Everything Inside - Edwidge Danticat

It’s not often that you can say of a collection of short stories that they are “unputdownable”. That kind of plaudit is generally saved for tense, twisty, crime thrillers and action novels. But I really didn’t want to put this enthralling book down.

Eight stories that offer us, not just a glimpse into a culture that might be unfamiliar to us, but a window into that human condition that draws people to and away from one another. Danticat examines the leaving of one country and customs - Haiti - for another -  the US. She explores, with subtlety, the often confused and bewildering world of relationships on several levels. Also the lengths to which the human being will go to achieve their own desired ends and the consequences of such self absorption. Considerations of place and belonging, identity and family.

 With elegant prose that details not just the physical world but the emotional world too Danticat shows herself to be an astute observer of people and their motivations. This is not a book that shouts at you, rather, it delicately whispers its lingering messages that stay with you after you’ve read each story.

The stories are diverse yet the arrangement in the book works so completely and offers a cohesion to the collection overall. You feel as if these stories truly belong together. Often when I review a collection of short stories or poetry I hone in on my favourites.  But I can’t do that here because I loved them all. I will however mention the concluding story in the collection, Without Inspection. For it is unusual. It tells of Arnold who in six and a half seconds falls to his death. As he falls he is reliving those moments of his life which defined him and the life he is about to leave. Of course one can never know exactly what is going through one’s mind in a situation where foreknowledge of death is absolute so this is a work of pure imagination yet it reads completely believably. The sense of slow motion is poignant and the author cleverly allows us to know Arnold and his struggles. As we read and realise the full import of not just his loss but also the loss of those he leaves behind it is powerfully moving.

I sometimes feel the short story is an underrated genre. How often do you see a collection on the best sellers lists? Yet the skill required to achieve a point or intention in fewer words than a novel is not easy and requires an economy, not just of words, but of plot development and character exposition also. Danticat has it down to a fine art.

My thanks to Katya Ellis at riverrun and Quercus books for a gifted copy.