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A review by veelaughtland
Vertigo by Joanna Walsh
4.0
I requested this from the publisher for review - many thanks to And Other Stories for sending this my way!
Vertigo by Joanna Walsh is a very stark, minimalist, and raw collection of short stories, that focuses solely on women from a variety of backgrounds. These stories deal with young mothers, weight, and loss of love, among other things, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Despite being a relatively short collection, at under 150 pages, I found that I really wanted to take my time with these stories. The writing in its simplicity was reminiscent of Raymond Carver to me, not only for that but for its blank, depressive mood. There isn't a great deal of dialogue in these stories however, and there is a lot of repetition, but it is always done for effect rather than due to poor writing ability. I thought this collection was excellently written, and I am definitely excited to see what else Joanna Walsh has written.
One story in particular, Young Mothers, I'd like to highlight for the way it made me stop and think, and left me with an empty, sad feeling at its ends. I immediately wanted to go back to the beginning and read this short but poignant story, and although I couldn't really relate to the narrator in this, it did make me think about my future, and how I might interpret it at later stages of my life.
I would thoroughly recommend this collection, and it's definitely a collection I'd like to re-read at various points in my life, where I think I could have a wholly new interpretation of the stories every time. Well worth picking up, particularly if you like female-centered fiction.
Vertigo by Joanna Walsh is a very stark, minimalist, and raw collection of short stories, that focuses solely on women from a variety of backgrounds. These stories deal with young mothers, weight, and loss of love, among other things, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Despite being a relatively short collection, at under 150 pages, I found that I really wanted to take my time with these stories. The writing in its simplicity was reminiscent of Raymond Carver to me, not only for that but for its blank, depressive mood. There isn't a great deal of dialogue in these stories however, and there is a lot of repetition, but it is always done for effect rather than due to poor writing ability. I thought this collection was excellently written, and I am definitely excited to see what else Joanna Walsh has written.
One story in particular, Young Mothers, I'd like to highlight for the way it made me stop and think, and left me with an empty, sad feeling at its ends. I immediately wanted to go back to the beginning and read this short but poignant story, and although I couldn't really relate to the narrator in this, it did make me think about my future, and how I might interpret it at later stages of my life.
I would thoroughly recommend this collection, and it's definitely a collection I'd like to re-read at various points in my life, where I think I could have a wholly new interpretation of the stories every time. Well worth picking up, particularly if you like female-centered fiction.