I wish I could give this an extra half-star because the stories that were good were SO good. That said, it was only after I put the book down once and picked it up again that it really began to work it's quiet magic. ( )

These are quiet but forceful stories that remind me of Eudora Welty's. Spencer writes from the South and from the heart of families we all know. She delves deeply into what from the surface looks like everyday household tragedies. Of the nine stories, my favorite is "Blackie", in which a remarried woman with three stepsons, a stepfather, a dog, and a loving husband, is pulled back towards her first husband and son. Her second family senses her ambiguity and tries to make sure she never leaves them. "You're in a cage of wild animals", says her husband. And yet in her placid bridge club, she considers herself the luckiest of the players. Spencer also writes novels, the most well known being "The Light in the Piazza", which was adapted very successfully for Broadway. That's what I'll be reading next. I love Southern writers and don't know how I came so late to Elizabeth Spencer's bountiful table. ( )

It says something when an author can boast that they have been writing for seven decades. Seven, folks. Elizabeth Spencer creates a nearly perfect set of short stories with Starting Over: Stories. Some of these stories broke my heart, moved me to tears, and made me put the book down out of sheer self-preservation. I'm a fairly recent convert to the power of the short story (by recent, I mean within the last few years) so for a collection to move me as deeply as some of these stories moved me...well, let me just say that it doesn't happen as often as I like. Had I read a collection like this during my years of "not-a-fan of short stories," I think I may have had a come to Jesus moment a little sooner.

Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on Dec. 20, 2013. ( )