Book Review of Elizabeth Kirschner's "Because the Sky is a Thousand Soft Hurts" (- Review by Crystal J. Casavant-Otto)
I am so excited to be part of Elizabeth Kirschner’s WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR OF Because the Sky is a Thousand Soft Hurts This tour began November 1st - thank you WOW! Women on Writing for the invitation to take part! Book Summary Because the Sky is a Thousand Soft Hurts is a raw and intense collection of intricately layered short stories that touch on the recurring themes of sexual violence, domestic abuse, mental illness, and addiction. The characters are often cruel and inhumane with parents speaking in riddles to their abused children. The narrators are all women, usually unnamed, who have a lost, dissociated quality to them, as the details of their lives seem to fray. As the stories develop, some of these narrators find love and normalcy, though not always happily. Violence pulses steadily throughout the collection, but it is the author's hope that the stories not only reveal the breadth and power of her poetics, but also give...