Friday, July 11, 2014

Grand Central: Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion

Grand Central: Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion
Introduction by Kristin Hannah
Berkeley Trade Paperback
July, 2014

Idgie Says: 
For this particular anthology I chose two stories to read and review.  I'll Walk Alone by Erika Robuck and The Harvest Season by Karen White.  While I'm not reviewing the entire book, I do fully plan on reading and enjoying the rest of the stories.  I think shorts stories are great in our hectic, too-little-time-for-life world we live in and it's great to see them making a comeback in such a big way.  This is my fourth anthology I've reviewed recently. 

In I'll Walk Alone - it is NOT a love story in the usual sense.  It's a story of wrong choices, fear and the unexpected opportunity to make it better.  This one short story shows humanity at it's worst and it's best - all within a few pages.  I was practically on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what the decision would be, and then once that happened, the final outcome to it.  It's not often a short story pulls you and in grips you so tightly.  Erika had a small amount of time to grab the reader and she did it very, very well. 

For The Harvest Season - only a short portion of the story takes place in Grand Central Station, the rest continues on a cotton farm in Mississippi.  Karen has great talent for making you able to actually smell the fields and taste supper on the table with her descriptive writing.  The story involves love, lust, jealousy, hurt and penance.  The ending is "quick and tidy" but with a short story there's not a lot of leeway to have angst and heartache take their time to heal.

Saving the rest of the stories for pool time!  

Book Description:
A war bride awaits the arrival of her GI husband at the platform...

A Holocaust survivor works at the Oyster Bar, where a customer reminds him of his late mother...

A Hollywood hopeful anticipates her first screen test and a chance at stardom in the Kissing Room...

On any particular day, thousands upon thousands of people pass through New York City's Grand Central Terminal, through the whispering gallery, beneath the ceiling of stars, and past the information booth and its beckoning four-faced clock, to whatever destination is calling them. It is a place where people come to say hello and good-bye. And each person has a story to tell.

Now, ten bestselling authors inspired by this iconic landmark have created their own stories, set on the same day, just after the end of World War II, in a time of hope, uncertainty, change, and renewal....

Featuring stories from

Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator's Wife
Jenna Blum, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us
Amanda Hodgkinson, New York Times bestselling author of 22 Britannia Road
Pam Jenoff, bestselling author of The Ambassador's Daughter
Sarah Jio, New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter
Sarah McCoy, New York Times bestselling author of The Baker's Daughter
Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of The Pieces We Keep
Alyson Richman, bestselling author of The Lost Wife
Erika Robuck, bestselling author of Call Me Zelda
Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of After the Rain

With an Introduction by

Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Home Front