I decided to read this book when I learned Ms. Orringer had received her BA from Cornell and her MFA from Iowa. Here are nine well crafted stories exploring the lives of contemporary young women ranging in age from nine to twenty-something. The best of them are the longer ones, I would guess between 6,000 and 7,500 words. Death, loss, alienation, and the role of religious faith are recurring themes. As a collection, How to Breathe Underwater starts off strong but wanes down the stretch. Ultimately, what could have been an excellent story collection still manages to be very good. Orringer’s style is literary in the late twentieth century sense of the word. The author’s voice fades into the background (which really means it doesn’t draw attention to itself by being wonderful). The sentences are neither too short nor too long. Her plots are interesting without ever becoming adventurous. Orringer possesses a keen ear for dialogue and a deft hand at character treatment, compassionate without becoming overly sentimental, critical but not condemning. She is good at drawing minor characters in a few strokes that makes them memorable enough and the protagonists are psychologically convincing but without psychological development taking over the course of the narrative. My favorite story, “The Smoothest Way is Full of Stones,” deals with a teenaged Jewess who is sent to stay with extended family members in a traditional Hasidic community while her lapsed parents work out the details of a painful divorce. Orringer’s description of traditional Jewish life is masterful. She explains contextual customs to the non-Jew without allowing the story to become a lesson. The way she contrasts the religious life with the secular is enviable. “Note to Sixth Grade Self” employs a clever narrative device. The story is told as a “note” to the protagonist’s self as an awkward sixth grade girl, through which she is able to tell the story while at the same time pointing out what she ought to have done had she known then what she has learned about the world in the subsequent years. As a technical trick, it is clever and different without becoming gimmicky, since its strengths inform the story and improve it. The frustrating nature of time and maturity enter the thematic material in a fresh way, saving it from being the same as a thousand other stories.Other excellent stories are “Pilgrims” and “The Isabel Fish.” The stories that are not excellent are still very good, but suffer from an unrealized potential. In stories like “Care,” “Stars of Motown Shining Bright,” and “Stations of the Cross,” the reader is taken to the precipice of something awesome without ever being sent over the edge. This becomes frustrating after a while and results in some cases from Orringer’s generous talents not being quite developed enough to consummate the job, while in others it stems from her compassion for the characters not allowing her to do the unspeakable. This collection is a dark vision of childhood and adolescence that refuses to become a nightmare even when the story seems to demand it. Consequently at its best How to Breath Underwater teases the reader with something deep and true about the human condition without ever quite fully rewarding us. Not withstanding, I recommend it to readers of top quality contemporary fiction for its ample ambition, power, and originality.
In this collection, Orringer takes common tragedies and feelings- cancer, jealousy, anger, self-image issues, coming of age, and family bonds, and weaves them into brilliant stories. Often there was some element that left me feeling a bit off-kilter (like in the first story-Pilgrim). This feeling then provokes lots of thoughts on humanity and how we cope/treat others in crisis. There are nine powerful stories, some with overlapping themes- but explored in fresh ways every time. Here are some themes and quotes from my favorite stories.1. Pilgrims: How to continue traditions in the midst of tragedy, and the coping mechanisms (or lack thereof) in children when dealing with devastating family illness. "She closed her eyes and followed the car in her mind down the streets that led to their house...where they would fall asleep thinking of forests and wake to the lives of strangers."2. When She is Old and I am Famous: Jealousy, body image, fulfilling potential, and self discovery. "What I am, the part of my body that I most am, is fat. Continuous, white, lighter than water, a source of energy. No one can hold all of me at once. Does this constitute a crime? I know how to carry myself. Sometimes I feel almost graceful. But all around I hear the thin people's bombast. .....What is left of a woman once her last five pounds are gone?"3. The Isabel Fish (my favorite!): The internal struggle of guilt and punishment....what happens when you are the one to survive (and how those left treat you)."When I think of Isabel this time it's not as a mermaid but as the living girlfriend of my brother, wearing blue jeans, playing bass in the garage, telling me to try singing. She would have liked to see us diving. We tread water, watching each other through our masks. I cannot see his eyes through the glass, but I can see, reflected small and blue, a girl wearing swim fins and a metal tank, self-contained and breathing underwater."I also raised my fist in triumph to the themes in Note to Sixth-Grade Self and Stars of Motown Shining Bright. Young girls experiencing crappy circumstances, with the positive message that crisis can be averted and "this too shall pass".The last two in this collection were gut wrenching for me personally since cancer is my tear-jerker trigger, but the words were poetic and beautiful, as I'm come to expect of Orringer. I obviously highly recommend this collection- if you've enjoyed News from Spain by Joan Wickersham, this has a similar excellent writing quality!
Do You like book How To Breathe Underwater (2005)?
You know, the writing was really good, I must say that. But the subject matter and the characters were SO messed up! If you liked Six Feet Under (on tv) then this is for you. Just weirdness in real life, I guess. For me the stories were haunting, though, and I had trouble sleeping well if I read it while in bed...To be honest, I just don't think I'm a short story kinda gal - so much drama in so few pages, DRAMATIC endings that leave way too many doors open...nope, I prefer a novel, where you can connect more readily through more experiences and pages with the characters, and there generally seems to be more resolution...
—treehugger
I forgot how wonderful stories could be. If books are a meal, a nice juicy novel would be a perfect steak. But a good collection of stories is a series of small appetizers--all fresh and original. I enjoy the variety and the way that they are slices, samples of a larger dish.These are not feel good stories. They are in a word...haunting. In each story, the subject is a young woman between the ages of around six and nineteen or twenty. Each one is grieving, either an old loss, a new one, or a potential one. In almost all of these stories, the young girl struggles with wanting to belong and feel accepted, and goes to great lengths to do so, from keeping quiet about an injustice to participating in cruelty.Some women are immature and see the world through a narrow perspective. Others are wise and world weary, and have no option other than to press ahead, knowing that this awkward, transitional time in their lives will pass.Anyone who enjoys stories really must read these.
—Alison
I cannot help but to compare this debut book of Orringer's with her later work, The Invisible Bridge, which impressed me immensely. Acknowledging that these are two totally different types of literature, I must give due credit to her for these profound stories. This was a deeply disturbing book for me, giving some credence to the belief that children are cruel. Each tale involves youngsters facing and dealing with an assortment of problems. The author's treatment of their magical or misguided thinking was remarkable. I had originally kept notes on each story, but abandoned this project because each had unique messages to give and should be read on their own.I would recommend this book to those who seek to read remarkable, penetrating narratives, but are prepared to find feelings of grief and failure.
—Barbara
