Customer Reviews

O Street

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an astonishing book. The prose is so good and the characters are so vulnerable--that may be what I like best about it. I feel a deep honesty here, a lack of artifical construction. It feels as though this book needed to be written, and that quality is rare and makes the book feel urgent. One of the most touching elements is the way the narrator is always imagining salvation, she daydreams salvation, wow. Sad. Beautiful.

Through Beth, Corrina Wycoff gives us one of the truest depictions of reality. On top of that, she does this in a fashion that does not feel calculated, theatrical, or melodramatic; through its inconsistencies, flaws in character, and ugliness, the story feels real. Hence, the reader cares. Moments like the rape scene and the birth are like bloody accidents on a highway; one may desperately wish she could turn her head, close her eyes, and erase the horrors before her; however, Wycoff pushes her readers just enough to keep their eyes on the scenes before them without pushing them so far that they close the book and try to forget.

Wycoff, through these vivid horrors, forces her readers to witness many commonly forgotten--or ignored--struggles of the female state. Poor mothers who give birth to poor daughters who become poor mothers... There is stagnancy in this piece that burrows itself into its readers. The vulnerability of these characters is displayed in such beauty, despite the horrid circumstances that bloom around them. Beth is trapped in this limbo of an existence as she tries to escape her past, yet cannot survive in her new life until it accepts her old one. She is the bridge between the two. Even Beth's perspectives of the world, especially considering love, are skewed by everything the reader knows about her past. For example, does she love women because she is looking for a motherly acceptance and tenderness that she was never able to receive from her own mother? Or, could it more of a revulsion to males because she was raped? Readers must wonder if Beth even knows what love is. It seems that love is what she is desperately seeking, but her relationship with her own daughter forces readers to question if love is something she really wants and/or if it is something she can ever attain.

While all of her stories can stand independently, the cohesiveness of the piece as a hole was a little disconnected. While the different perspectives added richness to the story, it was a little disorienting having so many voices paving the way of the piece. While I can appreciate the way that Wycoff explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters through this medium, I found the number of different voices was a little too much; it almost stretches the story a little so that some of the meat of it begins to drain, and it consequently losses some of its power. It does, however, show the readers Beth through other eyes. Reading is a voyeuristic activity, and Wycoff's choice to place her readers as voyeurs to voyeurs places them not in Beth for the entirety of the piece, which could make the reader feel like somewhat of a therapist for Beth, but allows readers to simply look at Beth and try to understand her. While the art of that choice is interesting, it still does still feel like too many perspectives.

On the whole, however, the piece is beautifully crafted and painfully real. As a warning to the faint of heart and the emotionally sensitive, this is not an easy read. However, if willing to board the emotional rollercoaster that is Corrina Wycoff's piece, you will be satisfied.

...harrowing, disturbing, and carefully-wrought. A plea for more equity
between haves and have-nots, but you will lose yourself in the mother and daughter characters of this story.

This is a well-written collection of short stories. It will make you cry.

O Street is the kind of book that is sadly missing from mainstream literature. It's engrossing and incredible in its realism, a book that makes you want to buy copies for everyone you know. O Street would be a candidate for publication by a major publishing house if only it weren't true that editors think no one wants to know that a young girl can go through a life like this one, through no fault of her own, just the chance of birth behind it. Which is not to say that Other Voices isn't a commendable press, a real coup for Wycoff, and a force of nature in contemporary literature. You'll thank them for believing in this book.

Wycoff makes us confront the failures of society, the way people like the mother protagonist fall through those cracks, which aren't cracks at all but more like chasms. Wycoff doesn't apologize for her political edge in this book, but neither is O Street a polemic. The argument is in the heartbreak at the heart of the story. You will want to rescue Beth, and you will cheer when she rescues herself in the absence of any other savior.

