“GOOD WOMEN: STORIES” by Halle Hill (Hub City Press, 216 pages, $18).
Though short stories are often an entry point for an emerging writer, a story collection is comparatively rare when considered next to the bounty of novels and nonfiction. Some collections arrive highly anticipated from well-established authors, but the most exciting might just be a debut, especially one that lands with the force of Halle Hill’s “Good Women.”
In this powerful collection, Hill gathers a chorus of women, each fumbling and fascinating in unique ways. Though the stories stand alone, together they offer a brilliant composite of what it might mean to be a good woman.
From the first paragraphs of the book, Hill demands attention. In the opening story, “Seeking Arrangements,” Krystal’s narrative voice is brash but vulnerable, confessing in the first few sentences to being nervous and describing the way she and Ron take all three seats in their bus row: “My toenails glisten in Cha-Ching red polish and my feet are spread across his lap.
