2.5 stars really. I could appreciate this book of short stories, but they were difficult to engage with. They are almost more like prose poems or reflections, because there is no sense of character or plot development, but some really sharp, sometimes barbed insights and some beautiful turns of phrase. For example: "Elegance is a function of failure. The elegant always know what it is to have failed. There is no need for elegance in success: success itself is enough. But elegance in failure is essential." Hmm. Walsh writes from a European perspective which is much broader and she is more willing to take risks both in style and content. Most of the "stories" are expressive of the many roles of women today: mothers, daughters, wives, mistresses, workers, -- typically all-in-one in many of the works. There is an abstract quality to them -- skimming along the surface of things, definitely outside looking in. It was published by the Dorothy Project (dorothyproject.com) a small press, and "a publishing project dedicated to works of fiction or near fiction or about fiction, mostly by women." My favorite in the book was the entry "Young Mothers" in which she points out the ways (most) mothers of young children take on qualities of the toddlers: wearing comfy, wash-n-wear clothing, using non-breakable items, flat shoes, "colors were bright so our children did not lose us, so we could not lose each other, or ourselves no matter how hard we tried." She turns these observations around on an edge, which I like. Another plus: It is purse-sized and most "stories" are a mere 2 or 3 pages. But they are not quick or light per se; they need digestion. With a little more time and attention, I may have liked them even more. ( )

Related short stories that are probing yet elegant in their simplicity.
Descriptions of everyday moments that examine the seemingly banal to discover the world of ambiguous truths and connected-fragment-feelings lying beneath. ( )

I love this writing, it really gets into essence of being human and living in the world. The stories themselves are on a variety of subjects and locations, but all circle round the narrator's self-doubt and awkwardness of existence (the title Vertigo is perfect for this). Surely we all spend a huge proportion of our minds there, but it is so rarely written about, and never expressed quite so well as in this short collection. A book to swig down and return to soon. ( )