Never mind the somewhat dismissive Publishers Weekly reference to "degradations and disappointments" that are "sounded like elements in therapy." The whole of literature depends upon elements that could be discussed in therapy. Wycoff eschews banal self-help assessments and solutions and instead delivers a gripping story, in the voice of a talented writer:

"The O Street Girl came back to school today. She arrived between the first and second homeroom bells. She'd been absent since last January, and now it was October, and so many things had happened, things you would have told her once, before she was the O Street Girl, when she was Beth Dinard, your friend. But no one was talking to her today, so you couldn't tell her about your first French kiss, your first hit off a joint, your first fistfight. No one was talking to her and no one was talking to each other and so much happened since she went away."

One of the more unique aspects of "O Street" is Wycoff's ability to break down a story into several succinct pieces with multiple perspectives. Not once during my reading of this book did I feel lost in the action of the tale, but rather enthralled and intrigued to read each character's interpretation of the going's on between Angela and Beth.

Beth, ever the sympathetic character, struggles to reconcile her difficult and gruesome childhood with the harsh reality that is her adulthood, all while growing into a protege of her mother. Their dysfunctional relationship is the largest part of the story, laced with sympathy, anguish, and character development; in fact, the relationship, tinged with mental illness and tragic breakdowns, becomes a character in and of itself. There is a codependency between Beth and her mother... they seem to drive each other crazy, and yet, cannot live without the other's reassurances.

The reader is left wondering what the truth in their relationship is... whether it is motivated by love or psychosis becomes a slight problem for the reader, as Wycoff gives just enough information to feel connected to the characters, but leaves out much of their motivations, expecting the reader to come to their own conclusions. The disappointment Beth feels when realizing that she will never overcome her mental blocks is a powerful point in the novel, and leads into a perfectly fitting end for the tale of a parasitic relationship between mother and daughter. Wycoff has crafted a truly interesting story that is definitely worth reading.

Reading "O Street" I was reminded of Amy Bloom's "Come to Me: Stories," were one story is broken down into multiple perspectives to the reveal the subtext and dimensions of multiple characters within the collection of short stories. In "O Streets" case Wycoff writes in the perspective of the main character Beth's, her mother, classmate, and girlfriend to evoke the dimensions that makeup Beth. Through the multiple perspectives the reader is able can evaluate the steps a story that whose plot moves from one bad happening to another, and either reject or understand the perceptions that are presented. Wycoff does not give any answers to what happens in the story, and it is precisely the absence of her voice that the story is not a cautionary tale.
"O Street" is shaped by the dysfunctional relationship between mother (Angela) and daughter (Beth). The story follows the depths of Beth into her difficult, sometimes horrid, childhood, into a similarly hash adulthood. Her relationship with her mother is one that parallels who she becomes when she is older. Mother and daughter experience similar metal breakdowns triggered by a combination of mental sickness and unresolved issues. Angela's schizophrenia is left for the reader to either, sympathize with, demise, or form a combination of the two that reveals something about Angela's character. The reader is not given the right answer, but is given a developed character and left to figure it out on their own. Angela blames Beth for everything that goes wrong in her life, but simultaneously needs her for reassurance that things will turn out favorably. Does Angela love Beth? It's a question that Beth struggles with herself, her mother is past she cannot escape and so Beth drives herself into a hole deep enough she can't get out of. It can be argued that Beth losses hope in life, the horrible events of her past are psychological realities she has not the willpower to overcome permanently. Wycoff writes about the forces that break bonds.
I admire the each skill in being about to transition smoothly though past and present.

Corrina Wycoff's "O Street" is a collection of short stories about the unfortunate and sad life of Beth Dinard. It is one for those who readers wanting to example of no goodness in the world. Each short story exemplifies the horrors that ruin this poor girl's life. However dark and evil the world Beth lives in is presented it is written with elegance. She knows how to get to the heart of the matter. The pictures she paints are vivid and to the point. As a reader, it is hard to become unengaged as the story winds down deeper, darker pathways.

