Separate Kingdoms: Stories
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
“A work of daunting versatility and technical skill, the product of a writer absolutely at home in the language and working vigorously within both new and old forms.” —Michael Byers, author of Long for this World and The Coast of Good Intentions
From Pushcart Prize-winner Valerie Laken, author of Dream House, comes a riveting short story collection charting the divisions and collisions between cultures and nations, families and lovers, selves and others in the United States and Russia. In the tradition of Lydia Peelle, Barbara Johnson, and David Mitchell, Laken creates incisive and illuminating portraits of characters coping with loss, estrangement, and disability, confined by their circumstances to separate kingdoms of the heart.
Valerie Laken
Valerie Laken teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her first novel, Dream House, was named of one Booklist's Top Ten First Novels and Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2009.
Read more from Valerie Laken
Milwaukee Noir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Separate Kingdoms: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Separate Kingdoms
Related ebooks
The Linden Tree Legacy: The Dawning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Takes a Corpse: 5 Victorian Horror Stories: Death Takes a Corpse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEaster at Glosser's Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRavens in the Park (A Victorian Horror Story): Death Takes a Corpse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrigins: The Blue Dragon Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKyzer's Destiny: A Novel of Historical Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Series of Anarchic Non-communist Thoughts. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIntroducing Penny Dreadnought, Insidious Indoctrination Engine of the Abominable Gentlemen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnna's Secret Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAcoustic Fishes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dark Secret of Weatherend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaptain June Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSleepless in Sovietsky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRisen: The Chosen Chronicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Holywell Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under the Shadow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRiddle of the Silver Walking Stick Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove One, Then Another: Love Through the Ages, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCity of the Beasts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ticket to Paris Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories From Lone Moon Creek: Moonglow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gates to Heaven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLucia’s Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Strange Boy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAngelina's Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA letter from the past Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlien Spaces in Similar Places Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaperweight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scarred Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Short Stories For You
Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Years of the Best American Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Skeleton Crew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Tuesdays in Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ficciones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Explicit Content: Red Hot Stories of Hardcore Erotica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Scorched Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sour Candy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Short Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Four Past Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skin Folk: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Separate Kingdoms
14 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My foray into short story compilations has been pretty limited, but I can still tell you that Separate Kingdoms stories pack a massive amount of emotion into such short pieces. These eight stories literally bleed tragedy and angst, but in the best way possible. Laken's writing is absolutely stunning. Well-worded prose, mixed with bittersweet stories and descriptive language create one deep read. This is not a set of stories that will raise your mood, let me warn you now. However Separate Kingdoms is so beautifully tragic and so realistic that it makes you want to keep reading, despite the somber tone of the stories.
What you'll find between these covers are portraits of individuals learning, or struggling, to cope. Each one of these stories contains someone who is battling inner demons, fleeing from reality, longing for something more, or simply avoiding everything in an effort to blend in. It is no surprise that sometimes I was uncomfortable while reading these stories. Watching these characters navigate their respective inner battles is heart wrenching and sometimes hits a bit too close to home. Laken's ability to write the bare, naked souls of her characters is admirable, to say the very least.
I truly don't think I will be rereading this compilation. Although I was drawn in at the time, Separate Kingdoms is most assuredly not a light read. I applaud Valerie Laken for her ability to shine a spotlight on the dark and gritty parts of all of us. These stories may not make you feel good, but they will definitely make you feel something. The only word I can truly think of to explain what you'll find between the covers of this book is "poignant", but even that doesn't seem like enough of a description. If you are a lover of short stories, or even a reader of great fiction for that matter, Separate Kingdoms is definitely something that you will want to check out. