CJ Hauser uses her now-beloved title essay as an anchor around which to explore, through excavation of both her own personal and larger familial hope chest of ‘love stories, ‘ the narratives of romantic love we are taught and which we tell ourselves, and the need to often rewrite those narratives to find an accurate version of ourselves in them. Covering ground ranging from her and her relatives’ own romantic pasts to the much wider natural, supernatural, and cultural worlds, CJ relates the family legacies and lessons she imbibed in her youth, and the relationships formed in echo of those lessons, which helped to shape her early understanding of love and life.
Emerging from the rigorous honesty and radical empathy of these twenty pieces, CJ relinquishes the idea of a single, permanent love story–in favor of the metaphor of a happy haunted house as a space that contains many stories, many pasts, and multiple histories. These are hopeful pieces, which address the pain and complication of living in the present while being informed by things that have happened in one’s past, and the kind of energy and spirit necessary to attempt love, again and again.
The Review
THE CRANE WIFE
By CJ Hauser
I was first drawn to this book because of its title. I wanted to know what a crane wife was.
I’m not sure I’m any closer to understanding that than I was when I picked up this book but I am a lot further than you are.
So let’s get you caught up.
The namesake story, THE CRANE WIFE, based on a story of nocturnal unbecoming, was amongst my favorites.
I found it to be honest and creative and I have vivid pictures in my mind now of featherless birds and bald but happy and wild women.
I also enjoyed the small story titled HOPE 2008. It was short story #23 within the smaller rapid-fire chapters titled: Twenty Seven Love Stories.
I still HOPE!
But the one that got my heart and gave me chills and made me feel complete and whole was UNCOUPLING.
That essay was perfection.
I think the beauty of the collection is the creative structures of the story and the textured nature of the memoir. There are metaphors and parables and folklore tales sprinkled throughout making it feel like storytelling.
THE CRANE WIFE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books Doubleday for this advanced copy!
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