The Company of Strangers

I’ve never read or heard of the author before, but this collection looks intriguing, plus, at only about 200 pages, it didn’t require too much commitment to check out.
So…the surf-themed cover does nothing to prepare you for the book’s contents. These stories are heavy. Dark. Bleak. Overwhelmingly, they deal with some form of devastation as the emotionally hampered protagonists try to navigate their way through the minefields of existence.
And then, there are some quirky surreal tales in the mix…just because.
The overall effect is…well, not an easy read, but quality wise it is exceptional, with emotional intelligence dial set all the way up.
The stories here aren’t just slices of life, they actually slice…right to the bone. Reader beware.
But also, sometimes they are just sheer beauty, poetry in motion, stop and stare kind of thing.
While I never really remember the titles, my favorite was probably the one before the last one, with the last one being close to it. That sheer beauty thing on prominent display in those. Also, they were probably the lighter of the ones offered here, though with this collection light is relative. Oodles of LGBTQ+ characters but not exclusively. Just a good mix, like life ought to be. Even, of perhaps especially, one spent in the company of strangers.
Overall, not a sunny read but a very good one. Cautiously recommended to fans of literary fiction. Thanks Netgalley.

In one of the stories in this marvelous collection, Alex, an actress, remarks that "The mind built the narrative one wanted, regardless of the facts," and goes on to suggest that she became an actress so that "she could be completely honest on her days off." These stories refuse that binary--they are unabashedly honest on their "days on," i.e. at their very core, whether they are simply narrating or performing, as some of them do. Some, more focused on the nuances of character, are teeming with sharp, striking observations, such about as the character who "always thought [they] would date someone who liked Tom Waits," who therefore "never listened to Tom Waits, figuring [their] eventual lover would fill[them] in on his essential gems..." So many of these stories are shadowed by absences and losses, sometimes declared right up front, such as in "The Club of the Missing," whose taut paragraphs might almost be stanzas, and others, such as "The Goodbye Party," which grapple with grief in the discomfort of what feels like real time. Some, like "The Bowling Story," play with the nature of storytelling itself, while others, like "I'm Such a Slut and I Don't Give a Fuck," do what only the best punk songs do--move so fast and cram so much in that they almost demand to be spun again, even while their searing final notes reverberate with a sustain pedal's tenacity. The last story, "Scheherazade," proves a fitting finale, as its evocation of that storytelling genius--itself given an unforgettable twist here--reminds us of what a range and plenitude of stories we've just imbibed.

It has been some time since I have read stories that resonated in the way that the stories in this book did. There were just so many minute moments where I could just authentically feel the stories and feel the heart of the characters. I found this series of books to really be transformative and have depth that many authors cannot capture in an entire book. I definitely would be interested in reading more from this author. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.