Status
Available
Genres
Collection
Publication
Riverhead Books (2020), 288 pages
Description
"The award-winning author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self brings her signature voice and insight to the subjects of race, grief, apology, and American history. Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and x-ray insights into the complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters' lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multi-racial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief--all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history - about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight. In "Boys Go to Jupiter" a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a confederate flag bikini goes viral. In "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain" a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend's unexpectedly dramatic wedding. And in the eye-opening title novella, a black scholar from Washington DC is drawn into a complex historical mystery that spans generations and puts her job, her love life, and her oldest friendship at risk"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member lisapeet
WONDERFUL collection. Evans writes about loss and race and women who take no shit—sometimes all in the same piece—with a terrifically subtle touch. Which is not to say that she soft-pedals anything, because these are stories that will hit you where you live, but there's not a word here that
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doesn't ring true. Definitely one of my favorites of the year. Show Less
LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
The six short stories and following novella in this collection each involve trauma, though often that occurs out of shot and sometimes much earlier than the main story’s action. But the after effects of trauma are never not first and foremost in the minds of its victims. Sometimes that trauma can
Although I enjoyed every story here, including the titular novella, by far the most stunning, for me, is, “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain.” It is sophisticated and worldly and hilariously scathing of some of the absurdities of suburban life. But at the same time it is incredibly and movingly sad. That juxtaposition of laughter and pathos might be said to typify much of Evans’ writing. But here is reaches new heights. This one story is worth the price of admission for the whole collection and should be anthologized as often as possible.
Evans continues to impress. I look forward to whatever she writes next.
Recommended.
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be murder, or attempted murder. The murder or attempted murder of an individual. Or the murder or attempted murder of an entire race. Because racism — the kind of incessant, ingrained, pervasive and systemic racism that can be found in America — is an attempt to efface someone’s very humanity. One of Evans’ characters repeatedly asks herself, “Do they know I’m human yet?” Sadly, very often the answer is no, they don’t.Although I enjoyed every story here, including the titular novella, by far the most stunning, for me, is, “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain.” It is sophisticated and worldly and hilariously scathing of some of the absurdities of suburban life. But at the same time it is incredibly and movingly sad. That juxtaposition of laughter and pathos might be said to typify much of Evans’ writing. But here is reaches new heights. This one story is worth the price of admission for the whole collection and should be anthologized as often as possible.
Evans continues to impress. I look forward to whatever she writes next.
Recommended.
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LibraryThing member KateHonig
I really love the unique way the author arranged her book. The combination of multiple short stories & 1 novella was really well done. Usually in collections the quality of the stories varies, but each on of these is great on it's own. Together, they provide a picture of America that is both
My favorite story was "The Office of Historical Corrections" and the way a person's relationship with a childhood frenemy can profoundly affect their life as an adult. I love how these two woman navigate an upsetting and horrifying historical event that is still impacting the people involved today.
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optimistic and clear-eyed.My favorite story was "The Office of Historical Corrections" and the way a person's relationship with a childhood frenemy can profoundly affect their life as an adult. I love how these two woman navigate an upsetting and horrifying historical event that is still impacting the people involved today.
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LibraryThing member grandpahobo
Incredible writing. The stories are powerful.
LibraryThing member bookwyrmm
Evans's writing is so engaging that these stories sucked me in and really flew by; all were great, the the title piece was simply outstanding.
LibraryThing member clue
This was a bookclub read but did double duty as a short story collection for a CAT. Included are 6 short stories and a novella. The author is very good though as with most short story collections I liked some better than others. I'm not a big short story fan so it's not surprising I liked the
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novella best of all. The author is in her thirties and has won numerous major awards, primarily for short stories, and I look forward to following her. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beth.Clarke
A great collections of stories about race in the U.S. I love when a plot isn't tied up in a nice bow at the end of a book, and this one had many. Not everyone enjoys that type of ending, but I found Evan's endings superb. The stories all have strong female characters. One minute I'd be laughing,
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then I'd gasp. Amazing writing. Show Less
LibraryThing member Marse
Danielle Evans has an intriguing perspective in her stories. With this perspective she displays the misalignment that is part of being a black person in America without making accusations or even being particularly political. On the face of it, most of the stories don't seem especially memorable,
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but nevertheless certain aspects stay with you long after you finish the text. In this sense, her writing reminds me a little of Chekhov. Show Less
LibraryThing member ToriC90
Holy sh**. This entire book was incredible. These stories were so powerful and thought provoking. I’ve never seen or heard truth written or spoken so clearly and especially through fiction. I have been and will continue to recommend this book to EVERYONE. Wow.
