Inheritance Series Review (Alexander Chee, Jennifer Haigh, Anthony Marra, Alice Hoffman)

Inheritance is a collection of five stories about secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single setting. By yourself, behind closed doors, or shared with someone you trust.

The Weddings by Alexander Chee

“Why am I here? he asks himself. What am I doing?”

In just under fifty pages Alexander Chee examines a man’s changing relationship to his old college friend. The weddings of the title are the backdrop to our protagonists’ personal crisis.
Jack Cho is a forty-something man in a committed relationship with Caleb. When they are invited to attend the wedding of a friend of Caleb’s, Jack finds himself, for the very first time, wondering if he too will marry. Soon after the couple is invited to the wedding of Scott, Jack’s college ‘friend’.
Jack is forced to confront his own repressed feelings for Scott. As certain details come to light, he becomes aware of having idealised this past relationship.
There were many realistically awkward moments and some great commentary regarding marriage (the pressure to marry, the way weddings become displays of the couple’s love).
Jack’s self-analysis was detailed in a poignant prose that conveyed his hurt and unwillingness to see Scott for who he truly is.
This short story also touches upon: fetishisation (naive as I am, I had no idea what ‘rice queen’ and ‘rice king’ meant), the double ‘rejection’ that Jack often feels being Korean American (Koreans will not view him as truly Korean and white Americans will question his nationality).
My only ‘complaint’ is that there was the occasional twee phrase:

“Scott was so much trouble, whatever the reason was. A beautiful disaster.”

Overall however this was a short yet intelligent story that pays careful attention to those awkward pauses and heavy silences that can fill a conversation. It reminded me a bit of Come Rain or Come Shine: Faber Stories by Kazuo Ishiguro and certain short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri.

“Even then, ha he would endlessly be a curiosity and not a person. He would forget this was true and then be reminded this way, this he most recent in the jarring series of moments that threaded thorough his whole life in America. When did it end? When would they all just get used to him—to all of them?”

Rating: ★★★★✰ 3.5 stars

Zenith Man by Jennifer Haigh

“Had Harold Pardee killed his wife? In hair salons, at lunch counters, the question was posed. Such a death, in Bakerton, was without precedent.”

This being the first work I’ve read by Jennifer Haigh, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m not sure if this story fits in the Inheritance collection. While others authors who have contributed to this series have focused on themes of reconciliation: Alice Hoffman and Anthony Marra, respectively in Everything My Mother Taught Me and The Lion’s Den, focus on the fraught dynamics between a children and their parents, while in The Weddings Alexander Chee turns towards a complicated ‘friendship/first love’.
Zenith Man has a very different tone that sets it apart from the rest these stories. It seems closer to a work of Souther Gothic or Noir. Similarly to Shirley Jackson Haigh’s presents us with a slightly unsettling depiction of on an ‘ordinary’ town and its people. There is a sense of unease as well as a good dose of dark humour.
Haigh’s is a good storyteller who creates and maintains this uneasy atmosphere, one that makes us pay attention to the specific language she uses.

“In Bakerton a murder would not have been forgotten. The local memory was a powerful tool, an instrument so sensitive it recalled events that hadn’t actually occurred.
Conscious of its new status as a place where things happened Bakerton cleared its throat and commenced speculating.”

So while Haigh’ writing style is definitely enjoyable, I wasn’t as taken by the story itself. It was okay, but I was expecting a more interesting storyline.

Rating: ★★★✰✰ 3 stars

The Lion’s Den by Anthony Marra

“I won’t introduce you to my father, not personally, not yet. Changes are you already know him.”

This Inheritance collection is turning out to be a rather good one. Anthony Marra’s contribution adds a bit of humour to this series.
The narrator’s father was responsible for a leak of classified documents, landing his own family in the spotlight. Some thought him a hero, others a traitor.
Years later, after publishing a memoir on his childhood, our narrator tries to reconcile himself with his now ill father.
The tone of this short story is somewhat satirical and it definitely provides its readers with quite a few amusing lines: “His Bluetooth is so firmly rooted in his ear that may, technically, qualify as a cyborg. .”
There is a realistic awkwardness between the various characters’ interactions which made all the more realistic.

“Honesty comes in an infinite variety, none crueler than a teenager’s tedium.”

The narrator quotes Natalia Ginzburg, so yes, this story definitely a plus fo that. However, the nitpicker in me couldn’t help but notice that our narrator (someone who can quote Ginzburg) fell for the classic Frankenstein slip (where instead of saying that someone looks like Frankenstein’s monster, he refers to them as looking like Frankenstein): “Father Carlson’s student have that Frankenstein look of being assembled from different limbs that don’t quite fit together.”

Anyway, this was an entertaining short story. It may focus on self-involved individuals (who seem rather disconnected from everyday life) but it also manages to explore compassion and acceptance in very natural (non schmaltzy) way.

Rating: ★★★✰✰ 3 stars

Everything My Mother Taught Me by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman is an exceptional writer. This was a short yet striking tale that captivated me from its very opening lines:

“There are those who insist that mothers are born with love for their children and place them before all other things, including their own needs and desires. This was not the case with us.”

As per usual Hoffman showcases the way in which her insightful prose beautifully lends itself to the subjects of her story. The narrator paints an uneasy picture of her relationship with her mother. There is some recurring ‘Hoffman imagery’ (red shoes, sailors, the sea) which made the story all the more enthralling. I particularly liked the way the landscape mirrors the narrator’s feelings.

“The sea was a dangerous enemy, and we were surrounded by it. But I remembered what my father had told me. You could grow to love something so strong and elemental, but you’d have to value the beauty of it more than you did your own life.”

I definitely recommend this to fans of Hoffman. While her latest novel,
The World That We Knew
is a triumph of motherhood, in this short story, we are confronted with a mother who is unwilling or unable to love anyone but herself. Hoffman conveys the resentment and hurt of this ultimate rejection though the daughter’s perspective.
Quick and atmospheric Everything My Mother Taught Me is not to be missed.

“I closed my eyes and went through a list of everything I wished I could thank him for giving me. Patience, loyalty, trust, and hopefully, in time, kindness.”

Rating: ★★★★✰ 4 stars

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