William H. Coles Short Fiction 2000-2016 is a collection of 33 short stories, one short novel, and two graphic novels. Illustrations enhance each story, complementing the readers’ experience and understanding. Peter Healy beautifully illustrated the two graphic novels, which are the retelling of previous short stories in the collection.
The characters and themes in this book are unique. While they share the connection of human struggles and moral issues, they are not intertwined. There are many messages that are taught through these stories including unconditional love, acceptance, stereotypes, heartbreak, faith, death, birth, family values, and narcissistic behaviors. Most of the stories are dark and have a miserable ending. Some offer a glimmer of hope, while others are truly gruesome.
I felt like I could connect with many of the stories because they accurately portray the world we live in. I was wanting more information and personality from some of the stories; characters that had a little more feeling. My two favorites were The Gift and SISTER CARRIE, the novel.
The Gift takes place in 1959 with Catherine, the seventeen-year-old protagonist, who recently found out that she is pregnant. His father is still loving and understanding, but his mother is embarrassed to think of gossip. Catherine seeks the advice of a local priest who organizes a “visit” to a convent in the south of France. The baby is born and washed away before Catherine can glimpse it. However, she knows something is wrong when she wakes up and her friend Maggie is crying by her bedside. Catherine and Maggie go on a mission to find the girl they love. In the years to follow, we can glimpse the unconditional love of a mother and the strong support of family and friends. But lurking in the background is a mother who is indifferent, distant, and cruel. Everyone will move to one side or the other. You can choose whether compassion or selfishness is the right way to go.
Sister Carrie is the longest story in the book. With longer stories, the reader can develop more feelings for the characters throughout the novel. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to seventeen-year-old Carrie, who is recovering from the sudden death of her parents. Carrie’s sister Jessie is the only member of the family willing to take responsibility for the care of a teenager. After only four months, Carrie meets a young immigrant on the Internet and falls in love. Jessie despises this relationship and does her best to keep them apart. Will Carrie persevere in this relationship that seems to be anything but normal and support the man she loves? Who has the right to say if someone really loves another.
Author William H. Coles has won many awards, including the Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction and the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition, to name a few. I highly recommend reading this contemporary collection of short stories by a talented author.