Publishers Weekly
10/09/2023
In this satisfying collection from McCorkle (Hieroglyphics), characters attempt to bridge gender, political, and generational divides in hopes of coming to terms with a world where “evil and violent things had been happening since the beginning of time.” In “Commandments,” a group of women who were dumped by the same man get together regularly at a café and trade stories about their former beau. When their free-spirited younger server, Candy, hears them dishing about the unnamed man (whom they claim had “perfected the art of ruining women”), Candy offers unexpected wisdom. In “The Last Station,” a recently widowed woman lugs a cross from one end of her yard to the other, simulating Jesus’s plight while airing grievances big and small—the rise of white nationalists, drama at her book club—to a shocked audience of neighbors. The standout “Sparrow” finds a newly divorced mother befriending an older woman at her child’s little league games who provides the validation the mother needs regarding her children’s well-being. Though the collection feels somewhat repetitive, McCorkle serves up plenty of humor and heartache each time she weaves a tale of interconnected relationships, and often pushes her stories toward empathetic and surprising climaxes. McCorkle fans will gobble this up. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson, and Lerner. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"A splendid, wide-ranging collection that once again proves McCorkle is a master of the form."—Jenny Offill, author of Weather
“Jill McCorkle has had an extraordinary ear for the music of ordinary life since the beginning of her career, able to work with the voices we know so well to write these stories about they will not tell us, what they would rather not tell us, what they hope to tell us, what too often goes unsaid. And this collection is a new wonder.”
—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write An Autobiographical Novel
“Each story here is so carefully wrought yet wildly original at the same time, deeply wedded to the real world in all its complexity and detail. It seems to me that each one contains an entire life—and often, a whole novel. What a beautiful book.”
—Lee Smith, author of Silver Alert
“With her wry humor, deep understanding of human connection and disconnection, and a tremendous sense of fun, Jill McCorkle has given us another dazzling collection of stories.”—Lily King, author of Five Tuesdays in Winter
Named a Most Anticipated Book of Winter/2024 by Atlanta Journal-Constitution, LitHub, Tertulia
“Steeped in loneliness while drilling straight to the heart of emotion, these standalone narratives collectively deliver a stunning study on the shared experience of isolation… Jill McCorkle has assembled a stunning collection of survivors who share something far more important than location, time or identity.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Jill McCorkle returns… with a sharpness and intensity only the briefer form can provide… One of the great pleasures of reading McCorkle’s work is her gift for taking readers into the layered depths of characters’ minds, revealing them in flashes of thought and feeling that seem utterly natural and effortless on the page. She’s a masterful tour guide to the human psyche. Though the stories in Old Crimes are often dark and rich in sorrow, they resonate with sympathy for the way we all struggle, many times in vain, to make peace with ourselves and the people we love.”—Chapter16
“Often funny, evenly darkly comic at times, McCorkle's memorable collection calls to mind Alice Munro and Charles Baxter.”—Booklist
"McCorkle is a brilliant storyteller... Wonderfully rich and emotionally complicated stories."—Kirkus Reviews
"[A] satisfying collection… McCorkle serves up plenty of humor and heartache… and often pushes her stories toward empathetic and surprising climaxes. McCorkle fans will gobble this up."—Publishers Weekly
“[R]ich with wry dialogue and insights into lives shaped by moments that can resonate for years… Unexpected and compelling repeat appearances will send readers back to reread, and to savor the skillful writing of a first-rate storyteller.”—Shelf Awareness
“A short story collection that showcases Jill McCorkle’s ability to create a life, a history and a realization in only a few sketches… Jill McCorkle has created 12 tiny masterpieces here.”—Book Reporter
“The sweet spot of McCorkle’s stories… is where her characters have moved unprepared through an important intersection of their lives, and must now sort out their situation.”—The News of Orange County
“I’ve rarely read a collection that has stayed with me like this one has… I was stunned by the depth of this new work… you are in for a treat with this brilliant collection.”—Seattle Book Review
