THE BRIGHT SIDE SANCTUARY FOR ANIMALS :: Becky Mandelbaum

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

Becky Mandelbaum's debut novel, The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals, is a fabulous entry to long form after her stunning and multi-prize-winning story collection, Bad Kansas. Mona Siskin kicks off a long-coming reckoning when she steals the Fuller brothers' pro-Trump sign. Soon after, Mona's estranged daughter, Ariel, reads a headline that knocks her cold--"Fire at Animal Sanctuary Ruled Arson." Antisemitic messages were also left on buildings and on Lady Madonna the pig. The suspect, Sydney Fuller, was Ariel's only friend growing up, the lone ally she unintentionally betrayed.

Worse is the news Mona has to sell the Bright Side, the sanctuary where Ariel was raised and that cost her family so much. Her father left one day without a word. Her mother, so busy caring for the animals, made Ariel feel more like hired help than a daughter. Six years earlier, Ariel also silently snuck away, to attend college against her mother's wishes. She left her home, the animals and her first love, Mona's ranch hand Gideon.

Insightful and cuttingly funny, Mandelbaum has a grand knack for character depth and point of view. The author handles rudderless Ariel's return to a marvelously complex mother masterfully; she doles out each woman's unspoken emotional history and trauma with precision and affection. Trailed by her hapless fiancé, Dex, Ariel also has to face Gideon and his girlfriend, Joy, both steady ships in the storm. The Bright Side is a thorny family drama filled with edgy humor and snappy prose, with love and dogs at its heart.

STREET SENSE: I fell in love with Mandelbaum's writing when I covered Bad Kansas for Shelf. Who could pass up a title like that? It was a very pleasant surprise and I couldn't wait to see what Mandelbaum did in the long form. I'm signing up for whatever she writes in the future.

COVER NERD SAYS: This beautiful cover amps up my desire to run away to a simpler place, even though what Ariel gets when she gets home is far from simple. But how could you not want to step into this cover image?

BAD KANSAS :: Becky Mandelbaum

A version of this review previously ran in Shelf Awareness and is reprinted here with permission. Bad Kansas published on September 15, 2017 and is available in paperback now.

The first stories in Becky Mandelbaum's Flannery O'Connor Award-winning collection Bad Kansas ingeniously lay the foundation for the yearning and disconnect that weave through the compilation. In the openers, California is seen as nirvana, superior to Kansas in every way. Being in Kansas is akin to missing a better life; better food, politics, weather and people.

In her insightful and sometimes darkly comic pieces on loving and being loved, trying desperately to attain love or deal with its elusiveness, Mandelbaum uses disparate geography as a metaphor for the interpersonal divides love can't always conquer. A Kansas couple's incompatibility is only highlighted by a move to the supposed Golden State; a teen new to Wichita learns cliques are universal and flyover states not immune to class structure; and a man who relocates to be with a woman discovers his Kansas self isn't who either of them wants.

With an assured style, mixing in lyricism, wit and black humor, Mandelbaum dissects the mindset that "nicer" places bring nicer things and unhappiness is tied to where rather than who you are. The author also slyly works in moments that turn the initial premise on its head: a Kansas woman disenchanted with California's "perfect" weather likens mountain snow to a museum relic: "I want it to actually snow…I want the sky to do something." Another Kansan, familiar with a multitude of insects, is undone by a "Kafkaesque" California cockroach.  Engaging from start to finish, Bad Kansas is a smart, insightful debut.

STREET SENSE: A smart and pointed debut story collection about love and happiness viewed through the geographic lens of Kansas, its inhabitants and transplants.

A FAVORITE PASSAGE:  Take it from a born and bred California girl who had to spend a few years in Kansas. I had no choice but to share this oh-so-true gem:

The old man laughed. "You can't take a girl from California and stick her in Kansas. It'd be like putting a fish in a tree."

COVER NERD SAYS:  I asked to review this book based on the title and cover alone and it turned another of those occasions where my gut paid off. Then this weird thing happened. I was sitting outside reading it and, having not seen a grasshopper in over a year (at least), this guy kept following me around. You'll have to take my word for the fact that there's a grasshopper in that little circle there. Creepy.