Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape

Title: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape

Author: Sarah Manguso

Publication date: 2007

Book's setting: Modern America

Random facts: This book is one in a set of three short stories call One-Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box.

Plot summary: This is a collection of eighty-one short stories. Really short stories. Each one is limited to the length of a page, some are ever smaller. Although many of them stand alone, if you read them carefully enough you'll find that many of them seems to be about the same people, or child. Many of them sound incredible real, perhaps even autobiographical.

Favorite aspects: I cried over some of these, they were so delicate and perfect. Manguso's writing is so seamless and easy to sink into. It's a tiny little book, only eighty-one pages, and you could totally read it in a single sitting. But that's one of the coolest things about it. It's an experience to read. It's theatrical. It's spell-bounding. You want to read it all at once.

Least favorite aspects: You can only buy it in a set of three books, for about $27. I choked and bought it... so what? Money is meant to be spent.

Other works it reminded me of: No One Belongs Here More than You by Miranda July.

Sadie's merciless break-down: Let me quote one of the stories to you:
"There's one girl in the nursery that I decide to love. I stare at her and try to think of what I should call her. I decide I will call her Benny, and I approach her. "Hi, Benny," I say. Another girl pipes up. "It's Becky, not Benny," she informs me. But what she doesn't know is that I got within one constanant of the girl's name just by looking at her."

Recommendation rate: A must-read. All Manguso is a must, must, must read.