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angelamichelle's review against another edition
3.0
Love this strategy of interlinked short stories. So a character mentioned in passing in one story may become the main character of the next. And they all sort of move forward in time while staying mostly in one town. So it's sort of like a novel but with a different frame of reference in each chapter.
debandleo's review against another edition
4.0
I like this book a lot. Many of the characters were interwoven into the different stories. I enjoyed learning about how people probably lived in a coal mining town years ago. I enjoyed her style of writing, would definitely recommend. I am going to read Faith next by her.
mschrock8's review against another edition
4.0
Until looking at Goodreads, I didn't realize I had read so many books by this author.
sarahbethbrown's review against another edition
3.0
this book was easy and pleasant to read. 3 stars for that.
But two stars off because I hate short story collections (or really linked short stories in this case) that are just a buffet of issues. This is the abortion story! The gay story! The addiction story! etc.
I also felt that the linkage was really confusing. like two sets of spinster sisters in the same family, both with a sister with a v-name (viola, virgie) who are NOT THE SAME SET OF SISTERS, but like, they really could be. A lot of confusing movement through time, etc. I probably should just stop reading linked short story collections, bc I always think the stories are two closely related to stand alone, but not closely related enough to paint a good picture about the group of people/time period. eh, I think i'm just gonna stop reading these books.
But two stars off because I hate short story collections (or really linked short stories in this case) that are just a buffet of issues. This is the abortion story! The gay story! The addiction story! etc.
I also felt that the linkage was really confusing. like two sets of spinster sisters in the same family, both with a sister with a v-name (viola, virgie) who are NOT THE SAME SET OF SISTERS, but like, they really could be. A lot of confusing movement through time, etc. I probably should just stop reading linked short story collections, bc I always think the stories are two closely related to stand alone, but not closely related enough to paint a good picture about the group of people/time period. eh, I think i'm just gonna stop reading these books.
lizaroo71's review against another edition
4.0
This is a collection of interrelated stories. The setting is Bakerton, Pennsylvania. The residents are primarily coal miners, but not all. We get a good feel for the make up of the citizens based on stories that take place in past and present. The stories are developed fully so you really get the total arc of a character.
kathleenww's review against another edition
5.0
Jennifer Haigh is a wonderful writer, with a lovely way with a turn of phrase. I've read two of her novels, and was very excited about her short fiction collection, and it does not disappoint. These vignettes of people's lives in a small Pennsylvania town, Bakerton, from shortly before World War One to the present are poignant, sad and hopeful.
Haigh gives us 10 beautifully wrought short stories, each with a meaningful name and its own character. We are introduced to the inhabitants of Bakerton initially in Beast and Bird, through two Polish teenage girls from Bakerton sent to work for Jewish families in New York City. It is in this story that we learn the flavor of provincial life in Bakerton: mind your own business, make smart choices (not emotional ones), do your duty and accept your fate.
This thread continues, back in Bakerton, when we are introduced to a spinster teacher, a relative of the Baker's for whom the town is named, who lives with her simple minded sister, but is flattered by a student who reminds her of her "first love." Here we find out that appearances in Bakerton are not, and never have been what they seem.
Broken Star, one of two first person narratives, reveals several family secrets, like layers of an onion, peeled back and causing tears. The stories move slowly forwards through time, and we begin to recognize names we've heard before, as in this story, we recognize family connections. Thrift also introduces characters with deep ties to place, two sisters, a caretaker and a spoiled baby sister.
A few people think they escape Bakerton, but they return, or are haunted by the place and its pull in their life. Haigh uses astronomical objects as metaphor in the names of many of her stories, and we can feel the gravitational pull of sun and star, just as the people of Bakerton feel the pull of place, like it or not. Escape is rarely fully possible. Many often return and are unable to cut the ties that bind, and often cut.
This is not full of stories with happy endings, but full of genuine life endings: people die, secrets are usually revealed to family at those times, and people choose to embrace those secrets as part of their loved ones, or continue to deny them. One of the most striking stories, Favorite Son (the other first person narrative) is about a man who returns, defeated, unemployed, and lost. The problem is no one understands how long he's been keeping the secret, or how painful it is, until it is too late. Someone almost always knows. The town is slowly dying from the start of the book, through the loss of its young men to war, to the mines, to unemployment. In the second to last story, we never really meet Sunny Baker, a descendant of the founders of Bakerton, but she is discussed and trashed ad nauseum: her home is an eye sore, she has been the town eccentric as of late, and with the building of a new prison, something must be done. However, the prison has been there all along.
Haigh has done an amazing job with these stories, reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge in their depth and warmth, and in their examination of small town life. I highly recommend this book to any fiction lover, it is a form that is wildly under appreciated, especially with artists as talented as Jennifer Haigh.
Haigh gives us 10 beautifully wrought short stories, each with a meaningful name and its own character. We are introduced to the inhabitants of Bakerton initially in Beast and Bird, through two Polish teenage girls from Bakerton sent to work for Jewish families in New York City. It is in this story that we learn the flavor of provincial life in Bakerton: mind your own business, make smart choices (not emotional ones), do your duty and accept your fate.
This thread continues, back in Bakerton, when we are introduced to a spinster teacher, a relative of the Baker's for whom the town is named, who lives with her simple minded sister, but is flattered by a student who reminds her of her "first love." Here we find out that appearances in Bakerton are not, and never have been what they seem.
