Darn Her, Anyway

At times while consuming Lauren Groff's short story collection entitled Florida it was difficult to control my envy of her astonishing writing talent. This 2018 volume is more assured than similar collections by authors almost twice Groff's age. 

Although all eleven tales hum with intelligence and humor, I suspect the five that feature a distracted and conflicted mother of two young boys who is "...exhausting to everyone..." and "...buries all her failures in reading..." are the stories that will remain with me longest. The first four of these are told in the first person, pointing attentive readers toward concluding that Groff - the mother of two young boys - is using herself, mercilessly, as a subject. Only the last of the five - Yport, which closes out the collection and is the longest story in the book - is in third person. In that one, the writer/mother takes her two boys to France while doing research for her next book. She tries easing their uncertainty in the new and strange surroundings by telling them - "I won't let anybody hurt you, she says, and she is either lying or not, it is hard to tell, because this promise is so complicated, the future so dark." 

Reflections From The Bell Curve: 21st Century Couples

The post above was published soon after I finished Groff's 2015 novel Fates and Furies. Six and a half years later, I'm now more convinced that equating her with a young John Updike is apt. Her gift - like Updike's - is a rare one. Darn her, anyway.