24 Books to Pick Up This September
21 of 24
Stay Up With Me
By Tom Barbash
224 pages;
Ecco
A single mother who fixates on her
college-age son's
girlfriend; a husband who throws a holiday party and pretends his wife is at
work (rather than admit to her exit from their marriage); a young woman who,
after a few glasses of wine, hits a girl with her car, then insinuates her role
in the death to the grieving family...in
this collection of 13 whip-through-the-pages stories, characters make all the
wrong decisions for all the most understandable reasons—loneliness,
grief and self-preservation. How their choices play out over time is what makes
us so sympathetic toward them—and the book so
memorable. Yes, people do make mistakes, but Barbash, in a totally realistic,
not-at-all-sentimental way, seems to be advocating for our capacity for some accrual of wisdom. "You will try and forgive yourself,"
says the hit-and-run driver, many years after the accident she caused. She may
not succeed, but her struggles to do so—i.e.,
confessing to strangers, lying awake at night—make
you believe that she one day will.
— Leigh Newman
Published 09/16/2013