Big World

Mary Miller's first collection of stories, Big World(released by Short Flight/Long Drive Books, an independent literary journal publishing house), is a series of tales--thoughtfully and honestly told. In one story, Fast Trains, the narrator and her boyfriend are celebrating with some beers when her boyfriend becomes angry and shoots her in the leg. Another story describes how, after their mother dies, two siblings navigate the rooms of their house filled with memories of all that was good about their mother and what was bad about her too. This story does not quite have the artistry or the linguistic precision that makes us go back to short stories over and over again, but it does draw us in with its directness and its honesty.