Normally this wouldn't be my sort of thing, but I found myself really drawn in to this. I've posted a full review here.




Dave

If you find it difficult to eat without reading, or read without eating, you’ll definitely enjoy Erica Olson Jeffrey’s collection of short stories in Omaha Beach. There are some mighty tasty treats between its covers, paper or virtual, and I devoured them with relish (pleasure, not pickle). I’m undecided as to which is my absolute favorite, but every offering carries the reader along on its emotional tide, ranging from poignancy with her opening poem, to wry entertainment in ‘Stalled’, to right-on in ‘Trail’s End’. The characters and settings are so deftly drawn, that I found myself thinking I might have met some of these people, somewhere along the way. Highly recommended to the short story devotee.

The short stories in Omaha Beach felt to me like messages from a writer well-acquainted with joy and regret, love and loss, anger and wonder. The stories reveal what is going on under the masks we wear in our everyday lives, hiding the ugly truths we don’t want anyone else to see. Whether or not I’ve experienced exactly what the characters in Omaha Beach have lived through, I know their emotions because I’ve felt them too. In addition, her description of the 1970s resonated so much with me, I can actually see the off-color, grainy, instamatic photos we all took to chronicle that time. I contacted the author, Erica Jeffrey, and she has offered to write discussion questions on these stories for my book group, or any other book groups or literature classes.

This book is a selection of short stories. They are all well written and easy to read. It is a quick read and a delightful read. I went back and reread some of the stories over again because some of them went together and I didn't realize it until I read the whole book. I recomend this book to others.