Customer Reviews

Necessary Lies

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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.

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.

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."