Adrián Astur Álvarez reviewed Sing to It by Amy Hempel
Review of 'Sing to It' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
"Cloudland," the final and longest story, is the one you buy the book for. It articulates the full expression of Hempel's project in this collection. It is written in a voice that is free from the inconvenient bother of interpersonal attachments and clouded by the intrusion of rote facts picked up from the refuse of information age existence. I'm currently reading Ducks, Newburyport, which does all of that but more convincingly and with heart and I think that's what I didn't like about these stories. They are clearly the work of a craftsman. The prose is precise and organized. The stories show off incredible skill in concision and pacing. By the time I finished the last page, however, I found myself a little fed up. The narrative voice feels numb, the kind of numb you get when emotions are too intense to express, yet here that numbness never resolves in …
"Cloudland," the final and longest story, is the one you buy the book for. It articulates the full expression of Hempel's project in this collection. It is written in a voice that is free from the inconvenient bother of interpersonal attachments and clouded by the intrusion of rote facts picked up from the refuse of information age existence. I'm currently reading Ducks, Newburyport, which does all of that but more convincingly and with heart and I think that's what I didn't like about these stories. They are clearly the work of a craftsman. The prose is precise and organized. The stories show off incredible skill in concision and pacing. By the time I finished the last page, however, I found myself a little fed up. The narrative voice feels numb, the kind of numb you get when emotions are too intense to express, yet here that numbness never resolves in dynamic ways. Everything is valued in the same gray tones.
I understand this is likely Hempel's point - she is clearly in command of her work - but the effect is hopeless and bitter. Hempel doesn't so much ask questions in these stories as point to the deeply aggravating answers other people give. I wasn't inspired.
