I’ve been reading this lovely collection of stories all last year, savoring a little at a time. Leesa Cross-Smith’s stories in So We Can Glow shimmer with personality, examining teenage-hood and coming of age, parenting, relationship regrets, and the ways we figure out who we are. So many of these stories feel like summer, young love, the deep sadness that still carries exuberance inside it, a sadness infused with the joy of living, pain and all.
These stories are often quite short, glimpses into the thoughts and feelings of characters who feel far more vibrant than you would expect in such short space. Characters also pop back up in subsequent stories, rewarding close reading and flipping back to check details from earlier stories. Characters keep secrets about their teenaged hijinks and adult affairs, showing how we so often hold back the key things that make us who we are.
I truly look forward to rereading these stories to underline my favorite insights. Cross-Smith celebrates feminine sensibilities, showcasing the strength behind girlhood, the beauty of staying tender to yourself and to the world, and the wisdom women share with each other. There’s also a strong thread of Southern sassiness, although I cannot explain just what’s Southern about it (maybe I just read it that way as a life-long Virginian, so far). Suffice to say these stories evoke an emotional sense of place as one of the factors that help characters come into themselves. And it’s beautiful to see.
Allongé 