White Rat by Gayl Jones

White Rat Reviews

• 
  Jonathan

  As with any collection of short stories, not everything hit the mark for me, but when she does she is spectacular. Her use of voice in particular continues to be deeply impressive.
• 
  Cody

  Jones works best at novel length, and I cannot shake the feeling that some of these go back to her college years. While some are tremendous, she is as much a born novelist as I am a cigarette smoker. The result: middling-to-brilliant; fitting for someone whose best work requires a much larger canvas.
  
  (That cover though? Man, that is the epitome of one cool looking dust jacket. Woooo-weeeeeee.)
• 
  J-L

  
  
  I'm not sure that all of those pieces work as short stories but in lesser hands, I suspect they might have been disastrous. Gayl Jones' faith in the culture and history of Black Americans is moving and of course, ripe with stories that are aching to be recorded because in real life, for a number of characters such as the ones in these stories, there is perhaps no language to voice their pains. Jones gives as much consideration, lucidity and dignity to those who wrestle mental illness and trauma as those who--on the surface anyway--do not. Aside from exploring racial and historical legacies, a number of these stories also tackle sexual identity and its impact of bystanders--most notably the girl narrator in 'The Women,' whose sexuality blossoms as her mother's affairs with different women increase over time. This is perhaps why the language, and especially the narrative structure, of those stories defy convention in order to mirror internal chaos and the narrators' attempts to make sense of it all--including the tension between the uneducated, and the professors and doctors who want to define them. Although bleak and stark, these stories are not devoid of light; as Jones herself has stated: "the answer sometimes comes in the telling."
• 
  Aileen M

  I enjoy short stories because instead of having a beginning, middle, and end, it's just the middle. But there's still a finality to each story that makes it feel complete when you finish reading it. This book of stories is very well written, and uses so many different voices and personalities it's amazing that it's so easily bundled up into one book.
• 
  Black Bibliophile

  I never wanted each one to end...
• 
  Gregory Duke

  3.5
  
  Gayl Jones' amazing sense of voice permeates all the of the stories included here, and there were some generally wonderful highlights (White Rat, The Women, Asylum, The Coke Factory, The Roundhouse, A Quiet Place for the Summer) that handle race, neurodivergence, sexuality both heteronormative and queer, and, of course, even more of her complexity difficult relationships. There were some duds that weren't disastrous and even had some fascinating choices, but they just didn't work at all emotionally or thematically enough for me, which I think is more of an issue, because I expect so much from Jones after having loved the three novels of hers I've read so intensely. This feels like more of an early formative bridge between Eva's Man to The Healing in its application of dialect, so there's an interestingly visible trajectory she is going on as an author as you read through this slim collection. Alas, even the least successful Gayl Jones is more successful than most authorial careers.
• 
  Theodore

  This collection of short stories was quintessential Jones in this genre of prose fiction. The relentless in-your-face sexuality, examination of the lasting legacy of racial identity, a range of idiomatic speeches, and deep dive into the minds of her characters.
  
  Aside from the typical range, one is familiar with Jones, as powerfully displayed in CORREGIDORA and EVA'S MAN, I appreciated the stories that went against the traditional and cultural backdrops of the South. The story "The Roundhouse" about a nearly mute, racially ambiguous protagonist named Jake forging a relationship was as conventional as they come and "A Quite Place for The Summer" about a student staying her professors house depicted a less brutalist style forwards healing and love. Honestly, a breath of fresh air from Jones. In ranking these works I have to admit this is my least favorite by a slight margin because it was a short. The characterization was not as flushed and some of the stories didn't entirely work for me. Above all, readers of Jones will appreciate this collection.
• 
  Madeline

  White Rat is a collection of very human short stories. They are sometimes brutal, and sometimes intensely compassionate.
• 
  Inda

  Gonna write an entire review on the blog later but let's just say this book got me shook.