The New York Times Book Review - Bobby Finger
…a heartbreaking look at lives fueled by sadness and rage, set in a part of the country people so often leave but never seem to arrive…[a] haunting and delicate collection. These are characters who wish for little more than to be seen, and in the most tragic of cases, they can't even tell they already are. They're caught in the middle—of a pandemic, of a recession, a domestic uprising, a country. And though plenty can call a Midwestern city their hometown, Until We Have Faces is the tender, aching work of one who calls it home.
Publishers Weekly
03/16/2020
Set in the contemporary Midwest and revisiting themes from Nye’s debut novel, All the Castles Burned, this stoic, grim collection follows men who process emotions through violence, anger, and alcohol and find describing their feelings the “hardest thing to do.” These men are former athletes and members of the military, many of whom have fallen from their glory days and have been relegated to demoralizing jobs. In “Who Are You Wearing?” a man gets a gig waving signs at cars and wearing a bumble bee costume for the Halloween Superstore; and in “The Good Shepherd,” a man runs a farm that processes shelter dogs as a poultry substitute. A general sadness permeates as the characters wallow in loneliness; when one recognizes that “we all reek of desperation,” he could be speaking for all of the stories’ protagonists. But much of this desperation is born of their own doing, informed and complicated by their expectations that men remain strong and women steady. Despite the moping, drinking, and brawls, there’s hope here that happiness will not remain a “ridiculous, arrogant idea” for these men if only they can reconsider what happy means. Fans of Nye’s work will welcome this. (July)
From the Publisher
The characters in Michael Nye’s brilliant collection all fight against a central question: what is so tragic about being unremarkable? Their dashed desires become their fuel, their desperation becomes their hope. Home, identity, race, love, loss—these themes reverberate in stories full of yearning, on paths toward selfhood marked by fragmentation. To step into the lives portrayed in Until We Have Faces is to feel, as one character notes, released from a cage after a long incarceration. We believe in their resilience because it is our resilience.” —Carolyn Ferrell, award-winning author of Don’t Erase Me
“There is a grace and an ease to Nye’s latest collection. He interrogates everything from American sports culture to heartbreak to Midwestern sensibilities, always with earnestness and generosity. Like all masters of the form, Nye manages a remarkable sleight-of-hand: each story feels at once unique but also recognizable, like a dear friend you’ve lost touch with. These are stories with big hearts, and though they offer tremendous wisdom, it is often camouflaged with modesty, which is both refreshing and admirable. Readers who are weary of ironic and pessimistic fiction have been waiting for this collection.” —Brad Felver, award-winning author of The Dogs of Detroit
”Fans of Nye’s work will welcome this." —Publisher’s Weekly
"In this highly satisfying collection, Nye’s characters struggle to be seen and understood, but he reminds readers that love can overcome all." —Booklist
"Michael Nye’s new story collection is inhabited by characters who are breaking up or breaking down, and, inevitably, breaking away from what had once been and surrendering to a new and often disillusioning normal. Whether it be a former NFL player settling into a life of concussion-induced disability or a soldier-turned-chicken-turned-dog-farmer who must confront his own sense of justice, or a young woman revisiting her fifteen minutes of fame and seeing it in a new and less flattering light, Nye’s stories provoke a familiar sense of dismay. Yet, just when it seems nothing good can be salvaged from the mess these souls have made, there is a moment of illumination and hope. Until We All Have Faces is fiction for the here and now, for these days when the known has become the unknown and we all seek a new and better path forward.” —Angela Mitchell, author of Unnatural Habitats & Other Stories
"The stories in Michael Nye’s Until We Have Faces are heartbreaking testimonies to the lonely, disconnected lives of men and women who once knew authentic friendship, meaningful work and athletic victory, whose fragile dreams are dissolved by degrading work and manipulated images, addiction and imbalances of power. While Nye’s fearless vision of contemporary life is painfully detailed and unsparing, the hope of love burns at the center of this remarkable collection, and within each of its characters, an inextinguishable spark of redemptive memory.” —Melissa Pritchard, award-winning author of A Solemn Pleasure
”I cannot remember the last time I read a collection wherein each story is so perfect—story lines, rising action, characterization, flow. Until We Have Faces harkens back to the perfect John Cheever stories, or those of Richard Yates. Yet these aren’t ‘old-fashioned’ stories. Backdrops of twenty-first century complexities fuel these gems.” —George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories
"This collection floored me—Michael Nye knows these characters inside and out. From a retired NFL lineman battling the fallout from a career of concussions to a woman facing the reunion of a photoshoot that once captured the lives of Midwestern teens, these nine stories capture characters at precipices and breaking points, determining the next steps their lives might take from here. Nye's razor-sharp attention to these lives reveals their vulnerability, their flaws and wounds, and how human a desire it is to be seen and known." —Anne Valente, author of The Desert Sky Before Us
