A love triangle plays out over decades on a Montana dude ranch. A hurdler and a gymnast spend a single night together in the Olympic village. Mistakes and mysteries weave an intangible web around an old man's deathbed in Paris, connecting disparate destinies. On the slopes of an unfinished ski resort, a young woman searches for her vanished lover. A couple's Romanian honeymoon goes ominously awry, and, in the mesmerizing title story, a former child actress breaks with her life in a Hollywood cult.
It’s a rare writer who can create a world as convincingly over a few pages as in a 600-page novel; Shipstead’s fluency in both forms is testament to the skill she modestly casts as a work in progress.
Shipstead's first story collection reinforces the extensive talent on display in her first three novels. The work is convincing in any setting and any mode, whether it be quiet years on a Montana ranch, exploration of the Parisian catacombs, or a showcase of celebrity-infused horrors in Los Angeles. Shipstead seems to move effortlessly from plane to plane, bringing trademark eloquence and humor to each landscape she chooses ... Shipstead's control and confidence as a writer blaze in each line ... Shipstead's humor is present throughout, but sharpens exceptionally when she turns her attention to working artists ... [a] brilliant, funny and occasionally alarming collection.
It’s a savvy move on the part of Shipstead’s publishers to treat those fans to this collection of stories ... A couple of the stories felt a little flat ... All the same, the remarkable scope of Shipstead’s imagination and talent is well evidenced in the collection as a whole ... If there is a unifying element to these stories, it’s the tender but unflinching way in which Shipstead writes about various damaged souls ... Although obviously not as remarkable an achievement as Great Circle, there’s still lots to recommend these sharp, striking flashes of life.
