A review by jill_reads
The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck

4.0

Somewhere from 4-4.5 stars. I really liked these short stories and I couldn’t exactly pinpoint why except that I felt their moodiness, their weather (seriously convinced that Shattuck wrote this whole book from a cold, drafty room in New England and had to incorporate that feeling into each story at some point), and their melancholy. So few happy characters, basically none I think? All at least hurting over some lost love or missed opportunity or longing, but it somehow wasn’t annoying. The moodiness fit with the whole vibe and I felt drawn into each of their lives, in quite a tender way.

That said, I think maybe my favourite part of the book was the fake Radiolab episode and the subsequent story “The Auk” of a man trying his best to reconnect with his wife who is slowly drifting away from dementia. And these two were probably two of the most hopeful and sweet stories so maybe I was craving a bit more of that and not the bleak sadness of some of the others haha.

Also started crying reading his acknowledgement section about Jenny Slate, because I also think she is great and it’s so sweet to see him express his love for her. So I was probably biased all the way through this book by knowing she loves him.