Brawler

by: Lauren Groff

Goodreads synopsis:

One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida.

Each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. They hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region — from New England to Florida to California — these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels.

“In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.

Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawlerreveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today.

Helen says: 🤓🤓🤓🤓

I love Lauren Groff. She is one of my favorite contemporary authors. This was a book of short stories about fraught relationships. “Sunland” broke my heart. My favorite was “What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?”. I listened on Audible so it didn’t really stick with me much, but I enjoyed the stories and it was fun to listen to in fits and spurts.

Holly says: 🤓🤓🤓1/2

Lauren Groff is an amazing writer. This collection of short stories, contrary to our claim of “lightening up for fun and easy reads for May” was not fun and easy. Although beautifully written, these stories are sad and downright depressing, but very moving. The timing was not right for me reading this one – I needed something happier and lighter, and I got sad and depressing. Maybe savor it and read one story at a time, from time to time. Reading the full collection at once is just too much of a downer.

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