Synopsis

The games and rituals performed by Katherine Heiny’s characters range from mischievous and edgy to tenderly touching.

In “Damascus,” a mother fears her teenage son is making the same youthful mistakes she did, only to realize that he is wiser than she had understood. In “Twist and Shout,” Ericka’s elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew. In “Turn Back, Turn Back,” a bedtime story coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal a struggling actor’s deception. And in “561,” Charlene pays the true price of infidelity when she is forced to help her husband’s ex-wife move out of the family home.

Review

An eclectic mix of stories: some very good (Damascus; 561; Twist and Shout) and others less so.

Short story collections are always hit and miss, but with Games and Rituals there were definitely more I didn’t like.

They’re all very well-written, with an injection of wry humour but a lot of them left me thinking ‘so what?’ as there was no real conclusion.

Perhaps this is the point, but I didn’t really relate to most of the characters so wasn’t particularly interested in making up my own mind.

It feels like Heiny had some good ideas, but hit the word count too soon.