Customer Reviews

Mrs. Somebody Somebody

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just finished a very impressive collection of short stories by Tracy Winn, "Mrs. Somebody Somebody". Ten short stories set in Lowell, Ma from 1947 to present time. It begins with "Mrs. Somebody, Somebody" at the Hub Hosiery Mill where you begin to meet the cast of characters, in particular Stella and Lucy. Both women have a mission, one to find a husband who will give her all she wants from life and one who is seeking to get a better life for the factory workers by unionizing them. As you read through this story and each one after, you follow certain characters as they "grow". You meet the people they interact with and get to know a town that is shaped around the mills, their owners and employees.

A collection can sometimes be very disjointed; not so here. Tracy Winn , while delivering individual stories, weaves them together with the magic thread of her words. Early decisions create later consequences and complications for most everyone.

There are several stories that stood out for me "Smoke" and the final one "Luck Be a Lady" I am eager to have some of my book buddies read this collection of stories. There is a lot to discuss here. In particular, I need to know who is putting Barbie doll shoes all around Kaylene's car and why. I hope I have your interest now. I know you won't be sorry to read "Mrs. Somebody Somebody."

This collection of short stories really seemed like a novel in a way. Each story was complete in itself, but also was tied to another, which I loved. Tracy Winn's portrayal of the emotional damage human beings inflict on each other was devastating. Absolutely beautiful writing.

Tracy Winn's book of stories are based around characters tied to the mills in Lowell, MA. Each is a different story about the main character within it. But all in some way tie back to the original title story's main character Stella; in a six degrees of separation sort of way. The notion of Stella's desire to be a "Mrs Somebody Somebody" seems innocent and understandable, yet as the rest of the stories unfold, the undertone I picked up on was, that our desires and wants while they seem like a good idea on the surface, may not turn out as you hope they will. Which is the case with an actual Mrs Somebody Somebody in the book.

Through her talent of story-telling, I felt I knew who these people were, especially of those depicted in the first story within the mills. Having had grand-aunts who worked the mills in Ipswich and hearing their stories about these times, Tracy Winn "nailed it" because she made me believe I was in that place & time. And that this could have been another story told to me by them.

Well done, I hope to see more writings from this author.

I was drawn to this book's subject matter because of my background. I grew up in the 50's and 60's in a mill town in Massachusetts. My father and grandfather owned a factory that manufactured men's clothing, and many of the families of my friends were milliners and mill owners. We were the Jewish side of the tracks, whereas on the "other" side resided the poorer neighborhoods. That is where a lot of the Portuguese immigrants lived, the people that toiled in the mills. Some of them were our gardeners and housekeepers, too. I heard rumors as a young teen that made me uncomfortable--words like sweatshop, exploitation, and elitism. I never approached my father about this, but it was seared into my mind and has haunted me throughout the years.

The stories in this book that captured my imagination about my upbringing were the ones that I connected with, the stories that forced me to confront some historical truths. In "Mrs. Somebody Somebody," two friends face a moment of clarity and friction in the arc of the story. Close friends Stella and Lucy work in a hosiery mill in 1947. Stella's single-minded quest is to find a husband. "I wanted that Mrs title like it was what I was born for--a want that settles into you when you are very young and grows as you grow." She was also a hard-boiled survivor who whitewashed the filthy, exploitative practices carried on by management and the owners. When Lucy, a southerner by birth, attempts to organize politically for the rights of the workers, the strength of her convictions force Stella to undergo a cruel self-reflection.

Many of the characters, like Stella, appear again in these loosely connected stories that build on each other, and eventually reveal a cauterizing portrait of some of Lowell's citizens. There is one tale, "Smoke," that tells the story through the eyes of a small boy, Franklin Burroughs, the son of the town's doctor; its quiet horror of family life left me gasping. In another story, Franklin's elitist mother and father play some head games with each other to expose shame, and the handyman involved in this family despair leaves an unforgettable imprint.

