Daphne Kalotay

For more reviews and bookish pots please visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Archivists: Stories by Daphne Kalotay is a collection of 12 short stories, taking place between 2008 and the COVID era. Ms. Kalotay is an award-winning published author and educator.

I’m not a big fan of short story collections, but I’ve previously enjoyed works by Daphne Kalotay so I figured I’d give it a shot. The stories in The Archivists focus on relationships after some sort of a life-changing event has happened. These events could be something personal, like crumbling relationships, or a worldwide pandemic. Most, if not all, of the stories, show the characters attempting to pick up their lives after a loss.

These stories are well-written and are different from one another. They do not take place at the same time, or place, with nothing connecting them like other collections I have previously read. These stories, however, are certainly relatable.

Each story has its own depth and consistent narrative. Even though these are short, they are full of insight, not only into the characters’ experiences, but they are cognizant of the experiences of those around them.

I thought the stories which dealt with grief and loss were very interesting, but there’s one that captured my attention. This was about a Holocaust survivor and the passing on of trauma to future generations. Whether this is genetic, psychological, or both are currently being studied and I, for one, find the subject extremely interesting.

Since this is a collection of stories, giving the book a star rating is really not applicable. I did really enjoy reading it, much more than I tough I would.… (meer)

This book is told in exclusively narrative passages, with some dialogue to break up the pattern. I have to be in the mood for it, and tonight, I was. I liked the writing style for the first twenty pages. It helped me not notice how boring the main character is, but also how melodramatic she is about everything. She seems to believe she's the first college student to eat ramen and mac n'cheese, and won't actually mention the products by name, but by overly romantic description. This is one of many examples. Other things that she's a drama llama about and described in needlessly romantic prose include: her poverty, Kyra, Carl's death (how awful of her), Kyra, New York, and Kyra. She detaches herself from or ignores anything interesting or that could indicate forward plot movement, except Kyra. It wore so thin. This book would have been -way- more interesting from Kyra's POV, especially considering the second part. The main character exhibits weird xenophobia but definite classism throughout the whole first part of the novel, and it was unpleasant. There was mild homophobia mixed in there, too, towards the gay roommate. He's never even given a name, just referred to as gay, and his boyfriend shows up even less, but the MC mentions them together in every sentence they do appear. It's only a few sentences the whole novel, and both could have easily been cut. I'm puzzled as to why they were even there. The author introduces the possibility of romantic and sexual relationships between each roommate oddly. I wrote that a different way in my notes, and am proud I got it to make sense on here. The MC's crush on Kyra was plain from the beginning, though.

And then there's the second part of the novel. How does a talented, artistic, focused dancer who's successful enough not to have a day job wind up as a humanitarian worker? And on a paramilitary-sounding mission in the Middle East across several years? When did Kyra ever get enough experience? Mentions of her military-style jacket and her knowledge of the conflict are not enough, author. Who are the people she's mentioning? Yet more reasons the book should have been from Kyra's POV. Part two throws readers not into the present, as some of the previous passages do, but a few years from the original past that Part I was dedicated to. Suddenly the book is a paramilitary drama. Why? How? What? This is sloppy writing and poor world-building. I was expecting to and wanted to learn more about Kyra's dancing and wealthy background. If she were a real person, I'd have a little bit of a crush on her. Instead, this book progresses how it does. I soon started skimming, pausing to read Kyra's letters and some surrounding text. In one chapter, the main character's father is sick. In the next one, he's dead. It was a pointless interjection of events. This book is entirely about the MC's crush on Kyra, from start to finish. Roy's disgust and resentment of lesbians is treated as no more than a character quirk. This book has an ambiguous, boring ending. Given that the book is told in passive, narrative passages, it's like nothing really happened. I'm glad I gave it a try, though.… (meer)