SHOT

Berman presents a collection of short stories tracing the emotional impact of gun violence in the United States.

In an opening note, the author tells readers that her motivation for writing these tales is “to give voice to those who did not survive” the “epidemic of gun violence in this country.” The collection is arranged into 26 short stories, alphabetically ordered by victims’ first names. Each begins with some background details and the phrase, “I am a statistic.” Some stories are clearly inspired by recent events, such as the story of an elderly man killed in a temple on Rosh Hashanah, a teenager killed in Buffalo, and several others set in schools around the country. Although many stories explore similar themes, Berman is careful to avoid repetition, often building scenes in which characters (and readers) anticipate gun violence, only to have expectations subverted. For example, in “Ginger,” a climate activist fears an attack at a protest, only for violence to unfold at her daughter’s soccer match. There’s also variety among the author’s choice of subjects, which include children, teens, middle-aged and elderly people, and a range of ethnicities, sexualities, and lifestyles. One notably surprising story, “Kylor,” features a pro-gun activist who’s excited to visit a gun show and purchase a new rifle. That said, with so many vignettes circling toward similar endings, occasional overlap and repetition are inevitable. The first time Berman describes a shooter at a middle-school end-of-year assembly (“a young man wearing a bandana that covers half his face, standing on the stairs at the far-left of the stage. He is holding a large rifle and pointing it at all the winners, then quickly flashing it around the hall”), it’s shocking, but when readers begin to anticipate a killer’s eventual emergence, the suspense wanes. This may, of course, be intentional, but it’s a point that could have been made in fewer than 26 stories. Nonetheless, the individual and cumulative impact of these works remains striking.

A potent and emotionally stirring depiction of how violence shapes everyday life.