|
|
Self Storage and Other Stories Mary Helen Stefaniak. New Rivers Press, 420 North Fifth Street, Suite 910, Minneapolis, MN 55401; $14.95, paper, 157 pages; 0-89823-183-3 (1997).
Reviewed by Marshall Bruce Gentry |
Self Storage and Other Stories
Mary Helen Stefaniak. New Rivers Press, 420 North
Fifth Street, Suite 910, Minneapolis, MN 55401; $14.95,
paper, 157 pages; 0-89823-183-3 (1997). Reviewed by Marshall Bruce
Gentry
This excellent collection contains nine stories about cultural conflicts, youth-versus-age confrontations, investigations about death--and yet they leave one feeling very good because of their energy, humor, and perfectly chosen details. It is clear why all these stories were originally published in respected periodicals.
The title story performs magic with the premise that a woman is managing a self-storage business while living in one of its units. A country band, some Salvadorans, and a philosophy graduate school dropout with cancer make the storage company a refuge, then a community, finally a shrine. Another fine story in which seriousness outweighs humor is "The Lonely Seat," about a family's sympathy and disgust when the neighbor boy drowns and his mother gives them his possessions. Stefaniak masterfully uses a dispute over fishing poles to achieve a satisfying ending without dismissing the story' s tensions.
The other most impressive stories are more cheerful. "Dear Mike the Mechanic" is a joyride: an elderly woman struggles with her car after its red light comes on lead to her being abducted into her own car after she indirectly encouraged its robbery. "Voyeurs,"
About Catholic schoolgirls selling classmates tickets to see a naked man, ends humorously when the narrator ends the peepshow. My favorite story, "America, the Beautiful," is filled with charming surprises. Staramajka, the Croatian grandmother brought to Milwaukee, hates indoor toilets and finds creative strategies for expressing disapproval. When the narrating grandson drops plans to surprise his grandmother with a gift of dentures and buys a bicycle (to attract an American gradeschool girlfriend), he feels guilty but the mother is startlingly delighted. The girlfriend and grandmother meet, in an uproarious conclusion, within the bathroom.
