The Sadness of Beautiful Things

August 1, 2018
Stories of brief bonds forged in unlikely places.In his latest collection, Van Booy (Father's Day, 2016, etc.) examines the threads that tie people together. Such threads take different forms: a meaningful blanket, a fateful ride, an anonymous gift. In "The Pigeon," a man shares a meal with his would-be mugger. In "The Saddest Case of True Love," a postcard reminds a man of a chance encounter years earlier. Many stories in the book feel thin. "The Pigeon" is more scene than story. "The Hitchhiker" takes a similar structure and feels similarly underdeveloped. On the other end of the spectrum is "Not Dying," a standout. There, Lenny tries desperately to protect his wife and daughter even as he loses his grip on the world around him. He contemplates the likelihood of a pending apocalypse and ends up arriving at some profound insights. Death, not love, is "the forever part," he thinks. "Love was just something tiny and bright with eternity on all sides." Van Booy points out twice that these stories are based on real people's lives: first in the preface and, later, with more specifics, in an author's note to "Not Dying." The purpose of these gestures is unclear; they don't add dimension to the flat characters, and the more dynamic characters, like Lenny, feel real enough as is. In any case, one of the book's eight stories could not have been based too closely on reality. "Playing with Dolls" is the sole foray into science fiction and future technologies. While it shares some similar themes with the other stories, it makes for an odd fit.A slim collection featuring tales of loneliness and longing based, largely, on real people.

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August 27, 2018
Van Booy’s latest (after 2017’s Father’s Day) is a thoroughly satisfying story collection inspired by personal anecdotes the author has heard from strangers. The sometimes otherworldly tales showcase misery tinged with a silver lining of hope. In “Playing with Dolls,” a couple whose daughter died in an accident brings home a robot replica of her. In “The Green Blanket,” an elderly man with melancholia is successfully treated by a doctor who prescribes magical eyewear. In “The Doorman,” a world-famous musician and a blind pianist are connected through the pianist’s recently deceased doorman. Van Booy also explores how encounters with strangers can haunt someone’s life: in “The Hitchhiker,” a man on his way to Scotland for a job makes a connection with the woman who gives him a ride but fails to act on it, and in “The Saddest Case of True Love,” a man receives news of a death from a woman who once showed him around Florence. Van Booy sometimes takes a maudlin turn, as in “The Pigeon,” an unconvincing story about a boxer who chooses to take the man who mugged him under his wing. But Van Booy succeeds more often than he falters, making this a vivid collection. Fans of heartfelt stories with a hint of science fiction will find much to enjoy.

September 1, 2018
Van Booy's (Father's Day, 2016) latest collection is full of surprises, starting with the settings, which range from small-town Ireland to New York City's Chinatown. Some stories are grounded in realism, but others contain elements of magic, and Playing with Dolls, in which a couple deals with the results of a technology that allows them to reanimate their dead daughter, veers into sf territory. Displacement is a common theme, as is migration. In The Green Blanket, an Italian American family ventures into Chinatown to look for a cure for the father's depression, and The Saddest Case of True Love involves an encounter an American man has with a Korean woman in Florence, Italy. In the longest story, Not Dying, a man who grew up on a reservation in Nevada is spending a weekend in a rented house in upstate New York with his wife and daughter. It's winter, the house is isolated, and his wakefulness on a long night turns into a meditation on love and the fine line between life and death.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2018

If there is indeed sadness in beautiful things, life being achingly evanescent, there is also great beauty in the stories here, even when they touch on life's darker moments. An old woman who learned late in life of her tragic beginnings acts as benefactor to a family burned out of their home; an elderly man suffering from depression is vivified by magical glasses reminding him of life's best moments and a promise to keep; and a young blind woman and a Chinese American trumpeter are brought together by their love of jazz. In the futuristic "Playing with Dolls," parents painfully, lovingly decide to let go of a daughter who was physically refabricated after a terrible accident yet will never be able to grow. "Not Dying," another story of love and loss, features Lenny's obsession with protecting his wife and daughter from Armageddon-like dangers. Yet the real danger comes from a collision on a snowy road; poignantly, we catch Lenny thinking earlier that he "could feel the happiness he would lose when his life ended." VERDICT Winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for Love Begins in Winter, Van Booy was often inspired here by stories people told him, so the sparkle is nicely balanced by a conversational, down-to-earth tone with broad appeal.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018

I'm a big fan of Van Booy's smart fiction, and his second story collection won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. So check out this new group, inspired by strangers' anecdotes, showing how life can be shot through with sudden moments of joy or sorrow.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.