The Sound of Holding Your Breath

Sypolt’s uneven debut examines the best and worst of humanity in modern-day Appalachia, a vast setting that nonetheless highlights the mundane tragedies and joys of the people living there. Sypolt’s characters are waitresses and pastors, younger brothers and sisters-in-law. They live in trailers and small houses with a lot of people, and they go to church or to a lakeside house for a week every summer, or to the Golden Egg, a diner that makes an appearance in many of the stories. In the gripping and exemplary “My Brothers and Me,” Marianne returns home to deal with the aftermath, both emotional and legal, of her brother killing his wife, and asks of herself and her brothers, “Of what are you capable?” Sypolt’s characters ask and answer this question for themselves over and over again, as when a young teacher visits a student and his family and finds herself inexplicably drawn to her student’s father (“Home Visit”), or when a teenage boy must contend with how complicit he’s willing to be in the increasingly violent relationship between his older brother and his girlfriend (“At the Lake”). Though there are some breathtaking moments, for the most part the stories never quite stick their landings, more often than not quietly stuttering to a stop, making this a sometimes promising but ultimately lukewarm collection. [em](Nov.) [/em]