ALL'S FAIR AND OTHER CALIFORNIA STORIES

A debut set of 13 stories that largely portray the struggles of people pursuing optimistic promises of life in Southern California.

In these richly evocative tales, Feyder’s various protagonists confront their own lack of control over their lives. The author skillfully centers each story on the exact moment in which dreams and hopes are crushed. She sketches her characters—of different ages, genders, and classes—with pitch-perfect honesty. Older women reassess and reshape their identities, particularly in “All’s Fair,” about a woman with an ill husband who befriends a boy with albinism, as well as “Robbie Released,” about a small-town manicurist whose troubled brother comes to retrieve a family heirloom. Children must reevaluate their parents in “Joint Custody” and “Grace,” in each case painfully realizing that their hopes for a functional family life are unachievable. Feyder is particularly deft in her portrayal of teenage girls searching for answers and escape plans in “Engaged” and “Horse, Rope, Mud, Rain.” Not all is bleak, however; a wary hope arises in the stories in which characters directly face the disconcerting fragility of life or of themselves. In “White Shoes,” for example, a young girl realizes how precious her family is after witnessing the effects of her mother’s estrangement from her long-absent brother; suddenly aware of her parents’ foibles, Gloria feels newly bound to her loved ones. “Blind Date” shares the story of an awkward man’s search for romantic connection after he feels he’s missed his chance at love. In “T-Zone,” one of the collection’s strongest pieces, a dismissed U.S. Navy officer deals with his idolatry of—and attraction to—his brother-in-law. Overall, an aching sense of loss permeates this collection, which is heightened by the way in which it contrasts with the expansive natural beauty of the Pacific Ocean and the thriving orchards along its coastline: “The ocean sparkles at its points of height, as if the crests of swells hold blinking lanterns.” In the end, Feyder effectively captures what it’s like to be emotionally bereft in a land of plenty.

A beautifully rendered collection from a writer to watch.