The Exit Coach

July 25, 2016
Staffel’s engaging and memorable collection (The Notebook of Lost Things) is linked through reoccurring characters, settings, and themes. The protagonists experience deeply personal transformations and struggle to reconcile their various personas and shifting identities. “Tertium Quid” follows Meredith and Gregory, a couple both over the age of 60. The story centers on how aging affects their marriage, and their fading desire for intimacy. In “Mocked and Invaded,” Meredith’s search for a noisy mockingbird leads her to reflect on how she embodies the many different roles and occupations she has held in her lifetime. In the title novella, Marilyn Prett, a recent high school graduate in New York City, searches for a chance to reinvent herself. She adopts a new name, Ava, and accepts a job assisting an elderly widower and retired talent scout, Harvey Abram. Ava meets Harvey’s son, Ruben, who recruits her to join an off-Broadway production as a dancer. Ava discovers her natural talent as a performer and begins to embrace her sexuality. As Ava’s world widens and her experience grows, she must choose between two very different paths. The conflicts in this collection are mostly internal as protagonists move among relationships, places, and positions. Staffel’s prose is graceful—each sentence flows nimbly into the next with poetic but concise exposition. The book’s greatest strength is its dialogue. The voices Staffel employs are distinct and authentic, and she gives her characters room to delve into compelling discussions with interesting revelations that help push the narratives forward.

A novella and six short stories each find people on the brink of change.Staffel (Lessons in Another Language, 2010) is not gentle with her characters. "Leaving the Meadows" follows a man as he moves his mother from an assisted living facility to a space that can better accommodate her changing needs, while he's also distracted by a problem at work. More than one story builds upon confrontations between women: the woman who refuses to help a friend in "Arrogance" immediately questions the impulse, but Lana in "Three Rivers" ends a relationship that has become a financial burden and ends up finding a moment of human connection. Fairly routine activities have a polished truth about them in these stories; the couple at the heart of "Mischief" are a massage therapist and school superintendent, and glimpses into their work lives and daily concerns generate empathy for the things they do without telling one another (including the adoption of the titular goat). The Exit Coach, a novella, runs on change and self-discovery. Marilyn changes her name to Ava to establish distance from her burlesque dancer-turned-MTA driver mother, Cleopatra, and takes a job caring for an elderly man that leads her in loop after loop back to where she came from. The description of the health care job and the way Ava is slyly drafted into a performing arts career that draws on her mother's brassiness exudes grit with a dash of glamour; it's easy to get absorbed in the world of creating a show, having it succeed, and dealing with the ego flare-ups that ensue. Ava's triumph is that she doesn't make one defining change but keeps adapting to circumstances until she begins to feel her own will at the heart of her decisions, and it's a pleasure to share in. These stories feel like portraits of lives scaled down to pivotal moments, but together they form a mural of humanity in common. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2016
A novella and six short stories each find people on the brink of change.Staffel (Lessons in Another Language, 2010) is not gentle with her characters. Leaving the Meadows follows a man as he moves his mother from an assisted living facility to a space that can better accommodate her changing needs, while hes also distracted by a problem at work. More than one story builds upon confrontations between women: the woman who refuses to help a friend in Arrogance immediately questions the impulse, but Lana in Three Rivers ends a relationship that has become a financial burden and ends up finding a moment of human connection. Fairly routine activities have a polished truth about them in these stories; the couple at the heart of Mischief are a massage therapist and school superintendent, and glimpses into their work lives and daily concerns generate empathy for the things they do without telling one another (including the adoption of the titular goat). The Exit Coach, a novella, runs on change and self-discovery. Marilyn changes her name to Ava to establish distance from her burlesque dancerturnedMTA driver mother, Cleopatra, and takes a job caring for an elderly man that leads her in loop after loop back to where she came from. The description of the health care job and the way Ava is slyly drafted into a performing arts career that draws on her mothers brassiness exudes grit with a dash of glamour; its easy to get absorbed in the world of creating a show, having it succeed, and dealing with the ego flare-ups that ensue. Avas triumph is that she doesnt make one defining change but keeps adapting to circumstances until she begins to feel her own will at the heart of her decisions, and its a pleasure to share in. These stories feel like portraits of lives scaled down to pivotal moments, but together they form a mural of humanity in common.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.