The mother-daughter relationship tears your heart out. It is hard to forgive her mother, her environment, and the world that dumps all its difficulties onto the lap of this poor girl who seems to have still had the will to want to beat the odds. Its realism is remarkable and is one to remember. Beth is forever trapped in the world she grew up in which has taken her childhood innocence but not her will to escape it.

The different points of view can be at times hard to follow, but its structure reflects not only how Beth feels throughout these encounters, but others in this environment with her. However, I would think this is to be read as a collection of short stories rather than a flowing novel because it tends to be rather jumpy from incident to incident.

I enjoyed reading O Street Girl the most because, although literally unrelatable, it was a piece that all children more or less experience. The bullying, whether physical or silence damages a person just the same. It is sad to see that she truly is alone in this world, and it is her mother who carelessly puts her into these stuations.

Wycoff has a lot to say in this collection and most of it will unsettle those unfamiliar with the subject material (parental neglect, poverty, mental illness, rape, sexuality in flux, and abandonement) and those unwilling to engage with a text uncompromisingly devoted to the reality of Beth's human experience. However, it is this uncompromising vision that warrants the book as art.

Wycoff's ability to weave the past and present into the ever-present reality of the moment is perhaps her strongest suite. The text remains true to the character of Beth and the story of her life--it is a discombobulated intermingling of a tragic, lingering past (as manifested by her mother and environment that tortured her) and a future that seemingly pulls her forward while deeming her unworthy (as manifested in Rachel). The keen attention to detail lends itself to the grounded reality of Beth's life in the text. "The Wrong Place in the World" continually grabs your attention through Beth's meeting with April, the jump rope girls, and the giraffe and not just because of the strangeness of the situation, but also in the way Beth copes with her reality.

One of the most fascinating aspects of short story collections is the inter-related nature of each self-contained story. The previous development of a character is carried over when we hear his or her name mentioned again. This collection does an admirable job developing and sustaining the character of Beth and her mother. There are times when this collection delves into different perspectives; for example, the 2nd person perspective plays a role in the "O Street" story by tempting readers to place themselves into Beth's shoes. Other stories offer multiple perspectives on Beth's story, illuminating it through a new lens. This story both provides the greatest contrast between the average reader and the character of someone like Beth. Yet, it also makes you really feel what this girl felt at that time through honesty. Wycoff lets the characters' situations and actions speak for themselves by carefully weaving them in one.

I would recommend this collection for any creative writing students or aspiring short story writers looking to develop their character(s) through a series of varied perspectives spread across key life moments.

~Alex Giersch

Through story after story of undignified and cruel acts committed against Beth, the protagonist, Corrina Wycoff's O Street creates a real and gritty narrative that stands at the intersection of cautionary tale and horror story. It is because of this that many readers might find it appealing--O Street unapologetically creates a world bleaker than black, throws a white girl into it, and watches her fade away into the darkness, writhing. In short, this collection of short stories repeatedly answers the question "how could things get any worse?" in many increasingly demented and dehumanizing ways as it almost-sadistically attempts to destroy Beth.

The book becomes drearier with every turning page, as every possible hope and desire that might bring Beth into the third dimension--and thus, closer to the reader--becomes somehow raped of any pleasure for the reader. It seems as though Beth is supposed to be sympathetic only because of the series of unfortunate events that have been wrought upon her. It is because of this that her character comes across as two-dimensional for me: it feels as though she is defined not as much by who she is or the choices that she makes but rather what happens to her. Moreover, the events of O Street are told from different perspectives and by different narrators, which destroys any remaining semblance of comfort or stability in an unwelcoming series of accounts that only serve to muddle things up in an already gray world.

To be fair, the book is very well-written in a clear, dirty, and authentic way, paying homage to multiple authors. However, any glimmer of hope that may shine through almost immediately gets magnified and burns the ants on the sidewalk. In short, I strongly recommend this book only to the reader who is desperately seeking to cope with all the warmth and joy in his or her life, for Corrina Wycoff's O Street is a guaranteed remedy.