In many of Bellinger\u2019s stories, nothing particularly notable occurs. Or rather, what occurs is commonplace and deeply, tenderly human. These often very brief stories are not concerned with grand, sweeping plots or unexpected twists; instead, they mine the complex, often fraught relationships between characters. In one story, a violinist\u2019s \u201cone-day stand\u201d leads her to reflect on past relationships; in the story \u201cAwesome Everywhere,\u201d a widow grieving the loss of her husband to suicide begins an affair with the mother of a girl in her daughter\u2019s high school play. In \u201cJubilee,\u201d Bellinger studies a cautious mother who dresses her daughter in baggy clothes and keeps her hair short so as not to attract unwanted male attention. Often, these stories stand at the intersection of identity: Many characters are both Black and queer, and subtly confronting their places in a society that is wary of them. In one particularly poignant story, a young Black professor struggles to establish herself at a small and predominantly white college; she doubts and second-guesses each action, worrying about how she will come across to white people\u2014if she leaves the door of her office closed, will colleagues think her standoffish and unfriendly? At their best, these stories illuminate the prosaic lives of their characters, exposing both anguish and hope. Generally written with gentle clarity, though sometimes veering into enigmatic lyricism, Bellinger\u2019s prose is honest and unflinching.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In many of Bellinger\u2019s stories, nothing particularly notable occurs. Or rather, what occurs is commonplace and deeply, tenderly human. These often very brief stories are not concerned with grand, sweeping plots or unexpected twists; instead, they mine the complex, often fraught relationships between characters. In one story, a violinist\u2019s \u201cone-day stand\u201d leads her to reflect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}