Grim themes and few answers in story collection

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This article was published 22/04/2023 (885 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Places Like These is a collection of mainly dark and disturbing short stories dominated by characters who struggle with addictions, loss, grief, betrayal, loneliness and recovery from sexual assault. They appear to be a lost generation.

Lauren Carter, previously from Ontario but now living in Manitoba, has put together 17 short stories, many of which were previously published in literary journals. Her previous books include This Has Nothing to Do with You, winner of the 2020 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards, Swarm and the poetry collections, Following Sea and Lichen Bright: Poems. She also received the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer and has been longlisted for many CBC literary prizes.

Many of the characters cope with the grim recurring themes in these stories by getting extremely inebriated, resulting in terrible consequences. These are decidedly not uplifting stories.

Probably the least discomforting of all the stories is the collection’s title story, which takes place in Lily Dale, N.Y. In this story, a grieving widow searches for a psychic in a small hamlet known for its association with the spiritualist movement and healing.

Missing her husband desperately, who recently passed away from a heart attack, the protagonist longs to find a psychic who can provide some kind of connection to him.

Filled with regret for not having been able to give him children and the life she feels he wanted, she yearns for some kind of resolution. Her sister tries to reassure her. “He loved you,” she says. “He would have done it all over in a heartbeat.”

Although a story of loss, it is also a story of love, unlike many of the other pieces.

Culture Shock is the story of a young girl from Toronto who travels to Argentina. She had been drinking to excess repeatedly with her friend, passing out and feeling empty and depressed.

Fed up and deciding to get away from it all, she quits her job for a few months. With only a guidebook for direction, she takes a bus to a tiny village to visit a small church, a listed attraction.

Inside the church she is confronted by three vicious dogs who are about to attack her. The outcome is left up in the air.

Many of the stories repeatedly leave the reader grappling with uncertainty — with having to guess at the ending, especially at precarious points in the story — which can be extremely unsatisfying for those who prefer a conclusion or even a hint of some kind of resolution.

The protagonists in the stories are often not named, while secondary characters are, which can also be confusing as the reader flips through the pages struggling to figure out who is speaking.

Stories such as That Lift of Flight, Home Wrecker, Extraordinary Things, Grass Fire and Stories deal with cheating, betrayal and loveless relationships that again leave the reader dangling.

The final three stories feature the same collection of friends — Sam, Lara and Josie — as well as the protagonist whose name is scarcely mentioned but who we assume to be Mel.

The recurring theme in this final trio of stories seems to be friendship, but they’re are also dominated by unfaithfulness, rocky relationships and other disturbing themes. And again we are left wondering.

It is clear Carter can write. The imagery is vivid and detailed; she paints pictures wonderfully with her words. Her descriptions of the mostly Canadian landscapes her stories are set in are beautiful; it’s a pity that many times we are left to wonder where these Places Like These actually are. So many questions left unanswered.

Cheryl Girard is a Winnipeg writer.