Fiction. Bakken's territory in this debut collection of short stories is the degraded suburbs of Long Island, where the small acts of neglect and violence often lead to more insidious, though necessary, lies, lies necessary to sustain intimacy and love. "Fully imagined, deeply felt, remarkably alert, and powerfully realized, the stories in NECESSARY LIES are all about finding the truth," writes Frederick Busch. "Ms. Bakken's storytelling turns the clumsiness of human need into remarkable grace."
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Death, birth and the complications of both are the threads running through Bakken's debut story collection. In "The Effects of Light," Jack and his soon-to-be–ex-wife travel to Greece seeking closure after his sister Kate's suicide. Jack, all his life the "brother-knight charged with [Kate's] safekeeping," must learn how to carry on when the burden of caring for her has been lifted. In "Eggs," Annie and Noah, anxious to start a family, suffer through months of "unreproductive sex" and fertility treatments while Annie's friend gets and remains pregnant just long enough to abort. The title story centers on the impending birth of Mike and Gwen's daughter; Mike feels neglected as Gwen shares a bond with their unborn child that he can't share. His alienation is further compounded when he decides to help a troubled teenager in his English class who pours out her self-destructive longings in a class journal. Mike finds himself unsure of how to contend with the implications of his good intentions and wonders how he will cope with parenting. Bakken's quiet exploration of life's bookends makes for an auspicious first outing. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
If anything ties the stories together in Bakken's debut collection, it is the "necessary lies" that the characters tell, sometimes as an act of preservation, or of betrayal, denial, survival, or fear. In "The Effects of Light" a brother must travel to Greece to collect the body of his unstable sister shortly after her suicide, his soon-to-be ex-wife in tow. In "Eggs," a woman goes through the trials and travails of assisted reproductive challenges. And, in "The Body/Love Problem" a middle-aged piano teacher has an affair with a married man, sent to her for lessons as a way to ward off the potential midlife crisis. Bakken writes with a sure hand, and there are moments of clarity and literary precision. Perhaps next time she might focus on more sympathetic characters and less on the frumpy, drowsy ones. Emily Cook
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bakken can stop you with a sentence,
By Billy Lombardo (Forest Park, IL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Necessary Lies (Paperback)
Bakken explores parenthood, marriage, divorce, and the love between sisters in this collection of seven short stories that won the 2006 winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction.
In each of these stories, Bakken proves her keen observational skills as well as an intense attention to craft. In Vigil, one of Bakken's strongest stories, for instance, Bakken gets at the deeply-layered, complexity of love between sisters. "Silence became Kara's means to a new wardrobe, new CD's, later curfews, locked bedrooms. At night, though, I heard her crying, face stuffed into the pillow, and when I crept into bed with her, she sometimes said she was okay, and rubbed my back, and we fell asleep next to each other. Usually she told me to leave her alone and stay out of her life." She can stop you with a sentence-My sister is dead, by her own hand-and make you wish you had this of love: love is horrifying, holds us hostage, requires us always to answer the phone, to make the drive, to wash the blood from the body, to look at each other clearly under light and not flinch, not look away.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Necessary Lies -Awsome!!,
By
This review is from: Necessary Lies (Paperback)
I started reading and I could not put it down.I felt like I could feel the caracters and I did not want the stories to end. Each story had me wanting another chapter. I hope the author has a sequel book soon. I know the book has had rave reviews and it deserves them all. We need more from this writer.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Read,
This review is from: Necessary Lies (Paperback)
I bought Kerry Bakken's book after reading a news release on the Allegheny College website about it. As an alum of Allegheny College, I was interested in reading a book by one of my former professors. I loved the individual stories in the book. My favorite was "A Renter's Guide to the Hamptons."
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