Megan Mayhew Bergman is a short story writer whose previous two collections received great acclaim. I really enjoyed her 2015 collection
Almost Famous Women, so I was intrigued to see what she would do in this book as she wrote about women who are learning to chase what they want and overcome tradition and history. While these aren't connected stories, I have the feeling that a discerning reader who read through the collection a second or third time would find a lot of threads to follow.
In "Wife Days," Farrah negotiates with her husband for some days to just be her own person instead of following his whims, or those of her trainer or family. After Holland's girlfriend leaves for a research project, Lily decides to take on her own project with a conservation group in North Carolina and tries to come to terms with her mother leaving their family when she was young in "A Taste for Lionfish." Bergman's novella "Indigo Run" might be my favorite piece in the collection. Helena-Raye Glass finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and married as Skip Spangler considers selling her family home generations later. Each of these protagonists is wondering what it would mean and what it would feel like to put themselves first, to follow their own desires, and to leave the burden of care and the expectations of others behind them.
How Strange A Season
By Megan Mayhew Bergman
Scribner March 2022
320 pages
Read via Netgalley
In the introduction to
Sword Stone Table, editors Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington wrote about their search for Arthurian retellings. They wanted tales that bent the race or gender of the characters, or introduced queer characters to these beloved stories. So they set out to create their own, and asked sixteen writers to contribute their own takes on Arthur and the Stone Table. Writers from Sarah MacLean to Alexander Chee said yes, and
Sword Stone Table came to life.
As with almost any collection of short stories, I found some stories excellent and some only okay. The authors set their tales either in the past (once), the present, or the future. Roshani Chokshi reveals a new side to the tale of Elaine and Lancelot in "Passing Fair and Young," Waubgeshig Rice places a young Arthur in an Anishinaabeg community where he learns about his culture and traditions from his mysterious Uncle Merle in "Heartbeat," and Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes of a woman in a a tower many years in the future who savors memories from a beautiful young man she calls Lancelot in "A Shadow in Amber." There are two kinds of readers who will be wowed by this collection--people who are looking for new-to-them science fiction and fantasy authors, and those who are die-hard Arthurian nerds. Kudos to the editors and writers for bringing new life to these well-loved stories and characters.
Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices
Edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington
Vintage July 2021
480 pages
Read via Netgalley
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ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your insights! It sounds like Megan Mayhew Bergman's collection delves deep into the complexities of women's experiences and desires. I appreciate your thoughtful review. For more on navigating complex narratives, check out our website featuring expert insights from an immigration business plan writer
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