The Secrets We Keep (In Fiction)
Shh, it's a secret #53
So we have a lot of squirrels in our backyard, many of whom bury their treasures around the garden, seemingly none of whom are remotely afeared of our cat. (Urban squirrels, they’ve seen it all.) And most of them are burying typical squirrel things, I assume, but lately we’ve had this one squirrel who has been bringing multiple FULL-SIZED MILKBONE DOG BISCUITS into the yard to bury. Meaning they’re furiously trying to carry and bury something about half their own size, and it happens regularly.
Why in blazes am I sharing this story, you may ask?
#1 I’m sorry, did you not read the part about a squirrel with full-sized biscuits and did your brain not run rampant with the dopamine and oxytocin-sparkling imagination of it all? Where are these biscuits coming from? Is this the SAME squirrel or have NUMEROUS squirrels discovered some Milkbone motherlode? Are its small squirrely arms tired from burying this giant hard dog treat? The mind boggles!
#2 Also it’s a good metaphor for this week’s books, which range in style but are all about people with secrets. And not the “slow reveal of a mystery novel” secrets - we’re talking about the big-ass, life and death, sex and religion, kind of secrets. The secrets that you try desperately to bury from yourself, and from others, but that are too big, too seductive, and too consequential, that have no chance but to emerge not as a mid-winter treat but as a powder-keg with the potential to hurt (but also lay bare and reset) everything in its radius. Enjoy!
Also - each of these picks are the author’s first books, which - what? how? what is this alchemy? How are writers, actually?
Readers with good memories will remember that I am not really a fan of short stories, which is why it took me a good long time to read The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a collection of short stories about Black women and girls carrying heavy secrets about love, and sexuality, and grief, all in conflict with their Christianity. Not one word in these stories feels ponderous or “writerly” - they are fully vibrant and breathe right off the page. Do better than I did, and treat yourself to these.
OK, so Miracle Creek is actually a murder mystery and courtroom drama with a secret in its plot, but what makes this stand out is the weight of each of the secrets that the characters are carrying and what each of their truth is. From the immigrant family experience to the single mothers of special-needs kids to the crumbling marriage, everyone is suffocating under their own experience, their own secrets, and their own lies. I honestly cared less about “who did it” and more about the things we pretend away about ourselves.
(And because I LOVE you and will be HONEST with you, the book’s multiple- character perspective wasn’t perfect for me; I didn’t think the author distinguished the narrative voices enough to pull it off. But as a page-turner with some depth, it’s still worth a read.)
Why yes, Virginia, we did talk about The Push just. last. week. But based on Jill’s recommendation, I read it this week and hoo-whee, boy howdy, y’all, this is something so I want to throw my vote for it as well.
The plot centers around a mother whose fears there’s something wrong, something dangerous about her young daughter. But broadly, it’s about a generation of women whose mothering experiences and urges are nothing like they’d hoped, and about the way the world receives what women say, even while you’re questioning the narrator yourself. The whole thing was claustrophobic with dread, with deception, with the equal need to shake every character awake but also cover their eyes. Really good.
Also don’t miss We Need to Talk About Kevin in this same vein, but absolutely under no circumstances may you read them consecutively, because the human heart is too tender for that.
And since we’re just throwing books on here that we’ve already talked about, all willy-nilly like, I’ll make sure you’ve read The Vanishing Half which you have, right? Yes, of course you have, no need to say anything further.
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Okaybutjustincase I’ll tell you! The plot stems from twins in the Jim Crow South, one who lives her life as a Black woman and one who lives as a white woman, and how generational legacies inform them and unfold from there. So not only is it a spectacular exploration of identity, of race and colorism, and of the consequences of choices, but also it’s about what happens when one’s whole life is based on a secret - like building a house on sand. It’s not a matter of if it will collapse, but when, and how spectacularly. So yeah, read this one.
The Best Book Lists Are Coming Out! The Best Book Lists Are Coming Out!
Otherwise known as that time of year when I wonder what I’ve been reading for 300 days since it’s usually none of these books!
The Washington Post best books of 2021 are here - I’ve read two (Empire of Pain and Gold Diggers), out of ten, not a great score.
And the National Book Award winners are here, I haven’t even heard of most of these, which isn’t at all humiliating!
Better luck next week for Kerry! Are you following these lists?
Say it with me now:
As always, all links go to Bookshop.org, which supports indie bookstores AND as of last week now provides money to the great nonprofit Defy Ventures because someone bought a book via my affiliate links! WHEE! THANK YOU, SOMEONE, whoever you are!
So if you’re buying those holiday gifts and you really should, supply chain/shipping/labor crisis etc, please consider Bookshop.org (you can also see and shop all my past years’ recos here.)