A Book A Week

As Hurricane Laura made landfall on the Louisiana and Texas coasts, I happened to be finishing a collection of short stories that are set largely in that same area. Stephanie Soileau's publisher sent me a copy of her debut collection of short stories Last One Out Shut Off the Lights to read and review. Soileau grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and she sets this collection firmly within the setting that she is intimately familiar with. This intimacy sees Soileau imbue each story with the rich culture, community, and resilience of the people of her home state.

The first couple of stories set the tone for the work as a whole. So This Is Permanence and An Attachment Theory both see young mothers coming to terms with the realities of their motherhood. In one, a teenage mother is grappling with raising a child of her own while still being a child herself. She has little support and simply wants to go back to life as it was before. In the other, The mother and child have a more established relationship. This mother is purchasing her own place, finally leaving the security of her childhood home to make it on her own. Both grapple with the bond between mother and child and reveal the different realities of family life in the area.

I'm sure the fact that a massive storm was threatening to make landfall in the area I was reading about had an impact on which stories I connected with most. It should come as no surprise then that my favorites of the book were both about everyday people making the most of a disaster. Haguillory tells the story of a man and his wife making due in the aftermath of a major storm. The couple lives in a smaller town, overshadowed by the major cities that were also ravaged by the storm. The damage was no less devastating, but the support of those more populated areas is much stronger than theirs. The story reveals the man's internal struggle to make sense of his place in life while also battling inner demons that tell him his life doesn't matter.

The Boucherie is the final story in this collection, a perfect ending that encapsulates many of the themes of the other installments. This time, the community isn't dealing with a natural disaster, but a freak accident that caused a big rig hauling cattle to overturn, leaving the bovine to roam freely away from the vehicle. One stray cow has made its way into the tiny neighborhood and into the yard of a Sudanese family. I personally witnessed the way a community can come together in the aftermath of Hurrican Harvey, and Soileau's writing captures that sense of community and erosion of division for the sake of a common goal. It provides optimism and understanding that seems to be severely lacking these days. After several stories that were a bit darker in nature (even this one has its share of gloomier moments) this was a brilliant way to end the collection on a high note.

It was hard to read Last One Out Shut Off the Lights without having the impending storms cast their shadow over my reading. Louisiana is a state that is no stranger to disaster, but it is also no stranger to what it takes to work through and overcome adversity. Be it weather events, economic hardships, or strained personal relationships, the characters in these stories are each facing some kind of challenge that we can all relate to. Behind every generalized news story or statistic lies a real person, the kind of people that Soileau is familiar with, and the kind of people who inhabit her writing. Her prose is direct and often times stark, allowing the depth of her characters and their emotional development to be the focus of her words. As with any collection of short stories, you'll no doubt find some stories that you enjoy more than others. That being said, there is no denying the inherent humanity that resides on each page. This is a fantastic debut from a promising author who I can't wait to read more from in the future.

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2020, 38)