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short story collections are the poorer cousins of novels in the fiction world. Publishers are very leery of them unless the author has already somehow proven himself as a saleable commodity, preferrably with a successful novel. And I must admit that I don't read many short stories myself. I heard of SEPARATE KINGDOMS from a writer friend, Don Lystra, who authored a much acclaimed first novel, SEASON OF WATER AND ICE. Now Don is looking for a publisher for (you guessed it) a group of short stories. I hope he finds one, because I'm eagerly looking forward to reading more of his fiction in whatever form.I am extremely impressed with Laken's collection. Because she is obviously a writer who knows what she's about, and writes about what she knows. The thing that sets this book apart from other story collections is its use of alternate settings. Three of the eight stories here are set in the former USSR, in Moscow and its outlying suburbs and villages. Laken lived in the area back in the early 90s and has apparently made subsequent visits since then. Hence the title of the collection perhaps - the US and the USSR as 'separate kingdoms.' But there are other possibilities too, and they are easy to find in each of the stories. The first one, for example, "Before Long," contrasts the world of the sighted with the blind, represented by Anton, a Russian boy who is nearing puberty, with all its normal awkwardness emphasized even more by his handicap. Childhood, adolescence and the adult world are all separate kingdoms too, of course - layers of interpretations here, I suppose, if you wanna do that kinda thing. Me, I was mostly caught up in the stories and their characters. They're all that good - and real - with dead-on perfect and believable dialogue, with occasional Russian words and expressions thrown in to add a little authenticity."Spectators" is one of the US stories, set in Illinois, about the often unexplored world of amputees, another 'kingdom' often ignored by 'normal' people. And Another story, "Scavengers," looks at the odd dilemma posed by the collapse of the banking and financial community recently, which poignantly juxtaposes the plight of the homeless with whole neighborhoods of empty foreclosed houses - the haves and the have-nots, with the emphasis on the latter."The God of Fire" looks at the familial chasm (a ruptured relationship) between an adult daughter and her distant, difficult father, who is clinging to life in a hospital ICU, having suffered a ruptured aortic aneurism.And in the title story, which might have been subtitled, "Look, Ma - No Thumbs," Laken subtly examines the perhaps not so significant distinction between man and the animal kingdom. This story is presented in a unique columnar format with two sides of the same story (a father and son) being told side-by-side, which presents the reader with the choice of either reading the stories piecemeal, the way one might concurrently read a couple of different news articles on the same page, or simply read one column all the way through and then go back and read the second one. In any case, it works whichever way you choose. And as a dog lover, I was especially pleased with Laken's descriptions of the two family dogs - small stuff, I know, but representative of the kind of detail that makes these stories come alive. For me, however, the showcase piece of this stellar collection is "Map of the City," which is, I suspect, largely autobiographical. The unnamed narrator (at least I don't think she is ever named), an exchange student from a US state college who is caught up in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, is utterly believable in her uncertainties and doubts, and particularly in her daily struggles with the intricacies of the Russian tongue and the difficulties and loneliness this dilemma brings with it. The dialogue in this particular story is understandably spare and minimal, reflecting the language barrier and the tortured syntax that often results. The American student and her Russian friends are perfect representatives of the 'separate kingdoms' of the book's title. As someone who worked with and studied the Russian language for over twenty-five years, I can attest to its difficulties. Fluency in such a language is hard-won, if indeed it is ever achieved. Perhaps this is why I like these stories so much. Because Laken dared to write of a foreign, alien culture - the former USSR as a 'separate kingdom.' And yet she does it in the humblest most honest terms, acknowledging how little she really knows - indeed how little any of us can know - about the realities of life in a suddenly broken country. There are only intimations here of how quickly the Soviet union fractured and how old ethnic rivalries and hatreds of all the now separate republics suddenly flared again into wars and uprisings, separate kingdoms forming and reforming.But every one of these eight stories, in both settings, is carefully crafted and faultlessly executed. Perhaps there is yet hope for the survival of the art of the short story. This is a fascinating and simply terrific book. My, how I ramble on. Good stuff, Ms. Laken. Enough said.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Okay. Let's see. This was different. This was not what I was expecting. This was not your average, every day quick read. It wasn't a long book to read. No, nothing like that. The author did a great job at breaking it done into eight different stories, but I didn't really grasp them like I wanted to. These short stories were, simply put, interesting. Families divided, so to speak. Divided by life's challenges. Divided by emotions. Simply divided, and trying to over come that great space between them. Taken between Russia and America, Laken creates these short stories with dark emotions. She creates them with everyday life issues and turns them into stories that aren't your normal stories. With stories like FAMILY PLANNING, about a lesbian couple in Russia trying to adopt....well that is one that, while interesting, wasn't one I would want to read again. Reading through these, expecting something different, well I can honestly say that I didn't really like any of them. They were too dark in their emotions and not what I was expecting at all. Sadly, I can only give book 3 stars. I, myself, will not be reading this one again. However, I can recommend this book to those who like the darker emotion filled stories. They are well written, but just not my taste.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mostly unsatisfying character study stories in which the characters refuse to make important decisions regarding their broken lives. The title story has an interesting format, and the characters are all well drawn, but this is uneventful writing overall and left me wishing for some evidence of closure.