Customer Reviews

All These Girls

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All These Girls by Ellen Slezak is the story of a bond between a young woman and aunts. Candy Golden has lost her mother, and quit her high school basketball team in the wake of accusations of having sex with her coach. Her Grandaunt Gloria struggles to help Candy straighten out and reclaim the energy to return to the basketball court, while her other, more distant aunt Elizabeth reluctantly comes along in what is meant to be a rejuvenating trip. Yet the travel goes off-course, and places the three of them in a remote locale, confronted by characters that will make them re-examine who they all are and what they are striving for in life. A story of emotional transformation, hope, and forgiveness in troubled times.

What a superb book this is! Slezak skillfully braids the lives of three women incompatible in every way--age, aptitude, beliefs--who are nevertheless held together by the stubborness of affection and the long guilt of family ties. Affecting without ever being remotely maudlin, the characters grope through their long-cherished anger and resentment to arrive at a new balance of compassion. Written with wit and often gorgeous power, the book will linger long with its readers.

All These Girls is that rare multi-generational novel about real women and girls that doesn't pander to its characters. In this rich, engrossing novel, the author presents three principled women as they are -- without condescension or excuses or undue praise. The story of their journey together isn't just that of a family coming together despite their differences, it's a celebration of those differences. As Glo's staunch Catholicism, Elizabeth's driving (but not always welcome) need for autonomy, and Candy's stubborn desire to confound expectations collide, they all find themselves not so much changed as enriched. This would be a terrific book group book, I think, because it's not only a great read -- lots of unexpected humor and intelligent insight here -- it raises a good many questions on how women and girls choose -- or must choose -- their way in life. The central narrative in this novel is a reluctant pilgrimmage, and I couldn't imagine a more apt metaphor for the journey many women make alongside their mothers, aunts, daughters, and nieces as their lives take shape. Highly recommended.

Lately, I've been reading collections of short stories. Including Ms Slezak's, 'Last Year's Jesus'. I'm a writer, and was looking to understand the form more. What I learned was a) tremendous amounts of latitude are afforded even the most lauded of collections, and b) 'short stories' these days don't mean short stories. They mean 'situations'. Bottom line: short story writers aren't storytellers. The tales they publish may have style, power, even entertainment value, but they aren't generally proof of a story well told.

'All These Girls' is proof that celebrated short fiction writers aren't necessarily adept at writing novels. Several references come to mind when I think of my impressions of the book: 'ham-fisted', 'ill-conceived' and 'beyond her grasp'.

I wanted to stop reading about fifty pages in. The dialogue is, by far, some of the worst I've ever encountered. Most of the exchanges between characters (predicated on dialogue, of course) possess no credibility whatever. And the characters themselves... It wasn't even so much a group of unlikable ones being gathered together, it was that very little about what they did or said rang true at all. (There were moments when I felt a man must have written this novel, because the insight into a woman's world was sorely lacking.)

What was most painful about reading 'All These Girls' were the reminders that Ms Slezak has some very powerful skills as a writer. (Well, as a writer of short fiction, anyway.) She has a well-vocabularied style, and a nice way with turning a phrase. But as far as writing a compelling story goes? I believe she should be reminded of a standard credo: 'Show, don't tell.'

At its worst, this novel is a bad attempt at something Richard Russo would have crafted into something magnificent. At its best, it's a polemic, a badly-executed attempt to plough into a narrative all manner of personal insight, Life philosophies, and Psych 101 notes. And I'm not sure there's much between the 'worst' and the 'best'. Truly a wasted effort 'nonpareil'.

Paraphrasing the moviegoer feeling ripped-off by a bad film, "I want my four days back, please."