Title: The Year They Gave Women the Priesthood (and Other Stories)
Author: Michael Fillerup
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Short Story Collection
Year Published: 2022
Number of Pages: 274
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 9781560854456 (paperback), 9781560854166 (ebook)
Price: $16.95
Reviewed by David Harris
This collection includes 16 short stories, some of them very short. My favorite is the title tale, which is almost worth the price of admission all by itself. But there are several other great stories here, as well, including ‘Better Country’, a gripping tale of attempted revenge with a foreign component that adds intrigue, and ‘Loose Connections’, an interesting view of confusing adult images through the eyes of a teenager. And ‘Ghosts’, ‘Kuwait City’, ‘Psalm’ and ‘Pioneers’ were also interesting.
Some of the shortest stories here are more like abstract poems than stories. I’m thinking specifically of ‘Missionary Farewell’, ‘Selfie’, ‘Senior Girls Softball’ and ‘Premonitions’, which were a delight to read and filled with intriguing images but which I understood little of. (It occurs to me that a re-reading these stories sometime down the road may yield additional insights and comprehension. But, if not, the shorter tales were worth my time just because they are beautifully put together.)
‘Lost and Found’, the final story in the collection, offers an interesting look at the bleakness of an attempted winter rescue on the Navajo reservation. The ending of that story is supposed to be revelatory, but it left me shaking my head and wondering if I’d missed something. I have a couple of theories about what actually happened, but I’m not sure either one is correct. Still, I don’t mind as it adds to the mystery I experienced in reading the story.
This is a collection that I will enjoy reading again some time down the road. These are thoughtful stories for thinking readers, so I suspect I’ll get even more out of the book next time.
By the way, one of the questions that keeps rattling around in my head from the story ‘Better Country’ is how the father knew the kid’s name was Carlos. That seems like an important clue that I must have missed an earlier detail for. Yet another reason to re-read that story at some point, I guess.