Winn's prose is assured and commanding, with a style that is slightly oblique in its execution. Together, the tales create a portrait of a vexed and adamant group of citizens in a struggling and undernourished town. There were a few stories that I couldn't quite inhabit, such as "Cantogallo." The author was wily and shrewdly comic--the characters grappled with a rooster toward a startling denouement, and the story added a lot of local color. However, I felt outside of the story and off the high wire of the town's underbelly as it had been previously developing. In "Frankie Floats," I had a myopic reading experience as I attempted to empathize with Frankie's wasteland of adulthood. It was frenzied, bitter and extreme, and the events and rhythm of events was off-putting. It removed me from the town's texture and I felt like I could have been in a vacuum rather than Lowell.

Overall, in this two-hundred page debut, I was often moved and jolted into a rude awakening of a dying, sorrowful town. I also had a bittersweet treat--the stories churn in unexpected ways after the pages are closed. I finished this book a few days ago, and I am surprised to experience new and often quite disturbing aftereffects. This slightly tilted prose has marked some key images from the stories into my head and rendered them more pivotal in retrospect.

This short story collection leaped to the top of my "Best Reads" list before I had even finished the title selection. Each offering is an exceptionally well-wrought piece of writing in which the author disappears behind the story, as if her job was merely to draw back a curtain and allow us to watch real people living through significant moments of their ordinary lives. The drama and heartbreak are all so understated that you've choked up over a lost love, an abandoned child or an untimely death before you quite know what hit you.

The setting is Lowell, Massachusetts, with its mile of mills, in one of which we begin in 1947 with the story of Lucy Mattsen, a mill girl who rescues a baby from the Merrimack River. Lucy's friend, Stella Lewis, whose goal is to find her place in the world as "Mrs. Somebody Somebody", suspects that Lucy isn't quite what she seems. Each subsequent story takes us ahead in time, illuminating the intertwined lives of various characters, most of whom harbor and even cherish essential secrets by which they define themselves. We glimpse some of them at more than one stage of their lives, and long to know "what happened in between".

While every story in this collection can easily stand alone, they fit together wonderfully to create a larger work of polished integrity. Unlike many short story compilations, which can overwhelm the reader who does not take breaks in between selections, this group surely was meant to be absorbed in toto. Write more, Tracy Winn. Please write lots more.

This book is beautifully crafted and wise. From the first story to the last, you feel that you're in the hands of a writer who knows about people and knows how tell stories too. One has the sense while reading Mrs. Somebody Somebody that the balance of tragedy to comedy, of trouble to joy, is somehow right; so while the book is serious and doesn't shy away from tragedy - sometimes quite shocking tragedy - it also doesn't ignore the lighter, even humorous sides of life. It's a book that should be on the shelf of anyone interested in the best contemporary writing.

What a great collection of stories. They tie together so well that you forget that you aren't reading a novel. Or maybe you are! Lowell has never seemed interesting to me, but now whenever I drive through the town, the buildings seem to speak to me through the characters that evolved in this fascinating (and memorable) book.

I sat down to read the first story and wound up enthralled for hours. Tracy Winn's characters appear and reappear in discrete stories, with the overall effect of a sweeping novel.

I don't know anything about Lowell, Mass. The characters aren't just like anyone I know. And yet, the book's place and people are both recognizable and new. Anyone who loves a captivating read, character-driven drama, and stick-in-your-memory scenes will love this book.

This book is a treasure. The stories are captivating and the characters memorable. But its greatest achievement is the way it looks life right in the eye and never seems scared -- these sad events are all described with such wisdom and beauty that the stories become comforting and uplifting.

How could anyone know so much about a place and its people over time? Winn seems to have a clarity of vision and gift for putting her visions into language that is almost scary. I know Lowell, but I never really knew Lowell until I read these stories. It's amazing how scattered parts can make a whole . . . and leave you wanting more.