Thieves I've Known

September 1, 2013
Needy is not quite the right description for the characters in Kealey's strong story collection, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. While they are living on the edge, their powerful sense of self and duty belies their lack of funds, though nothing masks their hardscrabble life. Brother and sister Nate and Merrill appear more than once, working in a grocery store and, later, turning to theft to pay for their father's medication. Shelby reads the Wright brothers' diaries while sitting deathwatch for her grandmother. Laika is an assistant camel keeper in the circus. Grady is an assistant groundskeeper for a minor-league ball club. Altar boys Omar and Lewis steal back the stolen boots of a visiting priest. And all display remarkable levels of determination, responsibility, and spine. We see Kealey's characters mostly in their early years (though a more adult Merrill appears in one story) and can only speculate on what they will be like as adults. Kealey creates both characters and landscapes with a sure hand, making for a memorable collection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)