Sinking, Singing, by Gwynne Garfinkle

[mrissa]

 

Review copy provided by the author, who has been a friend On Here since forever.

This is a compact short story collection, reprinting Garfinkle's work on this theme rather than attempting to be a Complete Works or even a Greatest Hits situation. In these pages you'll find work reminiscent of her novel, Can't Find My Way Home, in its focus on mid-late twentieth century and music through a speculative lens.

It's a quiet volume, none of the stories flashy and high-concept. What it does well is focus on small moments of yearning, epiphanies or more often longing for epiphanies that might prove elusive, because this is not a tidy collection, this is a not a collection where the protagonists get what they want at the end of each story, neatly in a bow. It is always, through all its timelines, more human than that.