A thought-provoking collection of prose-forward stories that capture ordinary moments, remarkable memories, and cultural divides
These lyrical short fictions surprise and enthrall in turn, using language that sings and that asks us to identify what connects them. In Her Final Act and Other Stories, Gisela Fitzgerald shares fourteen stories that, like snapshots in a photo album, expose moments with family, friends, and neighbors while exploring themes like memory, love, and loss.
In one narrative, a woman who’s grieving the loss of her dear friend keeps her memory alive by spending time with her adult son. In another, a nun’s love for a young boy named Joseph forces her to grapple with her deep-seated desire to be a mother.
“How tall and handsome Joseph had become. How big his hands were now. At age eleven, his voice was changing too. She could hear it in the only two words he ever spoke to her when he passed her in the street. ‘Good morning,’ or ‘good evening,’ he said shyly.
“Of course, she saw him. He could never fool her. She felt him coming, even at this unpredictable hour. It was that kind of love.”
A third story flips the perspective to tell of Joseph’s grief over the loss of his sister, also giving readers a new point of view on Joseph’s relationship with the nun. “The Ocean” finds a recently deceased man chatting with his daughter before going to the grave. The setup is engrossing, as is the humor that Fitzgerald brings to a heavy moment.
Fitzgerald deserves praise for her fearless experiments with structure. “Conversations in the Jacuzzi” reads like a script for a stage play, and readers will find themselves enchanted as they observe the banter like a fly on a wall. A standout in the series is “Before The Fall,” about an aspiring novelist named Brandon who becomes the caretaker for a difficult elderly gentleman with memory loss, only to discover that Dr. Truelove left his wife to live out his years with her sister. As the patient creeps ever closer to death, Brandon watches the family revisit their tangled history and reassesses his own relationship with his judgmental father.
“Don’t Think About It” is equally poignant, as it follows a group of women as they dismantle a family’s home after the husband took his wife’s life in a brutal shooting. The contrast between the volunteers’ gossipy, sometimes even jovial banter and the horrors that befell the family are striking.
While untraditional at times and more lyrical in nature than driven by plot, the tales that comprise Her Final Act and Other Stories are noteworthy and memorable. There’s something surprising and sharp in each one, and they’re particularly affective when interlinked with one another. The unifying elements will speak to most of the collection’s readers, as will the vibrant cast of very real characters. A quick and moving collection—Her Final Act is a satisfying foray into the short story form.
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