cover image We All Need to Eat: Stories

We All Need to Eat: Stories

Alex Leslie. Bookhug (SPD, U.S. dist.; LitDistCo, Canadian dist.), $20 trade paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-77166-419-6

This uneven short story collection from Leslie (People Who Disappear) examines the life of Soma, a queer, 30-something Jewish woman from Vancouver, as she winds her way through loss; depression; heartache; and troubled, often inflammatory family dynamics. In the loose mosaic of nine stories, readers see Soma lifting weights as a means of coping with a breakup, covertly buying a SAD lamp for her mother to help her cope with her seasonal depression, fretting about the rise of the alt-right in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, and reflecting on how her experiences—and fears—contrast or line up with those of her deceased grandmother and her family during the Holocaust. Leslie writes with a clean, concise style. “The Person You Want to See,” “Who You Start With Is Who You Finish With,” and “Self Help Liturgy” are the best in the collection, with strong emotional arcs and solid characterizations throughout. Some of the shorter, more abstract stories—“The Initials,” “Stargazer,” and “A Brief History of Eye Contact”—are at times lyrically beautiful, but they feel unfocused, and more like experiments than wholly realized narratives. They distract from the clearer interconnectedness of the other stories, making this an intriguing but not entirely successful book. (Oct.)