This Close by Jessica Francis Kane

This Close by Jessica Francis Kane
Buy This Close by Jessica Francis Kane at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Short Stories
Reviewer: Louise Jones
Summary: A collection of short stories exploring the nature of relationships and how a missed opportunity can change one's whole life course.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 200	Date: May 2013
Publisher: Gray Wolf Press
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781555976361
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This Close is a sensitively written collection of short stories exploring the fragile nature of the bonds connecting friends, neighbours and family. As the title suggests, most of the stories contain pivotal moments where a missed opportunity, fleeting as it may be, can propel a person along a path culminating in regret or loss. Each story is poignantly written and perceptively observed. As a reader, I was drawn in and became so emotionally involved with the characters that it was often impossible to close the book until I knew how each story ended.

Jessica Francis Kane is adept at portraying human nature in all its various forms. I felt like I knew the characters in the stories and found myself caring deeply about what happened to them, even the more unpleasant ones! Kane has a way of eliciting empathy from her readers by painting multi-faceted characters with rich, layered histories and a balance of good qualities and flaws.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the book way the way that several of the stories were linked by a common thread or recurring characters. As the stories are presented out of sequence, the reader does not initially realise that a mother and son featured in one of the earlier stories make several appearances later on in the book. When I finally realised what was happening, I had a little Eureka moment and could not help but admire the way that the author had woven the plot threads together to form a complete picture.

Not all of the stories are linked, however, and one of the most touching tales in the book is a standalone story about a mother who loses her young daughter to meningitis. The story is handled in a sensitive way and despite the dark subject matter, is deeply moving to read.

The scenarios featured in the book are everyday happenings that play over and over again around the world on a daily basis. What is truly remarkable is the way that Kane portrays these events, elevating them above the ordinary and turning them into something hauntingly beautiful.

This Close is the kind of book that will draw readers back repeatedly and will reward them with something new upon each fresh retelling. This collection of stories will continue to echo in the mind long after the last page has been turned.

More short stories which encourage self-reflection can be found in Behind the Facade by Dennis Friedman, poignantly written tales based on real-life cases.

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