Review of No Such Thing as the Real World: Stories about Growing up and Getting a Life

One reviewer described this collection of short stories as “uneven,” and I would have to agree with that.  In general, I love reading stories about growing up.  This anthology includes short stories by six well-known writers of fiction for young adults, a few who’ve written works I’ve read and enjoyed in the past, and a couple whose work I’ve never been able to read.  The first story, Complication by An Na, certainly held my interest, but for most of it I didn’t really understand what was going on.  Hmmm.  On to the next story -- The Projection: A Two-Part Invention by M.T. Anderson.  Ok, moving on to the next story, Survival by K.L. Going.  Now I’ve really enjoyed some of Going’s books (Fat Kid Rules the World, The Liberation of Gabriel King), so I decided to give it a go.  It was a good story, but not hugely memorable.  Next up, The Longest Distance by Beth Kephart.  Now that is a really good piece of writing.  It contains some beautiful language: “Joelle is gone.  She’s the slash of black you see just after lightning breaks the sky.  She’s the place where a cliff stops being stone and becomes the air that  you could fall through.”  The story follows Hannah in the aftermath of her best friend Joelle’s suicide, and the story is framed by Hannah’s work on her senior thesis, Time: The Great Houdini Healer.  The next story is by another of my favorite writers, Chris Lynch, and is titled Arrangements.  The set-up is certainly memorable: A high school-aged boy takes over his father’s pawn shop after his father’s death.  He learns a lot about his dad from the people who come in to the shop, in some cases more than he wants to know.  Another good story.  The last piece is The Company by Jaqueline Woodson, and again, I couldn’t really get into it.  So, all in all, is this book a success?  I guess so, because I’m certainly glad I read The Longest Distance.  Review by Stacy Church