Thirst: A Collection of Short Fiction

Linda A. Lavid
Aventine Press (2006)
ISBN 1593304072
Reviewed by Nina Larson for Reader Views (8/06)

I was left bemused and shaking my head at Linda Lavid’s new collection of short stories, titled “thirst”.  Some of her stories I really liked and some I really disliked and my opinion on each story didn’t change the second or third time I read them.  In fact, if I read them again, I reacted the same way.  However, all of them inspired a reaction. 

Not surprising considering this is a collection of stories inspired by some aspect of passion or love.  Except these aren’t your Harlequin romances.  Happily ever after might be the result, especially if your idea of happily ever after includes finding someone to get your bathroom drain unplugged.  You may need to endure a divorce paper signing by a naked stripper to get to that happily ever after.  But we all make sacrifices, right?  And a plugged bathroom drain is important.

That skewed story line is typical in “thirst”.  Linda Lavid takes an emotion, or several, and somewhere in her story takes you off in an unexpected direction.  For instance, in “The Cure”, a divorced man is in the hospital doing badly after heart surgery and as a last request asks to speak to the woman he had an affair with years ago.  The woman that he got engaged to while married with a young daughter.  The “other woman” meets the man’s ex-wife over his hospital bed and the two women join forces to plan how to pay for his funeral! 

In the stories I liked, I was left hanging, the story cutting off, just at the moment I was surprised into a laugh or smile.  The stories I didn’t like ended leaving me feeling like I touched a bit of slime or just barely saw around the corner into the darkness looming over the character.  One of the stories, “The Other Woman”, managed to do both.  I was left laughing and yet aware that the next moment could go very badly.  Typically, the next moment that was not written by Linda, but left to my imagination.   

Unfortunately, the first two stories are among the handful I didn’t like.  I’m sure that affected how I view the collection as a whole. However, all of the stories are well written, and written for the maximum effect with the least amount of words.  For instance the fourth story, “DMV”, is under 1000 words and known as flash fiction.  Another story, “Jealousy”, is only 50 words.   

I know about “flash fiction” and the website www.tangents.co.uk/50words because of the author’s notes after each story.  If the story was previously published, this is referenced in these notes.  Handy if you are inspired by a specific story.  What I wasn’t impressed with was the “Discussion Questions” at the end of the book.  They read very stilted and seemed like something a college professor would ask during exam, not anything a group of readers would voluntarily discuss. 

I would recommend this book to book clubs.  I think discussing which story is each person’s favorite and why would be very interesting.  And anybody can find the time to read “Jealousy”.  Especially for those who read during breakfast.  As a general note, I feel this collection is aimed more at a female reader since most are with a female voice or narrator.

In conclusion, Linda Lavid manages to write stories that are short and sweet, but branches out to the short and bitter, and manages to make them all short and startling.

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