The greatest strength of...Aysegül Savas is that she writes so well about homesickness ... Leaves us squirming in discomfort and sympathy ... Well rendered ... The story’s skill...lies in its subtlety.
Long Distance didn't dissapoint ... Notions of the Sacred is another banger ... As I carried on through the 13 stories...my enthusiasm was dampened by a lack of diversity among the characters and their backdrops ... In places Savas struggles to make one story’s protagonist distinct from another ... I wondered whether Savas might be something of a one-trick pony ... Still, for young readers with foreign sweethearts and a taste for travel...this will do the job. If only all the stories were as fab as the first few.
There’s a disconnect in these stories, as in life, between the way one would like to be seen and the drudgery of the everyday ... Savaş treats her subjects tenderly, and without pity. Briskly plotted, her stories have no room for despair ... The author comes into her own when she steps back and savors the richness of a scene ... Nothing has time to stick in these stories ... There’s much to bristle at in Savaş’s fiction. The tension in her prose, as she noted in a 2019 interview with BOMB, arises 'from huge reserves of affection that are unarticulated, characters who don’t know what to do with their feelings.'
The characters may be vulnerable, but they are never overwrought, a balancing act Savaş executes flawlessly. As she makes clear, navigating adulthood with an added sense of rootlessness is not easy, especially in today’s world.
Gorgeous ... With unsparing grace, Savaş tenderly illustrates the struggles of her characters as they seek fulfillment. There’s much to love in these brilliant stories.
