You need strong ankles if you are going to dance the Blackbird. Desperate for normalcy, Emlyn concentrates on learning this Irish dance for an upcoming performance while her mother’s sickness clouds the air. The opening story, “The Blackbird” sets the tone for this incredible collection by Sally Thomas. Characters experience loss, disappointment, and a sense of determination to navigate life’s obstacles.

The Blackbird and Other Stories contains eight short stories and one novella. Each story is rich in character and atmosphere. The west Tennessee countryside, southern Appalachia, the gulf shores of Alabama, and Salt Lake City provide the scenes for the stories. While reading them, I found myself imagining each story as a painting. Within the four corners of each canvas, Ms. Thomas paints a landscape or a house that provides the setting within which the characters take action.  So much of fallen human nature unfolds within the small scale of peoples’ everyday lives. As a painter’s granddaughter, I appreciate and admire the fine detail of these stories. The reader in me wants to spend more time with the carefully drawn characters.

     Four of the stories follow one family, the Mallorys, through loss, disappointment, and long-forgotten memories. Often, the world tells us to distance ourselves from unsupportive family members–the ones that offer little comfort and make us cringe when their names pop up on caller ID. The Mallorys are no strangers to this struggle. But, despite the pain and frustration, they don’t cut out their tedious relatives. A mother and father try to make sense of their son’s suicide. The patriarch of a family dies from a pesky little cough.  An elderly woman travels alone, despite her daughter’s constant protests, to make one last trip to her family’s beach house in Alabama. 

The landscapes and their accompanying weather are often characters in their own right. A young girl gets caught up in the storm of her parent’s divorce. She rides in the backseat of her grandparents’ car while her parents pack. At night the rain offers peace as she sleeps. The baby of the family is diagnosed with a rare disease that makes him allergic to the sun. In an effort to protect him, a mother turns her life upside down. 

My favorite stories in the collection are “A Fire in the Hills,” “Not Less than Everything,” and “The Happy Place.” “A Fire in the Hills” seamlessly weaves between a woman’s memories of an old wound from a musician ex-boyfriend, and her current marriage with a loving husband. In “Not Less than Everything,” a woman visits her son’s grave and meets someone from her past at the cemetery. The novella, “The Happy Place,” brings us back to the Mallory family. The middle-aged daughter of Caroline and Cash, Amelia returns to her family’s beach house in Alabama with her new husband and daughter in tow.  Stored-up memories seem to lurch from around every corner, releasing emotions and vulnerability in an otherwise stoic woman. In both stories, secrets are whispered, revealing just enough.

The statement  “you can’t judge a book by its cover” relates as much to people as it does books. Our weak human condition keeps us from opening ourselves to others. Mostly, we’re pretty book covers putting up walls for protection. It’s the pages hidden within our hearts that reveal the real people and their frailties.  Sally Thomas understands this in spades. This collection captures the secrets and facades of everyday life. Very little action occurs in the stories. Instead, these are intimate windows opening up people preparing coffee for a client, applying sunscreen, or riding in the car, while secrets from their interior lives bubble to the surface.

God is ever present in these stories, even if it seems like He’s hiding. The Catholicism in this story is not heavy-handed. Most of the characters are Catholic, and so their faith affects their habits and how they react to the trials they face. 

This collection will appeal to all who enjoy the craft of a good short story set in the South. Protestants and Catholics will appreciate the fact that most characters are people of faith who struggle with everyday life just like everyone else.