{"id":5410,"date":"2026-01-16T13:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5410"},"modified":"2026-01-16T13:23:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:23:00","slug":"her-final-act-and-other-stories-by-gisela-fitzgerald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5410","title":{"rendered":"Her Final Act: And Other Stories by Gisela Fitzgerald"},"content":{"rendered":"

A thought-provoking collection of prose-forward stories that capture ordinary moments, remarkable memories, and cultural divides<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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<\/em>, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In one narrative, a woman who\u2019s grieving the loss of her dear friend keeps her memory alive by spending time with her adult son.\u00a0In another, a nun\u2019s love for a young boy named Joseph forces her to grapple with her deep-seated desire to be a mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow 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. \u2018Good morning,\u2019 or \u2018good evening,\u2019 he said shyly.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, she saw him. He could never fool her. She felt him coming, even at this unpredictable hour. It was that kind of love.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A third story flips the perspective to tell of Joseph\u2019s grief over the loss of his sister, also giving readers a new point of view on Joseph\u2019s relationship with the nun. \u201cThe Ocean\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald deserves praise for her fearless experiments with structure. \u201cConversations in the Jacuzzi\u201d 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 \u201cBefore The Fall,\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t Think About It\u201d is equally poignant, as it follows a group of women as they dismantle a family\u2019s home after the husband took his wife\u2019s life in a brutal shooting. The contrast between the volunteers\u2019 gossipy, sometimes even jovial banter and the horrors that befell the family are striking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While untraditional at times and more lyrical in nature than driven by plot, the tales that comprise Her Final Act and Other Stories<\/em> are noteworthy and memorable. There\u2019s something surprising and sharp in each one, and they\u2019re particularly affective when interlinked with one another. The unifying elements will speak to most of the collection\u2019s readers, as will the vibrant cast of very real characters. A quick and moving collection\u2014Her Final Act<\/em> is a satisfying foray into the short story form.<\/p>\n

The post Her Final Act: And Other Stories by Gisela Fitzgerald<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410"}],"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=5410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}