(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Regular readers know that I find it difficult to write reviews of short-story collections -- the shortness of each piece makes it hard to do a really good analytical look at the book as a whole, while the nature of such collections means that some pieces might be great while others are terrible -- and Vanessa Blakeslee's Train Shots is a great example of what I'm talking about. Not particularly great nor particularly terrible, these slice-of-life character-heavy pieces sometimes are long and engaging, sometimes tiny and that barely make a blip on the consciousness; and like most story collections I review here, it comes recommended for those who are already a fan of the author, but can be easily skipped by those who aren't. A middle-of-the-road score to reflect the uneven nature of story collections in general, some of these pieces deserve a higher score than this, while others deserve a lower one, averaged out in the end as a symbol for me shrugging my shoulders once finished and saying to myself, "Meh."

Out of 10: 7.5 ( )

In the stories that make up Train Shots people try to make sense of the circumstances of their lives, patch broken lives, and simply cope. Young women try to make successful lives with older, sometimes irresponsible men.

“Clock-In” is a bleak view of a restaurant worker’s future. It’s the lead story and sets the tone for the collection. The fate of a young couple’s marriage relies on a type of religious Magic 8-Ball in “Ask Jesus.” In “Welcome, Lost Dogs” a mature expatriate in Costa Rica faces the loss of dogs she has rescued as well as that of her husband to Parkinson’s disease. A family falls apart in the worst way in “Barbecue Rabbit.”

The title story reveals the sad, sometimes gruesome side of being a train engineer. It may be the strongest story in the collection, but they’re all very, very good. This collection rings of the truth. The writing and emotions are exquisite. ( )