Review: “Six – Strange Stories of Love”
I received an advance copy of this book directly from the author, for whom I have reviewed several other books prior:
- A Quiet Dissonance
- Parvathy’s Well & Other Stories
- Damage & Other Stories
- Holi Moly! & Other Stories
- Intersections
The Premise
Hair
The collection opens with an unusual love story of how the family dynamic changes once the protagonist Divya’s aunt Baby moves into the household when she has nowhere else to go. A sour, dark energy seeps into the daily lives of the family, slowly sucking the energy from Divya’s beloved Amma (mother) and eroding Divya’s innocence and faith. With a sprinkle of otherworldly superstition that counterbalances the shocking twist at the story’s end, “Hair” comes full circle, grounding the tale into a stark, cold reality.
The Fake Rolex
Set in Italy, “The Fake Rolex” is a tale of unrequited love: Grace, who loves Gabriel but knows he will never love her back the way she wishes he would, meets another man Alessandro at an event celebrating the silver wedding anniversary of a wealthy couple. As the night winds to a close, the enigmatic Gabriel seizes the moment to regale the audience with a lurid tale: a family’s greedy lust for wealth, their fall from grace, and the symbolic fake watch at the heart of their demise.
Karolina
An unlikely relationship unfolds on the cold streets of Manhattan when homeless veteran Marty meets a wealthy woman Karolina. Reeling from the wounds of many past wars — both physical and emotional, Marty soon grows to look forward to Karolina’s bright spark to brighten the dreariness of his bleak life, but she has demons of her own. Can he save her; can she save him; can they save each other — before it’s too late?
The Purple Ribbon
Andrew reaches out to his friend Diego to embark on a nighttime journey in Xochomilco, Mexico in search of a “ghost story” to film: that of a spirit of a drowned girl haunting La Isla de las Muñecas; instead, Diego decides to take him to the lesser known Isla de las Cintas. As Diego recounts the ghostly tale to his old friend, Andrew chalks it up to tall tales — but once they get to the island, his skepticism soon evaporates as a powerful force shows her hand.
A New Place
Set in Scotland, Jackie wanders in the nebulous fog between sleep and wake of a coma, hanging in the balance as a flood of memories swarm her semiconsciousness: primarily, that of her father’s abusive behaviour that ruled over the family and led her to self-harm. Meanwhile, her mother and sister pray for her to wake up, reminiscing about how they failed to protect her from herself. As she hovers on the cusp of life, an idea occurs to Jackie.
La Dolorosa
The Spanish theatre takes centre stage in the final story of the collection about the zarzuela. At fifty, Inés knows that she is only a shadow of her former self in her younger years, and grows to believe that it is only a matter of time before her younger husband Miguel leaves her for another woman. Infatuated with him, she has poured all her energy into their relationship, only for crippling doubt to seep in when she receives a note that he is cheating on her. Could it be true?
The Pros & Cons
This was an eclectic collection of short stories set in different locations around the world. From India, to Italy, to New York (USA), to Mexico, to Scotland, to Spain, each story is unique and distinct in itself with its own worldly flavour.
Of the collection, one of my favourites was the striking opener “Hair” which showcased what I’ve come to know as the author’s style to infuse a story with deep cultural roots in India and combine it with a dark and unexpected twist. This story was shocking in many ways, and I appreciated the journey that brought the past into the present as the location (as well as the tone) swiftly shifted towards the story’s end.
I also absolutely loved “Karolina” — an unlikely love story of opposites finding perfection in their flawed selves in the daily struggle to survive. The sharp twist in “A New Place” was also a pleasant surprise to unveil, and I really liked that one as well. These were my personal preferences, but there is something to love in each story depending on the reader’s taste, particularly as each story takes place in a different part of the world. This premise (a different “flavour” in each tale) was carried throughout every story, with a sprinkle of language or colloquialisms or references to echo every unique environment and set the scene.
As a collection, there were similar themes (e.g. mental health and LGBTQ+ issues) shared by a couple of stories but generally each story is distinct. The only story that perhaps fell short for me was “The Fake Rolex”. All the other stories felt perfectly paced and I relished every moment from beginning to end to complete the reader’s journey, but in this one the pacing felt slow as there is a “story within a story” (as the character recounts the past) and a lot of characters to keep track of. Also (not really a con!) but I admit that the set-up of “The Purple Ribbon” as a “ghost story” left me on tenterhooks expecting a far darker twist!
Conclusion
Overall, as always with this author, I really appreciated the amount of depth packed into each story: every description tells a story, setting the scene and building complete characters within the limited space of a short story vignette. Having read her past short story collections, I’ve found myself appreciating both the light and dark elements of her storytelling, and while past collections I’ve read were predominantly leaning to one side or the other, in this collection there seems to be a stable balance of light and dark within each story — leaving the reader with an uplifting feeling as the collection winds to a close on its most positive note of love: acceptance. I would highly recommend this collection to other readers, as I’m sure there’s a tale for every taste!
