“Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry: Stories"

Each story in Christine Sneed’s “Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry: Stories” (University of Massachusetts Press, 2010) is a powerful, coiled-up mini-cannonball aimed to make its mark; once you start reading them, there is no ignoring, skimming, or ho-humming these stories. Most of the main characters are women, and they are all very intense. Many of the stories are about these women’s relationships; there is plenty of drama and sex. One story is about a screenwriter attending her class reunion; another is about a young college English professor whose class is attended by a very famous, very handsome movie star, making the professor nervous and uncomfortable; yet another is about a woman wondering how and when to tell her much younger lover how old she really is. Each story is distinctly original; the reader wants to keep reading because she has not read anything quite like the story before. The last story, “Walled City,” differs from the rest in that it is more impersonal, a sort of dystopian fantasy that is hard -- at least for me -- to connect with. But all in all, this is a fascinating collection and one that is guaranteed to keep the reader’s attention (OK, my attention, and I hope yours too!). This collection won the 2009 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction; the book does the late, great Grace Paley proud.