A review by edgwareviabank
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

The Office of Historical Corrections earned a place in the list of short story collections I'll be recommending to everyone. All of Danielle Evans's complex, sometimes controversial characters were fascinating to follow, and I really enjoyed her writing.

My thoughts on the individual pieces:

• Happily Ever After: A story that starts with a one-night stand, and evolves into an exploration of grief (particularly the denial stage), with hints of the uphill struggle Black people face to gain trust and acceptance. It set the tone for the rest of the collection: I remember thinking that if every main character was as well-rounded and complex as Lyssa, then I could be sure that I'd love every story.
• Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain: A single woman attends a male friend's wedding, and has to deal with the bride's insecurity around the relationship, as well as the dregs of her own past trauma. Rena, the main character, was so relatable in her uncertain search for hope after years of self-sabotage.
• Boys go to Jupiter: a white college student wears a Confederate flag bikini in a naive act of defiance towards her stepmother. When she goes viral and gets cancelled, she shows more conviction than remorse, seemingly surprising even herself; but whose side is she on, really?
• Why Don't Women Just Say What They Want: An inventive take on a powerful man's non-apologies to the women in his life, in tune with the #MeToo era. The humour is spot-on, very much the "funny because it's true" kind (or, perhaps, "laugh not to cry").
• Alcatraz: Two estranged strands of a multi-racial family reconnect after decades; one haunted by a past tragedy, the other completely unaware. As well as grief and loss of various kinds, there's something bittersweet and hopeful in this story and its ending, which I enjoyed.
• Anything Could Disappear: One of my favourites in the collection. It follows a young woman who lands in New York City for a shady job, and finds precarious happiness raising an abandoned baby. It read to me like the opposite of Alcatraz: where the previous story started bleak and ended on more positive notes, this one raises the reader's hopes early on, building the foundations for a happy ending that ultimately can't be.
• The Office of Historical Corrections: this is a novella that takes up most of the book. I didn't love it at first sight, in the way I did the shorter pieces: it grew on me more slowly, as the setting changed from Washington DC to a small town where a mystery that spans decades is unfolding. The cast of characters broadened, and their motivations and contradictions became clearer, making it a compelling read. My only complaint, now I've read it in its entirety, is the last page feels a little rushed.