Lauren Groff’s new short story collection — her first since Florida in 2018 — is no doubt one of this year’s most anticipated titles. And with good reason.
The nine stories in Brawler explore the best and worst of humanity, and the intense range of human emotion. As one character aptly puts it: “In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death.” And it’s all laid out for the reader here, in bits of prose sometimes powerful enough to cause chills.
The opening story, “The Wind,” follows the tense, quiet escape of a mother trying to take her three children out of an abusive household and toward a new life. But she needs to pick up a final paycheck first, and the high-stakes plotline reads like a thriller. Groff employs a wholly original narrative style here, relating the story from the point-of-view of an adult looking back on an episode from her childhood, and the result is a work that highlights the often invisible “wind” of trauma that shapes the lives of survivors.
In the pages of Brawler, we meet a high-school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blindsided by the loss of her child, and a couple navigating the challenges of marriage. And a longer novella, “What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?” tells the story of a privileged young man struggling against alcoholism and the weight of family expectations.
All nine stories are bold and emotional. Many feature shocking endings. And there’s not a dud in the bunch.
