Unforgettable: Short Stories

Paulette Alden's Unforgettable: Short Stories is a beautifully observed, wryly humorous, and profoundly moving collection that follows Miriam Batson, the protagonist of Alden's earlier collection, Feeding the Eagles, into middle-age as she navigates her own aging, the life choices she's made, and the loss of those she loves. Written from the heart but without sentimentality, the stories give shape and meaning to feelings and experiences common to many, especially women. In "The Student," Miriam, caught up in the drama of the suicide attempt of one of her favorite college students, ricochets between maternal and romantic feelings, as she remembers her own youth "when love was new," and her desire to mother the young man. "Sorrow" brings Miriam  back to the South Carolina of her childhood when she returns to visit the grave of a beloved maid, where she feels heartache not only for her death, but also for the whole tragic history of the South. In "Enormously Valuable," Miriam decides to take a stand for herself at the university where she has been passed over for a teaching job given to a less qualified man: "Her mother hadn't taught her to be tough; she had taught her to be nice. As if that could protect her. And maybe it could, in a parlor. But not in the English Department. Nice was nice, but no defense against getting screwed. In fact, it just made it easier . . ." And in "Swimming, Snow," Miriam experiences the spiraling nature of grief after the sudden death of her father. The last five stories in Unforgettable form a progressive narrative as Miriam tries to keep her mother afloat as she is being pulled under by Alzheimer's. Moving her mother first from South Carolina to a senior apartment in Minnesota, then to assisted living, and then to a nursing home, Miriam experiences all the grief, guilt, poignancy, painful humor, exhaustion, intimacy and ultimately deep love involved in caring for a failing parent. Anyone who has experienced such a situation will relate to Miriam's feelings as she struggles with the inevitable, arriving at last at acceptance and appreciation for what, after so much loss, still remains. The memoiristic stories in Unforgettable reveal the power of writing to transform common, familiar, relatable experiences into compelling works that move us, entertain us, and illuminate our own lives.