So Much a Part of You

March 3, 2014
Dugan makes a solid debut with this collection of 10 interconnected short stories that involve two women, college friends Anna Riley and Anne Cavenaugh, and Peter Herring, a man in both their lives. The stories begin in the Depression (the first, “The Third Rail,” features Anna’s father as a youngster growing up in New Jersey) and end in the present. While part of the book’s enjoyment comes from figuring out each successive story’s place within the whole, this occasionally makes for a disjointed reading experience. The least well-integrated story is “Blackball,” in which only Anne is tangentially involved, though it works well as a standalone. On the other hand, “Kitten Season”—perhaps the book’s most powerful offering—obliquely ties the first and last stories together. It centers on Lindsay, a longtime animal-care tech at a humane society, who experiences life and death every day. Dugan’s writing flows well and with thoughtfulness as she explores love, loss, and friendship through the three main characters and their families. Their decisions and foibles make for some emotional reading. Agent: Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Associates Inc.

May 15, 2014
A debut collection that could practically pass for a novel; almost all the stories feature members of a single family through three generations, focusing on Anna Riley as she grows from childhood equestrienne to wife and mother.In the opening story, "The Third Rail," John Riley is the 12-year-old son of an abusive, alcoholic father in the midst of the Depression. By the second tale, "A Matter of Time," it's the mid-1970s, and John has become the alcoholic father of 10-year-old Anna; the stories continue chronologically, focusing on Anna (and occasionally her troubled relationship with her father) as she navigates adolescence, love, marriage, motherhood and life "as a middle-aged orphan." But Anna is not the main character in every story; some feature the college days of Peter, who will become her husband, and his doomed romance with Anne, who will eventually form a close friendship with the initially wary Anna. There are complications involving abortions and all sorts of deaths-pets, babies, parents-causing Anna to muse, somewhat heavy-handedly, that "life is too hard sometimes, but life is all there is." Yet subtlety of characterization is often the writer's strength, as her stories move through the conventional details of domesticity to panic attacks and "uncharted insanity," showing the fragility beneath even the most stable lives. Though some of these stories work fine on their own, most benefit from the context provided by the others, the development of character and the complexities of relationships from one to the next.Not surprisingly, Dugan is at work on a novel, which readers will eagerly anticipate after reading this promising collection.

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April 15, 2014
By portraying various individuals in their twenties and thirties as they move through formative stages in their lives, the ten linked stories in Dugan's debut collection convincingly capture the human condition. At the heart of these pieces are college friends Anna Riley and Anne Cavenaugh, as well as Peter Herring, who has been involved with them both. Throughout we meet characters who love their pets more than their children, mothers who fade into the background, daughters who manage to find the grace and strength to overcome the crippling effects of their upbringing, and, affectingly, the alcoholic son of an alcoholic father who, when he becomes a father himself, evokes fear and shame in his own daughter. As the narratives explore love, faith, betrayal, joy, friendship, and tragedy, they highlight how choices made by parents influence their offspring so indelibly. VERDICT With decisive economy and the dramatic immediacy lent by her use of the present tense, Dugan's powerful stories present a fast-paced, cohesive, and satisfying read.--Joyce Townsend, Pittsburg, CA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2014
Readers, take notice. In the 10 stories of this cycle, you will meet Anna Riley, Anne Cavanaugh, Peter Herring, and their families and friends in a variety of American cities, spanning the years from the Depression to the late twentieth century. Strong characterization and acute rendering of settings provide glimpses into the successes and sorrows of these middle-class Irish Catholics. The stories' placement is important. Each story gives a little more information about the characters, many different perspectives are presented, and there is no slippage in consistency over the narrative arc. In The Third Rail, we meet John Riley, reader, worker and tinkerer, and son of an alcoholic father. So Much a Part of You demonstrates the sins of the father, since alcoholism has warped and twisted his daughter Anna's life. The final story, Collateral, brings their lives full cycle with Anna, now a middle-aged orphan, clearing out her father's apartment after his death. Paying the Piper introduces Anne Cavanaugh and Peter Herring, their meeting in college, and the reason for their breakup. Although short story fans are a natural audience for this promising debut, it will also appeal to general fiction readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)