Bright Shards of Someplace Else

October 13, 2014
Alienated people who can't get right in the world stand at the center of this pensive collectionâwinner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. A teacher grapples with an accusation of murder in "Line of Questioning"; in "Out of the Mouths of Babes," a babysitter with a great deal to lose finds an unlikely ally in her young chargeâbut only temporarily. "The Chautauqua Sessions" paints an intricate portrait of a druggie son and his deeply resentful father, delving into the ways addiction can irreparably destroy trust and love. The settings are AmericanâMassachusetts, Tennessee, a ranch in the middle of the country. Yet it is the fateful destination that unifies these characters: nearly all gaze uneasily in the direction of death, whether struggling to bury a horse in "Dead Horse Productions," or collecting a father's ashes in "Ornament and Crime," or managing a memorial video business in "Key Phrases." Bursts of insight illuminate these carefully crafted tales; McFawn somehow wrenches the deepest humanity out of even the most unlikable characters.

Starred review from August 15, 2014
Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, McFawn's debut employs different narrative voices to create something singular. The boldness of McFawn's premises jumps out at the reader. In one story, a babysitter uses a precocious 9-year-old to solve her financial and familial woes. In another, a journalist interviews a biologist about his new art movement, "Microaestheticism," in which cellular material becomes abstract art when placed under a microscope. In two different tales, the problems of dealing with a dying or dead horse are made vivid. McFawn approaches each story differently, not as an author imposing a single voice on disparate narratives but as an artist listening to her characters and finding the particular voice each one requires. Her final piece, "The Chautauqua Sessions," provides the most compelling evidence of her talents. Struggling musician Danny, the narrator, has sequestered himself with his longtime songwriting partner in hopes of putting together a new record. When Danny's grown son, Dee, shows up to announce his sobriety, the father is skeptical; this isn't the first time he's heard such an announcement, and he uses his disbelief as a way of shielding himself from disappointment, even as Dee's story of recovery moves everyone else who hears it. McFawn's empathy is astounding, and the reader understands the ways in which Dee has wounded his father, even as the father's attempts to reveal his son as a liar become unhinged and reprehensible. "I used to think of emergencies as these character-galvanizing events," Danny says toward the end, "these moments when life does a casting call and shows a person for who they truly are." But McFawn is too smart a writer to fall back upon such easy answers. The rarest kind of literary debut-unpredictable and moving.

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September 15, 2014
In 11 short stories, McFawn explores the contradictions of varied characters and their skewed perspectives toward one another and themselves. In Out of the Mouths of Babes, a nanny takes advantage of her young charge's unique negotiating skills to cancel overage fees on her cell phone bill. As the night progresses, however, she attempts to manipulate him into rectifying other burdens in her life. Dead Horse Productions presents a man in the unique predicament of disposing of his elderly mother's dead horse. In Line of Questioning, a poetry professor is brought in for questioning over the murder of a former outspoken student. The standout, The Chautauqua Sessions, finds songwriter Danny in remote Appalachia, commissioned to work on a new album with an old singing partner. The reunion, however, is hampered by the appearance of Danny's drug-addict son, Dee. While Dee claims he is sober, his presence makes it progressively difficult for Danny to separate fact from fiction. McFawn's tales shine when characters, both resolute and misguided, brace for the flawed truths of their predicaments.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)