“[McCorkle] is at the top of her game here, with a diverse and memorable cast of characters that plumb the depths of the human condition—but somehow manage to flutter with hope."—The Hippo
“Jill McCorkle is a master of her craft, and while I am tempted to call Old Crimes one of her greatest books, I will instead just call it equal to her others. There are no bad choices here, only greatness.”—Colorado Sun
“Jill McCorkle takes ordinary people, puts them in common situations and makes extraordinary stories. She has done it again in her latest collection of short stories, Old Crimes and Other Stories. All beautifully written… [she] proves again why she is one of America’s favorite authors.”—The Wilson Times
“A collection of 12 stories so full, so beautiful and true, at once so funny and so heartbreakingly sad and bittersweet, that it feels as if she’s taken the short form to another level. This is not one book with 12 stories in it; it’s 12 books under one cover.”—The Local Reporter (Chapel Hill)
Library Journal
03/29/2024
McCorkle's fifth short story collection gathers loosely connected narratives of fairly ordinary people who have endured life-changing circumstances. Through their stories, McCorkle delivers a balance of humor, warmth, poignancy with remorse, even atonement, and illustrates her characters' intense longing to connect to others, especially those from the past. Consider "The Lineman," in which a telephone lineman ruminates over the past misdeeds that led to the demise of his marriage and the impact of all things digital—his ex-wife has taken up with a professor of digital communications. Another standout is "Sparrow," whose narrator, a newly divorced mother of two, is navigating her new life in a new town. She attends her son's Little League game, ostensibly to meet others and learn more about her community. McCorkle's depiction of the fans at the game is spot on and yet still manages to surprise. VERDICT Great short story writers encapsulate and distill the experience and emotions of a character in what amounts to a mini-novel. McCorkle demonstrates why she is considered a virtuoso of the form. This new collection will not disappoint her bevy of fans and may introduce some new readers to her flock of followers.—Faye A. Chadwell
FEBRUARY 2024 - AudioFile
Author Jill McCorkle joins a talented group of narrators in a memorable performance of her terrific new short story collection. Sly, funny, perceptive, and searing, the stories explore what gets us through our days and years. Hayden Bishop, Teralyn Davis, Marcella Cox, Kathy Bell Denton, and Cary Hite bring a euphonious mix of Southern accents and helpful interpretations of the characters' joys and heartaches. A self-help group of women who've been dumped by the same man, a telephone lineman who struggles to connect, and a woman whose deafness is a shield against her husband's comments--these are some of the North Carolina author's cast of unforgettable everyday people. Add the exquisite timing of McCorkle's own performance of her hysterical-and-painful tale of a family reunion, and wow--just wow. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-10-07
In her fifth story collection, McCorkle explores the emotional toll of keeping secrets and making compromises on her mostly female protagonists.
In “Low Tones,” a mother is wracked with guilt at having once yelled Don’t make me slap the shit out of you at her sweet little son, even though she’s done far worse by giving cover to her abusive husband. “Swinger” is about a young woman named Marnie who's left with next to nothing after the still-married man with whom she’s been living for three years suddenly dies. Once a swinger, her boyfriend has a box of nude photos of past lovers; Marnie is haunted by the absence of her image in the box, the fact that she could not bring herself to ask for more from their relationship because “she was the kind of invisible woman who might be referred to as sturdy or dependable, smart and practical.” The cost of past mistakes is often regret, or even rage. In “A Simple Question,” Anna looks back on her friendship with Muriel, an older woman trying to parent a difficult son, and realizes the extent to which her youth made her self-involved. In “The Last Station,” a mother performs her own version of the Stations of the Cross every year in her front yard to call attention to social injustice. After her husband’s death, however, her performance becomes an expression of her disappointment—in how hard she worked as mother, wife, and librarian, and how little she got in return. “I want more,” she announces. “I want my turn and yet, here I am and it’s all over—finished.” McCorkle is a brilliant storyteller who makes use of the retrospective voice at key moments and employs peripheral characters as narrators to underscore the extent to which trauma and regret cast long shadows. The past is never too far from the present.
Wonderfully rich and emotionally complicated stories.
