Objects of Desire by Clare Sestanovich is a story collection where the author captures the complexity of daily life, and each entry is very engaging, and it makes you wish for more, and the book can be quite unexpected at times but it all just makes it better.
The stories star different viewpoints and it is quite interesting to read someone who has a perspective of life only to have it changed to someone else’s when it ends and you realise that not everyone thinks and feels the same.
We get to read about different characters and to see hard situations through their eyes, but it can get frustrating at times, especially when they make a terrible decision that is just going to hurt them more.
So they wallow in regret and make things worse instead of just picking the right one but that’s what makes it interesting and the way the stories are written is nothing less than amazing.
In the eleven different stories, the viewpoints are shared in ages between twenty and thirty, to middle age and that really creates a lot of other possibilities and outcomes. It is a smart choice since it will also interest a lot of different ages too.
The book is filled with subtle drama and the different lives of the women in it are so different that you just can’t seem to put the book down.
A college freshman, travelling home makes an odd, ephemeral friendship with the couple next to her on the plane home. A mother prepares for her son’s wedding, her own life unravelling as her son comes together. A long-lost stepbrother’s visit to New York prompts a family’s reckoning with its old taboos and restrictions. A wife considers the secrets her marriage once contained and realises that there are no more. An office worker, exhausted by the ambitions of the men around her, emerges into a gridlocked city one afternoon to make a decision that might just change her life.
The book is also filled with possibilities that might just overwhelm you a little, and it also has its fair share of unforgettable moments and humour that could easily seem in your favourites.
Though for some, it might be too unrealistic, it is an excellent pastime for when you are bored, or you just don’t know what to do.
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