This week I was back on WKAR’s Current State with a new book review!

This time I am reviewing Michigan Notable Book Something that Feels like Truth by Donald Lystra.

You can hear my review here: http://wkar.org/post/book-review-donald-lystra-s-something-feels-truth

You can also read my review below.

You can find Donald Lystra’s latest collection of short stories on Amazon here. If you would like to learn more about my book reviews or listen/read previous installments you can do so via this page on my site.

I hope you enjoy my new book review!

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Book Review: Something that Feels like Truth by Donald Lystra

Traditionally, short stories are birthed out of what-ifs.

What if you go to Mars and find dead relatives? What if a sea monster confuses a fog horn with a mating call? Both of those examples, by the way, are from master short story writer Ray Bradbury.

In Donald Lystra’s latest story collection Something that Feels Like Truth, he does  something very different from Bradbury. In many ways, his Michigan short stories are not what-ifs but episodes. They are brief glimpses into the lives of real people, and each is at a turning point or a moment of self-realization. These are character studies focused more on the emotional impact of a moment than on a surprising plot twist.

While most of these stories are based in Michigan or filled with Michigan-like characters, the funny thing is my favorite story doesn’t even take place in our state but instead in France. The story “The Five O’Clock Train” follows a struggling married couple vacationing. She is artistic, he is more analytical and tolerates what he considers her romantic view of the world. Their relationship comes to a head while visiting the last resting place of Vincent Van Gogh.

Lystra’s stories are each very well written and captivating. There are no sea creatures, but normal people with normal problems. And while there are no ghosts either, each of his characters are haunted by choices that they’ve made in their pasts and the choices they will make before their story comes to an end.

The only complaint I have would make with this fascinating collection of short stories is they can feel kind of redundant at times. Most of the stories involve men in the later end of middle age, you never get the female perspective really, and everyone’s relationship is usually on the brink of disaster or just afterwards. There are also themes of lost youth and approaching demise that seems to run throughout. These are not stories about beginnings, but endings. Rather bleak when put all together in one book.

Something that Feels like Truth is a 2014 Michigan Notable Book selection, and it definitely deserves it. The writing is first rate. Lystra was once an engineer and you can almost feel that necessary precision in his writing. While the prose won’t sweep you away with its beauty, there is an exactness that emphasizes the truth in his words. This is a wonderful collection, but a part of me wishes it included at least one monster.

A monster in Lystra’s world would’ve been a fun what-if.

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If you liked reading this post, why not check out one of my books? I’ve had four novels published in the last few years, A Jane Austen Daydream,  Maximilian Standforth and the Case of the Dangerous Dare, My Problem With Doors and Megan. You can find them via my amazon.com author page here, or as an eBook on Google eBooks here.  Thanks for reading!

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