Shout Her Lovely Name (Natalie Serber)

      
  I wouldn't call myself a Short Story person. I have this thing in my head where if I'm to open a book I want to be enveloped and in the knowledge that I'm going to be taken on a ride. I want a commitment. But like poetry where some speaks to you and you nod your head Yes- I get that, I know what the poet was feeling when she wrote that---You can sometimes read a short story and say wow- that packed a punch.

Shout Her Lovely Name did just that. Each story drew me in and made me feel like it was so much bigger and deeper than the 15 or so pages each story was. I was sad to see it end. How talented Natalie Serber is with her characters and their entire lives put on the page. 

Most of the stories involve Ruby and her daughter, Nora and the glimpses of their lives at various stages from the men they're involved with and the lifestyle choices for the times. There are a sprinkling of stories unrelated, a mother fretting over her teenage daughter's eating disorder to a wife coming to terms with letting her kids (walking in on sexual escapade) go while planning her husbands 50th and him getting matching tattoos with his son, to a woman on an airplane with her somewhat controlling husband dealing with her infant and another passenger who's a butthole. 

The stories are slices of life that burrow deep into a woman's heart. They are about struggles and female bonds and growing up and growing older and moving on with acceptance. I loved every story and it reminds me of the charms and loveliness of story in it's short form.