The History of Sound
By Ben Shattuck
★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10
352 pages
What’s it about?
This collection of twelve short stories takes place in New England. Each story is loosely paired with another, and the second story illuminates the earlier story. We meet characters from three different centuries and see how the past has influenced the present.
What did it make me think about?
The structure and writing in this collection are really special.
Should I read it?
This was such a pleasant book to read. It seems like a book that you should read sitting in front of a fireplace during a blizzard- when you would have time to savor each story. The writing was descriptive, the way the book was structured was unique, and what it had to say about how the past influenced the present was so thought-provoking. I know pleasant sounds less than enthusiastic, but I really enjoyed these stories and this is the word that keeps coming to my mind. So I highly recommend this book of short stories because "history is personal, even when it isn't".
A passage I marked
"But you should have a little pain in your life- humans are meant to have a little pain. Endings, I suppose, like seasons, like winters. That's where all the good stuff is. Ripped apart, so you can feel the mending. There's nothing like it. I wouldn't wish an uneventful life on my worst enemy."
