The World To Come

Jim Shepard is one of my favorite contemporary writers so I was really looking forward to reading The World To Come (2017) and it did not disappoint. I think Shepard is especially good at writing historically based short stories in which he does extensive research to give correct period details and there are a number of those types of stories in this collection. The first story, "Safety Tips for Living Alone" is a fictional account of the Texas Tower 4 disaster where all 28 civilians contractors died in the accident. There was also the Arctic exploration story of the lost Franklin expedition, "HMS Terror." Then there's the WWII submarine story "Telemachus" and an imagined viewing of the largest volcano eruption on Santorini in "Cretan Love Song." Air ballooning at the turn of the century in "The Ocean of Air" and life in Queens land, Australia in the late 19th century in "Intimacy." "Forcing Joy on Young People"  was also an engaging portrait of man struggling to find his place and meaning in life. The title story "The World to Come" was a powerful portrait of a woman in a loveless marriage surviving as best as she can isolated in the late 19th century and finds solace in the love of another farmer's wife. However, my favorite was "Wall-to-Wall Counseling," a portrayal of a woman facing family and work crises. It is another diverse and intriguing collection of short stories.