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A review by jdscott50
The Bigness of the World by Lori Ostlund
4.0
Wherever you go, despite the "bigness" of the world, you are still you and bring your own issues and problems. In Lori Ostlund's short story collection, Minnesotans are exposed to different environments around the world and find more similarities than differences.
In the titular story, two young children make a connection with their caretaker Elsa. Their parents try to create order for them and hold heavy disdain for Elsa's unorthodox ways. However, it is Elsa that leaves them the most prepared for the "bigness" of the world. Sort of an antidote to the Prarie Home Companion characters (it takes place in Minnesota). Handling the unknown and nonsense of the world is a better preparation than order. In the short story, Bed Death, a suicide leads to the end of a relationship. One person chooses life against these odds.
In other stories, A daughter attempts to bring her father into the present while his stubborn refusal undoes all of her work. A father uses his daughter to unload his burdens. She learns too much about the world at too young of an age. It makes her tragically stronger. Two women look for a connection on the other side of the world, but a shared religion does not equal shared customs. Upon completion of baldness, the relationship of two teachers is revealed to their students.
All the stories are very character driven with a focus on separation. We find the distance from home and the distance in relationships haunt these characters. Wherever they go, they carry their problems. It is the problems at home they must face first.
Favorite Passages:
“She had decided that each family has a member whose absence rounds out the family far more than his or her presence ever could. " p 200
“There are, I have learned, numerous ways to make this statement. There is the Don’t cry that is issued as a demonstration of solidarity and sympathy and that is succeeded, most often, by the words or you’ll get me started. There is the more detached and perhaps reflective Don’t cry, one suggesting that the situation, and often life in general, does not merit tears, a tone that I generally find both reassuring and persuasive. Then there is the Don’t cry that is pure threat, that warns, Do not start because I am not in a position to think about you or your needs, and if you do start, you will see this and most surely be disappointed.” P154
In the titular story, two young children make a connection with their caretaker Elsa. Their parents try to create order for them and hold heavy disdain for Elsa's unorthodox ways. However, it is Elsa that leaves them the most prepared for the "bigness" of the world. Sort of an antidote to the Prarie Home Companion characters (it takes place in Minnesota). Handling the unknown and nonsense of the world is a better preparation than order. In the short story, Bed Death, a suicide leads to the end of a relationship. One person chooses life against these odds.
In other stories, A daughter attempts to bring her father into the present while his stubborn refusal undoes all of her work. A father uses his daughter to unload his burdens. She learns too much about the world at too young of an age. It makes her tragically stronger. Two women look for a connection on the other side of the world, but a shared religion does not equal shared customs. Upon completion of baldness, the relationship of two teachers is revealed to their students.
All the stories are very character driven with a focus on separation. We find the distance from home and the distance in relationships haunt these characters. Wherever they go, they carry their problems. It is the problems at home they must face first.
Favorite Passages:
“She had decided that each family has a member whose absence rounds out the family far more than his or her presence ever could. " p 200
“There are, I have learned, numerous ways to make this statement. There is the Don’t cry that is issued as a demonstration of solidarity and sympathy and that is succeeded, most often, by the words or you’ll get me started. There is the more detached and perhaps reflective Don’t cry, one suggesting that the situation, and often life in general, does not merit tears, a tone that I generally find both reassuring and persuasive. Then there is the Don’t cry that is pure threat, that warns, Do not start because I am not in a position to think about you or your needs, and if you do start, you will see this and most surely be disappointed.” P154