Broken Star, one of two first person narratives, reveals several family secrets, like layers of an onion, peeled back and causing tears. The stories move slowly forwards through time, and we begin to recognize names we've heard before, as in this story, we recognize family connections. Thrift also introduces characters with deep ties to place, two sisters, a caretaker and a spoiled baby sister.
A few people think they escape Bakerton, but they return, or are haunted by the place and its pull in their life. Haigh uses astronomical objects as metaphor in the names of many of her stories, and we can feel the gravitational pull of sun and star, just as the people of Bakerton feel the pull of place, like it or not. Escape is rarely fully possible. Many often return and are unable to cut the ties that bind, and often cut.
This is not full of stories with happy endings, but full of genuine life endings: people die, secrets are usually revealed to family at those times, and people choose to embrace those secrets as part of their loved ones, or continue to deny them. One of the most striking stories, Favorite Son (the other first person narrative) is about a man who returns, defeated, unemployed, and lost. The problem is no one understands how long he's been keeping the secret, or how painful it is, until it is too late. Someone almost always knows. The town is slowly dying from the start of the book, through the loss of its young men to war, to the mines, to unemployment. In the second to last story, we never really meet Sunny Baker, a descendant of the founders of Bakerton, but she is discussed and trashed ad nauseum: her home is an eye sore, she has been the town eccentric as of late, and with the building of a new prison, something must be done. However, the prison has been there all along.
Haigh has done an amazing job with these stories, reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge in their depth and warmth, and in their examination of small town life. I highly recommend this book to any fiction lover, it is a form that is wildly under appreciated, especially with artists as talented as Jennifer Haigh.
bellacocoa's review against another edition
5.0
I find that I am enjoying all of Haigh's books, and I enjoyed revisiting Bakerton through the characters in these stories. I also liked how as the book progressed, it added layers to the stories by telling the perspective of family members referenced in earlier stories.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
4.0
RATING: 4 STARS
I really enjoyed these short stories about Bakerton (sequel of sorts to [b:Baker Towers|72876|Baker Towers|Jennifer Haigh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442809256l/72876._SY75_.jpg|1701483]). Some were from the Novak family, and some from other townspeople. I love Haigh's novels for her character studies. She is able to make everyday life such an interesting story. I think that is the hardest kind of writing to keep a reader interested without twists, purposefully hateful characters, action, etc. I am so happy to be back to reading Haigh, and the Bakerton books.
I really enjoyed these short stories about Bakerton (sequel of sorts to [b:Baker Towers|72876|Baker Towers|Jennifer Haigh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442809256l/72876._SY75_.jpg|1701483]). Some were from the Novak family, and some from other townspeople. I love Haigh's novels for her character studies. She is able to make everyday life such an interesting story. I think that is the hardest kind of writing to keep a reader interested without twists, purposefully hateful characters, action, etc. I am so happy to be back to reading Haigh, and the Bakerton books.
khchristensen's review against another edition
4.0
I think this is the first short story collection I've actually finished.
snowmaiden's review against another edition
4.0
When I found out that I'd won a free copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads program, I was obviously excited. Then when I figured out it was the second book this author has written about Bakerton, Pennsylvania, I was afraid I'd be totally lost, since I've never read the first one. It turned out there was no cause for alarm, as the short stories in this book stand completely on their own. (I still do want to read the first book, [b:Baker Towers|72876|Baker Towers|Jennifer Haigh|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349018149s/72876.jpg|1701483], but only because I like the author's writing style and the characters she has created here.)
The stories in this book are very good. In her writing style, Jennifer Haigh reminded me of [a:Alice Munro|6410|Alice Munro|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1245100102p2/6410.jpg], which is high praise coming from me, as Munro is one of my favorite short story writers. Both of them are able to give you a sense of a person's whole life in just a few pages by sketching a few well-chosen details and letting you fill in the rest. In subject matter, this book reminded me more of [b:A Gravestone Made of Wheat|455667|A Gravestone Made of Wheat|Will Weaver|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312063263s/455667.jpg|444215] by [a:Will Weaver|39792|Will Weaver|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1310363183p2/39792.jpg]. Although Weaver writes about small agricultural towns in Minnesota and this book is set in a mining town in Pennsylvania, there's the same feeling of having two choices-- striking out on your own in the big outside world or living a small and unfulfilling life where you grew up. Haigh captures that dichotomy very well.
The stories in this book are very good. In her writing style, Jennifer Haigh reminded me of [a:Alice Munro|6410|Alice Munro|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1245100102p2/6410.jpg], which is high praise coming from me, as Munro is one of my favorite short story writers. Both of them are able to give you a sense of a person's whole life in just a few pages by sketching a few well-chosen details and letting you fill in the rest. In subject matter, this book reminded me more of [b:A Gravestone Made of Wheat|455667|A Gravestone Made of Wheat|Will Weaver|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312063263s/455667.jpg|444215] by [a:Will Weaver|39792|Will Weaver|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1310363183p2/39792.jpg]. Although Weaver writes about small agricultural towns in Minnesota and this book is set in a mining town in Pennsylvania, there's the same feeling of having two choices-- striking out on your own in the big outside world or living a small and unfulfilling life where you grew up. Haigh captures that dichotomy very well.