Thirst: A Collection of Short Fiction
Books composed of short stories are always a crap-shoot. Is the book full of short stories based on some theme? Or is it just a collection of the author's most recent work? I prefer the former, where the collection of short stories presented all revolve around a theme, however loose that theme may be. In Thirst,by award winning author Linda A. Lavid, the theme is that of thirst. Now, I'm not talking about thirst in terms of water or drinks, but rather the thirst humans have for something - desire, lust, want. This is the most powerful form of thirst that we have, and Linda does an amazing job of delivering the human side of this powerful emotion to the reader.
Composed of twelve short fiction stories about human desire and want, Thirstcaptured my attention from the moment I began reading it. Ranging from a story about a professor's unquenchable thirst for young undergrad women to the enticing read of two women playing off each other in a bar to attract men, Linda Lavid's writing is sophisticated, masterful, and full of desire. For example, in the story entitled "DMV" Linda captures the excruciatingly tedious nature of standing in line waiting for a drivers license (something every person desires) that we have all surely experienced.
Similarly, the short story about "socks" was perhaps one of the best I've read on such a simple, common affair. Not all the stories revolve around the thirst between men and women; no, in Thirstwe get to experience much more nuanced versions of unrelenting human thirst. The story about socks is just one example, revealing our human thirst to know what the other is up to and why. Others include "Jack", "The Cure," and "Teddy Bear." Included in the back of the book are discussion questions, and at the end of each story the author gives you an insight into the writing process that went into that story (an explanation of the author's own thirst).
Thirstis an enthralling collection of short stories. Focused around the singular human emotion of thirst - want and desire combined - this collection of stories had me thinking about human interaction, emotion, and my own desires. It is rare to find a modern writer that is capable of expressing human propensities in such clear, concise language, but Linda Lavid does just that. Here is a book from a real wordsmith. You will be chuckling to yourself during one story about how you do the same thing, and in the next you will be checking yourself to make sure your are not singularly driven by your own thirst. I highly recommend this collection - in fact, it's so good I'm already thirsting for more.
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