Book Review: New in Print
Furman blocks together stories of incredible grace and heft from materials as humble as they come: the dips and turns of family life
Reviewed by Sarah Smith, Fri., Jan. 28, 2011
The Mother Who Stayed
by Laura FurmanFree Press, 244 pp., $15 (paper)
Laura Furman's new collection of stories, The Mother Who Stayed, reminds me of those long, aimless family chats that usually take place after Thanksgiving: the men retire to the garage with beers, and the women stay in the kitchen clearing dishes, talking idly about new jobs, bad boyfriends, or the social blunders of a fire hall wedding reception. Conversation rolls slowly forth as the leftovers are put up until there is not even a crumb left on the counter to fiddle with, at which point somebody gets out the euchre deck so talk can continue.
If you find this praise damningly faint, think again. I love my aunts' discursive tempo so much I think it should be bottled and sold as an anti-anxiety remedy. Furman, a longtime writing professor at the University of Texas, captures this rhythm effortlessly throughout The Mother Who Stayed, blocking together stories of incredible grace and heft from materials as humble as they come: the dips and turns of family life.
The real revelation of stories like these is that humble material rarely is. Narratives that pivot on failed mother-daughter relationships are conveyed in a concerto form that permits motifs to twist and mimic each other. Each trio – the book might be better described as a series of novellas – turns a parade of divorces and picnics into an echo chamber, sounding the depths of the ordinary and asserting that what happens to us, however small, matters big time.
The final, eponymous story finds Dinah recently widowed and obsessed with the diaries of a 19th century woman who observed the weather and chores in a series of poetic, opaque entries that neglect to mention more emotional events like the deaths of her children. Previous stories chart Dinah's abandonment by her mother and the austere goings-on of diarist Mary Ann Rathbun's household, culminating in Dinah's attempts to revise her newly empty life by helping a younger woman whose boyfriend has clearly been knocking her around.
The plot synopsis smacks of Oprah's Book Club, but the delivery is all Alice Munro, a clear-eyed account of the regrets that swell up under the superficial. I won't tell you that lessons are learned, but this collection is lifelike in the most ruthless and wonderful sense – it defies tidy homilies but delivers the visceral goods.
The book launch party for The Mother Who Stayed takes place Tuesday, Feb. 1, 7pm, at BookPeople.
