by Caroline Adderson
A funny and perceptive novel in stories
I’m a short story writer and for fifteen years I’ve mostly avoided the novel. I prefer what I call the “Roman candle” school of storytelling—a singular unitary arc.
Enter the linked story collection—novels for people who prefer the short form, but who want to spend more than five minutes with a story’s characters.
Nowadays, there are many of these linked story collections. (Full disclosure #1: I’m writing one.) (Full disclosure #2: Caroline Adderson is my editor.)
The linked collection that people usually talk about is “Olive Kitteridge.” Not to take anything away from Elizabeth Strout’s inspiring and luminous work, but the stories in that collection are pretty weakly linked. In some, there is not even a trace of Olive. It seems at least possible that their linkage was an inspired afterthought.
In contrast, Caroline Adderson’s sassy and irreverent Ellen McGinty permeates every page of “Ellen in Pieces.” Her life is laid out in two acts, through twelve stories told by five POV characters. Built around its own narrative arc, each story illuminates the loves and travails of this quirky woman and her circle. After spending a year finally succumbing to the novel, I get why people love them. There is a great joy in falling in love with a character, in seeing their story unfold over a long period of time (here, several decades). It’s something most short story writers, with our singular unitary arcs, are loath to do. Time in this collection is fluid. Many of the stories dip deftly into the past to inform present action, while never slowing the narrative flow.
Like Lorrie Moore, Adderson will make you laugh and rip your heart out in the same sentence. Be prepared to be entertained and to deeply penetrate the lives of Ellen, her wacky family and friends.