Transactions in a Foreign Currency by Deborah Eisenberg (August 2017)
I enjoyed each of the seven stories in this collection a great deal. I bet I'll return soon to check out more of her work.
I've recently started going back to re-read any stories I particularly liked from a collection before closing the book for good. For this particular work, I tried "Rafe's Coat" and 'Days'. I found the former was perhaps not as good as I initially thought but was very pleased with my decision to read 'Days' a second time. 'Days' takes an unusual form but I thought it was effective in illustrating the agonizingly slow 'two steps forward, one step backward' pattern personal growth so often takes.
I also liked the first story, 'Flotsam'. A number of passages reminded me of Stephen King's advice in On Writing for crafting good descriptions: fresh images, simple vocabulary. Eisenberg follows this advice throughout her writing, particularly when demonstrating how a character's emotional turmoil contrasts with a passive, fixed, or stuck position in the character's life. (1)
The final story, 'Broken Glass', perhaps had the most immediate effect on me. At the time I read it, I was in the midst of planning a one-day trip to Niagara Falls. The key decision was whether to get my own hotel room or share space in a hostel. After reading this story, I realized I possessed no desire to talk to anyone about my life back home while at the falls. I booked a hotel room the next afternoon.
Footnotes / imagined complaints
1. Probably the cleverest thing I've written today...
Perhaps we can call this the Eisenberg Principle?
