Customer Reviews

Last Year's Jesus: A Novella and Nine Stories

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This collection of short stories is startling in it's ability to capture what life is like in Southeastern Michigan... Especially if you have any fondness for or familiarity with the working class Detroit suburbs or Polish-American culture. I just read "Tomato Watch" and I wasn't able to sleep until I wrote this review. It's not just the ethnic angle, Slezak also captures the - the what? the malaise? the trapped, depressed feeling? - that young people who grow up in Detroit's suburbs often have. In many ways, the thirty year old heroine of "Tomato Watch" is as trapped as her ninety-five year old Polish grandfather... Incredible... I left that world twenty years ago and this book brought it all back... To capture all that in one short story just knocks me out.

Her style of writing also has this great subtle sarcasm, this vague sorrow, this fatalistic bitterness that can be seen in works by other Michigan-based or Michigan-influenced writers: Check out anything by Michael Moore, Elmore Leonard, A. M. Wellman or even Loren Estlemen...

If you're from that part of the world, or just want to sample how strange your life would be if you were, "Last Year's Jesus" is a remarkable experience. (Just read "Tomato Watch," first)

I think that Slezak's new book is a unique collection of short stories that capture the essence of not-so-every day American life. Throughout the book her characters offered an unresolved glimpse into real-life pain, the struggles had from children to older adults are all based in the very specific setting of the Detroit area, (which reminded me in some ways of "Winesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson). The stories in this book have a unique way of revealing humour, fear, pain, anger through complex situations... and weave in and out of these situations just long enough to allow these characters to enter into our imaginations (and possibly our hearts). I would almost love to read a sequel to see what happens to the boy whose mother left him, and who has to live with an unwelcoming father and stepmother. Or the woman who looks after her senile grandfather, who grows closer to him as he helplessly drifts farther from reality.

I think Slezak has true talent and craft as a writer. I really appreciate her approach towards unconventional endings, and her interest in revealing the darker sides of every day life.

Reading Ellen Slezak's collection of short sotries, I kept thinking how different Detroit was from where I grew up. There's plenty of vivid detail in this solid, unpretentious prose to give a visitor an inside look at a Polish-American working class suburb. Enough to make me feel like I'd been out of town - somewhere I'd never visited before.

The feelings evoked, though, were familiar. The characters never behave like stick figures or glossed-over personalities meant to be played by movie or sitcom actors. Their stories are interesting because they inhabit a specific time and place, but they have the sort of problems and insecurities and unlikely ambitions a lot of us have. More than a few have the quirky familiarity of your closest relatives, the ones you neglect until, years later, you recognize them in something you've done and wonder how they are, how they're getting along - because it wasn't obvious at the time, but those were the people you learned from the most. Not because they were especially wise. They were real.

I think these stories are very good. Like some of the best fiction, they're about people who've seen their world change, one era passing into the next, and they're coping with it - more or less.

A young girl follows the progression of a Passion Play, developing a crush along the way on the boy who played Jesus the previous year. She is a plain-looking girl, but has the rare joy of feeling important while he gives her special attention.

A pregnant woman learns the importance of life during her summer of taking care of her sometimes-senile grandfather and his tomato patch.

New to town, Pete Flatte inadvertently discovers the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the death of thousands of geese. These geese are the pride of the town. There is even a festival that heralds their arrival each October.....until they start mysteriously dying.

A widowed mother, her young daughter and their lonely friend learn different forms of sacrifice....sometimes forced, other times brought on by friendship and love.

In an attempt to improve things, CeAnn opens a Pensione offering inexpensive, quaint lodging just like that which can be found in Europe. Her efforts prove futile as she finds herself surrounded by all things run-down....alcoholism, abandoned buildings, etc. Her steadfast determination, however, refuses to allow her to be dragged down to their level.

A young girl struggles with many changes in her life...the riots, one sister going off to college and the other near death. The one constant, and almost comforting, aspect of her life is the voice of Ernie Harwell, the radio commentator for the Detroit Tigers.

This is just a sampling of the 10 stories (9 shorts and one novella) that make up "Last Year's Jesus". Each story is either set in Detroit or takes place close by with characters that once lived in the city. The book brings the reality of living in a city such as Detroit to its readers. Not by telling of many tragic happenings that make up the statistics of the neighborhood, but by sharing the every day lives of every day characters.

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Ellen Slezak has taken an interesting approach to her writing. The reader shouldn't expect whole stories. It doesn't have the feel of a "here's the plot, here's the problem, and here's the solution" type book because that's not what it's supposed to be. This is something that must be understood before opening the pages, or the reader will be disappointed with the "no real ending" conclusions. There are things to be learned from the characters. Although there are no "happy endings" per se, there are oftentimes revelations.

This book isn't the normal piece of fiction. In fact, it almost reads like non-fiction, like an episode of "60 minutes" or "Dateline" where a time period, a turning point, of someone's life is shared with the world.

It's a book that touches close to home for many people, and may even open the hearts and eyes of some. The stories will pull the reader in and provide a captivating reality until the last page.