Who Am I Without Him? Short Stories About Girls and Boys in Their Lives by Sharon Flake

I really love Sharon Flake’s work, but this was not one of my favorites. Not because it was poorly written, it wasn’t. The characters stand true and speak in voices so clarion it is difficult not to hear their cry. I found the short story format, one I like, to be difficult in this instance. In most cases, the stories were too short to really grab me. There was no thread between them other than the stated title. I would have preferred to see something along the lines of Ortiz’s “An Island Like You” or the works of E.R. Frank where there are ties between the characters, however distant or occasional. There is also the darkness in these stories. The opening one, however real, made me deeply sad. Most of the others, including a heart-wrenching letter from a father to a daughter at the end, did little to lift my mood. The one story that stood out for me was that of “Mookie”. Mookie is a young man who knows how to treat a woman because of a group of very controlling female relatives. He uses this knowledge to become a “playah”, but then falls in love…real love. It was the only story in the book that utterly delighted me. Would students be attracted to this book? I think so. There is no question that what is written here is very much about life. The only question is how glossed over we like our reality.