Customer Reviews

Anteaters Don’t Dream and Other Stories

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The short stories are linked by their connection to humans at the core of their being in critical times: death of loved ones, death of relationships, and death of self. But in those moments we also see rebirth and the strength people contain. Hawes shows people at their most vulnerable, and at their strongest, all with a delicate humor. These stories have male and female protagonists of all ages facing a range of crisis, and yet, the reader is effortlessly, and irresistibly, drawn into their inner world. "Anteaters Don't Dream" connects us to each other by allowing us access to the fundamental human experiences of loss, love and laughter all at once.

"Anteaters Don't Dream" is a quirky and surprising collection of short stories, with the emphasis on story! It would be easy to heap on adjectives of praise for Hawes' prose--bright, fresh, vigorous, inventive--but it's the stories themselves, infused with humor, intelligence, and warmth that held me spellbound. In "Dawson's Folly," a father builds an elaborate tree house for his son, an enterprise wrought with unexpected and troubling consequences, and in "Mr. Mix-Up," an almost shamanic birthday party clown becomes more than mere entertainment. All the stories in this collection breathe, bleed and pulse with characters I cared about, and themes that reverberated long after the final punctuation. Hawes didn't just me draw maps to destinations...she took me places I've never been and brought me back again and again, reflective, affected and amazed!