By Sara Sadeghi Aval
Content warning: sexual abuse
The intertwining of stories and people has long captivated readers. Thrusting the reader into a new world with each chapter not only creates multiple universes but makes clear the connections across the human experience. In Five Tuesdays in Winter, Lily King pens ten short stories and worlds that deal with love and loss, and the reactions that we have in the face of them all. Five Tuesdays in Winter is King’s fifth major publication, and her book Euphoria has been acknowledged as one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review.
Although each story is written in either first or third person perspective, the author maintains an intimacy with the reader through her positioning of the characters in their surroundings, and within their lives. King’s ability to adjust her tone from character to character helps the reader believe and imagine clearly. Her use of internal dialogue gives us an inside look that is difficult to conjure when switching universes. The book begins with the teenager Carol, who is sent to take care of a family and finds herself facing her first emotional and sexual struggle, moves on to the bookseller Mitchell who stands a few feet from his love and cannot bring himself to say so, and ends with a single mother and author who is coming to terms with the outcome of her life and relationships. King manages to pull the heartstrings of humans at each stage of their lives. Within a few pages, she outlines each character’s circumstances, their immediate situation, and their catharsis (if one was had).
After finishing the first story “Creature” I found myself flipping through the pages hesitantly, not in fear of what I might read but to savour the lessons I read on each page. While I could not fully relate to the characters older than me or divorced, I continued to end each chapter with highlighted sentences where I had experienced eureka moments. I often admire authors that can make the reader truly believe they are not alone in losing love, in betrayal, in fear, or in perseverance. I was brought back to books like Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, with its similar passion and pain and depth of characters and their toils. Five Tuesdays in Winter is a must-read for anyone who has ever loved.
Thank you to Grove Press for complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.