Love Stories in this Town

February 9, 2009
Ward's powerful first collection (after three novels) travels from Montana to Saudi Arabia, tackling love, terrorism and grave matters of the heart. In “The Stars Are Bright in Texas,” Kimmy and Greg, days after losing a child, fly to Houston and tool around with a realtor, looking for a new home. In “The Way the Sky Changed,” Casey, a literary agent and 9/11 widow, gets set up with Kent, who lost his wife on 9/11. They go antiquing and eat cheeseburgers, considering loss and filling another's shoes. The second half of the book includes six stories following a young woman named Lola's frantic search for herself. In one, her boyfriend leaves her for Miss Montana, and she finds solace with a bartender. In another, Lola becomes an “oil wife” in Saudi Arabia, where her growing fears of terrorism are leavened by thoughts of motherhood. We meet Lola's mother, Nan, a fading beauty now dependent on her hairdresser for companionship, and Lola's thrice-divorced father, Fred, with his “cigars and cheese-only diet” and ongoing search for true love. The way Ward balances ruefulness and hope is singularly impressive.

Starred review from March 1, 2009
In her first collection, novelist Ward (Forgive Me, 2008, etc.) gently and discreetly invites us into her characters' lives.

The author's quiet, understated stories pack a paradoxical punch. They also reveal their author as a master of the beguiling opening sentence."It's a crappy coincidence that on the day James asks for my hand in marriage, there is a masturbator loose in the library" lures us into"Butte as in Beautiful" and compels us to go on. Many of the stories have multiple narrative threads, because Ward's characters live on both personal and social planes. In the heartbreaking"The Stars Are Bright in Texas," the narrator and her husband fly to Houston to look at houses two days after she's had a miscarriage. The first day of looking at McMansions distresses them still further, but they finally find the perfect home, only to be outbid on it."There will be another," promises their realtor, and the narrator has a piercing epiphany:"There would be another, there would. But I wanted the one that was gone." The narrator of"Shakespeare.com" hates her work environment, in which"you could like Hello Kitty, and you could like gas station hot dogs, but talking about liking your husband was queer." The final six pieces, clustered as"Lola Stories," follow the eponymous protagonist through eight or so years of her life, from getting jilted by a man who weds Miss Montana, through her impulsive marriage to a geologist, to the birth of her two children, one of whom she fears might be autistic. Along the way we learn of Lola's mother Nan, who disapproves of the marriage, and also of Fred, Nan's dysfunctional runaway husband, whose cruelty and craziness mar every relationship he engages in.

Luminous work from a gifted writer.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 15, 2009
By now, 9/11 has established itself as a marker in modern literature. Ward uses it to touching effect in the first story in this lovely collection about ordinary people trying to find meaningful love. The "When do we start a family?" chat begun by Zelda and her husband is ambushed by her need to get Cipro in case of an anthrax attack. Small, efficient gestures are evident in "Butte as in Beautiful" when the class valedictorian bypasses college for a job at the local library and a brief, half-hearted engagement. Parental abandonment and miscarriage are front and center in "The Stars Are Bright in Texas." Six beautifully rendered stories track a decade in the life of Lola, whose beau leaves her for a pregnant Miss Montana. Lola then elopes and must struggle with life in Saudi Arabia as an "oil man's wife," where fabulous incomes are no match for the suffocating restrictions imposed on women. Back in the United States, the demands of children and reduced circumstances take a not unfamiliar toll on her marriage. Ward's often bewildered characters' efforts to keep trying to get it right is romantic courage at its most vulnerable. Strongly recommended.Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2009
New mothers, young brides, jilted lovers, devoted wives. What roles do women choose, what paths do they take when falling in and out of love? Even if the way is clearly marked, it can still be full of unseen opportunities and obstacles, as Ward so adroitly demonstrates in a collection of 12 lustrous short stories. Structured in two separate but fluid parts, each is a testament to the ambiguity young women face in their desire for love and acceptance and their need to be true to themselves. Whether it is the decision to postpone pregnancy following theanthrax attacks or breaking an engagement in order to escape small-town life, the opening six stories offer tantalizing glimpses into the rationales behind such life-altering choices. Seen through the eyes of a single character, part two then cogently analyzes the consequences of these decisions, from an impetuous elopement to a tenacious commitment to family. Combined, they offer a mesmerizing, read-in-one-sitting foray into the complexities of contemporary love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)