LibraryThing member write-review
Attention to the Invisible
Danielle Evans’ collection of six short stories and the novella of the title focus on subjects most anybody can relate to: marriage, love, work, and hurt. All these come at you from a Black perspective that includes symbols of hate, whitewashed history, and a dispelling
You’ll be tempted to jump right to this novella, but if you do be sure go back and read the other stories. You’ll recognize many themes as being universal. For instance, “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain” concerns a wedding in which the bride believes a friend has slept with her fiancé. She excludes her from the wedding party but invites her to the affair, ostensively to discover if her suspicion is true. Things, however, speed off the rails to reveal lots about the women. In “Boys Go to Jupiter,” that symbol of slavery, hate, and racism, the Confederate flag, shows up on the bikini of a young white student who when confronted defends her choice, and it turns out there is something below the surface, and maybe the woman isn’t quiet what the symbol says about her. Or “Why Won’t Women Just Say What They Want,” featuring a famous artist who has used and abused women and turned his torrent of apologies into only oblique attacks but a new art project.
Evans writes deftly, especially when it comes to layering in revealing subtleties about her characters, as well as the pervasiveness of underlying racism in America, mostly always invisible to White Americans.
Danielle Evans’ collection of six short stories and the novella of the title focus on subjects most anybody can relate to: marriage, love, work, and hurt. All these come at you from a Black perspective that includes symbols of hate, whitewashed history, and a dispelling
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of seeing a race as monolithic. And many of these appear threaded through “The Office of Historical Corrections,” wherein Cassie and Genevieve provide differing views of the Black upper class, work, marriage, and how to address historical inaccuracies. This story delivers a couple of twists, one obvious and one less so. It also rests on a central fantasy, that a nation really would establish an Institute of Public History with the objective of setting straight all manner, large and small, of historical falsehoods and misconceptions pertaining to Blacks in America. In other words, it addresses the subtle but potent prejudices in everything, even as small as the name of a cake. You’ll be tempted to jump right to this novella, but if you do be sure go back and read the other stories. You’ll recognize many themes as being universal. For instance, “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain” concerns a wedding in which the bride believes a friend has slept with her fiancé. She excludes her from the wedding party but invites her to the affair, ostensively to discover if her suspicion is true. Things, however, speed off the rails to reveal lots about the women. In “Boys Go to Jupiter,” that symbol of slavery, hate, and racism, the Confederate flag, shows up on the bikini of a young white student who when confronted defends her choice, and it turns out there is something below the surface, and maybe the woman isn’t quiet what the symbol says about her. Or “Why Won’t Women Just Say What They Want,” featuring a famous artist who has used and abused women and turned his torrent of apologies into only oblique attacks but a new art project.
Evans writes deftly, especially when it comes to layering in revealing subtleties about her characters, as well as the pervasiveness of underlying racism in America, mostly always invisible to White Americans.
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LibraryThing member bragan
A collection of six short stories and one novella of about 100 pages, all of which deal, in some fashion or other, with the complicated and often enraging experiences of being Black and/or female in America.
Several of the short stories do a particular kind of literary-fiction thing that doesn't
Several of the short stories do a particular kind of literary-fiction thing that doesn't
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always work for me, where they feel like they have just enough of something that feels sort of plot-shaped to be unsatisfying when they don't resolve in a plotty way, after all. But Evans' writing is so clear and sharp and insightful that it swept any such dissatisfaction quite effectively aside. That was true for the titular novella, too, which for a while I thought might have the opposite problem -- too much focus on a slowly developing plot whose basic premise I had some trouble buying, perhaps -- but which certainly won me over by the end, having turned out to have a great deal to say and an impactful way of saying it. And then there's the story "Why Won't Women Just Say What they Want," which could be described as a sort of parable about the #metoo movement and male 'apologies,' which was just unreservedly brilliant in a way that hit me like a ton of bricks. Show Less
LibraryThing member sirk.bronstad
Not at all what I was expecting, but excellent.
LibraryThing member steve02476
Not my kind of fiction. Some of it was good, but some was didactic and some sentences were show-offy in a way that distracted from the story. Of course, she’s 100 times a better writer then I could ever be, so I hate to criticize. I guess I should just stick with “not my kind of fiction.”
LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne
I enjoyed the stories, but could not get into the title novella.
Awards
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Fiction — 2020)
Aspen Words Literary Prize (Longlist — 2021)
PEN/Faulkner Award (Longlist — 2021)
The Story Prize (Finalist — 2020)
Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize (Winner — 2021)
Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize (2020)
Boston Globe Best Book (2020)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Short Fiction — 2020)
Notable Books List (Fiction — 2021)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2020)
RUSA CODES Listen List (Selection — 2022)