A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness: Stories

Despite the book’s very engaging title, the stories in this volume require a greater sacrifice in plowing through pointless exercises bringing this reader very little understanding, let alone happiness. Perhaps it is a cultural difference which made the writer’s stories so difficult for me to follow. The writer is acknowledged as accomplished and has won awards for his writing. This reader made a valiant effort to try all the stories and become engaged in even one of them.

A central theme of the stories appears to be the sacrifices and egotistical construction of families. What lengths will people go to become a normative family even if their methods are ruthless and non-traditional. This is the writer’s second book, but the stories seem sketchy and unfinished. Perhaps with greater effort, this reader could have unlocked more meaning and substance but short stories usually engage me immediately because they are designed to be impactful to the reader.