Review: Shirley’s Compilation of Short Stories by Shirley McLain

Shirley’s Compilation of Short Stories by Shirley McLain is an engaging book of short fiction in which the inner lives of characters intertwine with the bigger picture of history, resulting in a thrilling roller coaster of emotion.

McLain offers the reader a wide range of stories, touching on genres that vary from noir to romantic fiction. The thread running through them is in their evocative atmosphere – the perpetual feeling of something hidden below the surface: a detail overlooked for too long, a well-kept secret, or an emotion that cannot be ignored.

From the tragic secrets behind the wealth of a Scottish family who emigrated to the US in the 18^th century, to the incredible reunion of a daughter with her mother during intergalactic travel, or a long drive through America turning into a nightmare, the collection is carefully crafted to allow the characters’ most intimate motivations, hopes, and desires come to the surface.

Alternating between vignette-like stories that work almost as photographs, and longer pieces that have the breadth of a novella, McLain uses variety as her canvas, finding meaning in multiplicity, as the stories build on each other, for a complete work that feels like a novel in its breadth. While in “Angie’s Secret” we can guess the main characters’ preoccupations from a quick snapshot of her life, “The Office” uses chapters to develop the story, allowing us into the backstage of the narrative.

A religious collection at its core, the presence of God is palpable throughout this book as admonitor, councilor, and sometimes simply as the most faithful of friends. The divine, however, does not stop history from happening, mistakes from being repeated, or pointless tragedies from striking, so the book never proselytizes. Delving for fun into the realm of the occult, Mike and Mary play with a Ouija board, ignoring their pastor’s warnings to a terrible end. William Duncan’s extreme actions during the French and Indian War and Ohio Gold War turn out to gain his family an incredible fortune, one that providentially ends up helping mothers in difficulties through a foundation set up many generations after him. The work of faith and religion is difficult to pin down as it is faceted and complex, adding texture and profundity to many of these stories.

McLain’s prose style is light and flows easily, but it also has an edgy undertone, with darkly ironic twists that are reflected in the intriguing contrast between the clear, clean writing and the darkness simmering beneath. Although the dialogue could be rendered more naturally, McLain manages to give a tangible individuality to each character – a kaleidoscope of personalities with very different backgrounds, living in time and places quite far apart from each other and yet sharing all in the strangeness of fate.

With a flair for the mysterious and enigmatic, Shirley’s Compilation of Short Stories is a thrilling effort in the landscape of contemporary short fiction, which can be dipped into at any point in the collection for a surprising and rewarding read.