begin - it is a book of short stories. To each their own. For me, typically I want to dive in. I want to be swept away so far that I become a character (or at least a regular spectator) to the intricate details of some other adventure, or story, or simply, conversation. I want to feel the characters as if they are beside me. Understand, relish and sympathize in their love, pain, regret, joy, sorrow, grief, guilt......
The short story is just that - a short story.
I realize that it is a great injustice for me to say that the short story doesn't 'do' it for me. Maybe I haven't had enough short story authors such as Robin Black enter my book shelf. Maybe I have always avoided a genre that promises much more than I expected it to deliver.
Robin Black's first work is not just the best book of short stories I have read to date but quite possibly one of the best books I have read overall. The characters within each story tell a unique tale of love and loss through the never-ending intricacies of those bound by five words: 'till death do us part. It's a work about love so deep that it cannot exist without thoroughly consuming parts of each individual involved. Yes - the cliche of two individuals becoming one while falling in love plays a role but a much darker side of that spinning coin falls to rest: Two become one because so much is lost, or taken, or simply forgotten that all that remains are two halves. Love, whether joyous and removed through death or painful and replaced with hurt, anger, jealousy, and despair, proves to be the most dangerous of emotions. The only emotion capable of taking something, a piece of the soul, that can never be replaced.
Each story is a vast tale within itself. The reader is drawn in immediately, falling in love with the raw details of a seemingly too intimate glimpse into the lives of incredibly layered characters only to then be ripped away when the story finishes. Loss and a feeling of loneliness is felt only before the page is turned and the next story begins.
If you are a library book reader, or a borrower of books from friends, I applaud you. I envy your ability to put environmental efforts over consumption - I for one love running my fingers down the spines of my books. In this case, however, I would make the exception and put it on your shelf permanently. It is a book you could read every ten years and find it in a different light, discovering something new, about yourself, about the characters.... for knowledge and experience are the only ways to truly understand all of the aspects of this book.
