Title: Close Call

Author: Kim Suhr

Genre: Short Story Collection

Publisher: Cornerstone Press, University of Stevens Point

Release Date: October 1, 2024 (Pre-orders available*)

Length: 187 pages

Reviewed by Victoria Lynn Smith

Close Call, Kim Suhr’s second collection of short stories, hooks us with one look. The stunning cover art features a red telephone receiver, untethered from its cradle and dropped at the end of its cord. Abandoned, the receiver rests on the floor near a dark shadow, setting the tone for the tales that follow. Stories about close calls, narrow misses, inevitable disappointments, and unavoidable failures. The cover compels us to pick up Close Call and open it, but from the first sentence, it’s Suhr’s vivid writing and intelligent, masterful storytelling that seal the deal and keep us turning the pages.

“Jewel Tea,” Suhr’s opening story, begins with a powerful declarative sentence: “Bo barked before the doorbell had a chance to ring.” Spoken by the young narrator, Carol, the words “Bo barked before” pound into our psyche. And because Bo has done it “before the doorbell had a chance to ring,” and because the young narrator “feels the excitement level of the whole house change,” we feel the electricity in the room when Carol says, “Mom stubbed out her cigarette, took one last swallow of Pepsi, and closed her paperback.” We sense Carol’s anticipation as she tells us she, “ran for the door, grateful for the distraction.” And by this point, we understand the irony of the word distraction. Whoever is on the other side of that door will be more than a “distraction.” One paragraph into the first story, and Suhr has promised us her collection will be tightly woven, with every word, turn of phrase, and sentence essential in creating her nuanced characters and the thorny situations they face. And she delivers.

Suhr’s stories are a literary treat. She serves up slices of life with intriguing, thought-provoking characters who face conundrums that will either be their undoing or their salvation. A young married man experiences a new twist on the seven-year itch. Mrs. Morrison, once an artist but now a wife and mother, has lost her sense of self inside a calendar. Allan, an illusionist, has an unusual gift beyond ordinary magic tricks. Deena’s struggles, from childhood to adulthood, are revealed through a series of phone conversations that take place at significant moments in her life. Keith, a DMV employee, has a special talent with a camera. Isabelle, a newlywed, reconsiders her relationship with God after a tragic accident. Willie, a first-grader, gets caught up in a terrifying game of pretend. Dean, a young hockey player, meets Arnie, an old rink rat, who lives for the game of hockey.

At the end of her collection, Suhr gives us two longer stories to savor, “The Dip” and “Eradicated.” “The Dip” is about four women who have known each other since childhood. Now in their fifties, they struggle to maintain their friendship in a world of divided politics and their own growing cynicism as they age. The story is written through a series of DMs, emails, a Google doc, texts, a poem, scripts, online chat room comments, and an obituary. It takes superb writing skills to pull off this type of story, and Suhr’s talent as a writer shines through. She never lets the experimental techniques be the story, but rather she uses them to create a highly-engaging and cohesive narrative that is thematically rich, giving us a lot to contemplate long after we finish reading it.

With “Eradicated,” Suhr presents the perfect dish to round out her collection. This dystopian tale is set in the future where artistic creativity, now labeled a disease, needs to be eradicated, a goal that is nearly complete when we meet Dr. Bells, a scientist. Wishing to observe creative artists before the last of them dies out, the doctor visits an artists’ colony where creative people, who are considered to have “disturbed minds,” have been contained after being extracted from society. Because the themes in “Eradicated” are both timely and timeless, the story sends chills up and down our spines.

Each of Suhr’s stories in Close Call presents a fresh take on love, hate, jealousy, faith, loss, fear, conformity, and disappointment. Suhr’s ability to tell stories with unique characters, interesting plots, and captivating complications gives us a look at human nature in a different way, and as we read our way through her stories we hunger for the next one.

[*Close Call is currently available for pre-order at a 20% discount. Click here.]