Veer
by Kim Chinquee

Description

“Imagine a scene set at a low boil and cooked down the way the mind distills memory, the unimportant burned off until you are left with a most potent flavor, one that lingers. Kim Chinquee’s Veer boldly foregoes traditional plot or resolution—and instead, invites you into what, at first, may seem like an ordinary event—a family meal, a child talking to a cow, sisters playing with dolls or magazine clippings, a mother and daughter out celebrating—then she adds a hint of menace, a damaged caretaker, an unreliable partner, a bad mood, and you sense that everything has tipped toward danger. But pay attention to the female narrators, who know what will, or might, keep the peace for the moment, and yet crave a chance to disobey, to assert their own wants, to break rules. Because it is their turbulence that you’ll feel like an aftershock when you close the book.” (Susan Henderson, author of The Flicker of Old Dreams and Up from the Blue)