Sudden Traveler by Sraha Hall is one of the best writings I have read this year. Short stories are their own unique art, in my mind, and it takes a lot of skill to make characters relatable and real within the span of about 20 pages. This book is a sleek 124 page volume, covering 7 stories. There are a number of deep themes to think about in this book! I will start with the book blurb, a quick summary of each of the stories, followed by the notes on writing.
The characters in Sudden Traveler walk, drive, dream, and fly, trying to reconcile themselves with their journeys through life, death, and love. Science fiction meets folktale and philosophy meets mortality.
A woman with a new generation of pacemaker chooses to shut it down in the Lakeland, the site of her strongest memories. A man repatriated in the near east hears the name of an old love called and must unpack history’s dark suitcase. From the new world-waves of female anger and resistance, a mythical creature evolves. And in the woods on the border between warring countries, an old well facilitates a dictator’s downfall, before he gains power.
A master of short fiction, Sarah Hall opens channels in the human mind and spirit and takes us to the very edge of our possible selves.
Content Notes: Depictions of death, suicide, violence, trauma.
Themes for Thought
Sudden Traveler was an extra reading in week two of my How to Read A Novel course. Every story is so unique in this collection! I am glad this was the book for this week because it not only combined the concepts from last week (see Girl for details), but also gave us a variety of characters to look at.
A quick look at each story
- M: Focuses on a lawyer fighting for a woman’s shelter. She metamorphs into another being at night and brings justice. Transformational and powerful, this was a captivating start to the collection.
- The Women the Book Read: A man encounters his ex’s daughter, a girl who used to call him “Baba” when she was four years old. The story captures the love that we feel for children, even those who are not own our. I have felt it with my students, and this story was special because of that.
- The Grotesque: About a girl named Dilly who is sidelined by her family at her own birthday party, this story depicts hunger for attention as well as food.
- Who Pays?: This one is about a society that is calm and serene. Lyrical, atmospheric, Who Pays? Took me to the desert and the Well of Souls.
- Orton: A woman travels to a place of significance in her life where she met a lover a long time ago. Her husband is dead and her daughter doesn’t need her anymore.
- Sudden Traveler: A story about grief, death and loss, how one life ends and another begins but we must keep going on. Written in second person, this one beautifully describes the thoughts that pass our minds when we miss our loved ones.
- Live that you may live: The shortest story of the collection, in this story, a daughter asks her mother for a bedtime story. The mom tells the story of a girl who goes on adventures. She is searching for home between all the people she meets, the places she goes to and the events that happen. The message in this one is that our stories are unique to us.
On The Title
There are two aspects of travel that I was to comment on:
As the reader, I traveled as I read this book. I met new characters, new settings and pondered the themes that the author had integrated into the story. These travels were unexpected because I did not have much preamble about the story I was diving into.
From the characters’ point of view, each story presents a journey, whether it is a mental one or physical one. Chance encounters, opportunities to reminisce and go down memory lane and contemplate life, so many aspects of travel are touched upon in this book!
In an interview with the University of Edinburgh 2020, Sarah Hall discusses migration and displacement.
“So, in the collection of short stories there are border wars going on. There are people forced from their homes. There are times when, even if you’re not being politically forced from your home, you are, in some ways, in your life, asked to kind of travel into an uncomfortable area that you haven’t had to be in before. All of a sudden you are forced to consider death. You’re forced to consider grief. You’re in a situation where something suddenly changes. That kind of sense of controlled continuum of existence is really interfered with. The speed of which things happen, the things that are being asked of you, the confusion – I mean, that’s the kind of human condition, really, isn’t it?”
How to read A Novel, Week 2, University of Edinburgh, Future Learn
Notes on Writing Choices in Sudden Traveler
There are a number of narrative styles that we see through this book – free direct style, second person as well as first person narration. I think it takes a lot of courage to experiment with so many styles in one collection and to write them all so well! Each story brings a different character to the forefront of our mind and I loved that the writing made it like a puzzle – I was always looking for clues about how old the character was, where were they located, what were they trying to do?
The characters in Sudden Traveler are young, old, men, women. A couple of stories use magical realism to take us to a world that we don’t quite understand but that has magic and power. Since these are short stories, I was observing the use of flashbacks and prolepsis to give insight into the character in one continuous stream of text.
Here are some quotes from the book to give you an idea of the writing:
She could tell him everything, or nothing, because the present is in each millionth moment remade and unstoppable, forgiveness, war, cause, cure, all moments, all selves, possible. But she is here.
M, Sudden Traveler
You were a little older than your son’s age when your mother lost her father. Too young to really know him. So it goes. People as fundamental as the sky, gone before they can be shared by future generations.
Sudden Traveler (title story)
Of all the stories, my favorite one was Sudden Traveler because it was able to put into words a lot of what I felt recently when I lost my grandmother. The quote above, in particular, made me think of how pivotal she was in my life, and yet my partner never had a chance to meet her. I also remembered my grandfather who I lost when I was in Grade 5 and the little things that I remember of him. The emotions and nostalgia are so beautifully expressed that I am sure every reader would find some connection with grief in that one. Through those thoughts, the protagonist of that story, a new mother, dealing with the death of her mother, was relatable.
Overall, this was an engaging read and I love being immersed in the writing. The seven short stories were well thought out and fit in the collection! I enjoyed Sarah Hall’s writing style and approach to writing. Since this was part of the How to Read A novel course, getting her insights on the book was very helpful and the week’s study material helped me engage with the book in a more focused manner.
** Sudden Traveler is available in stores. Find it at your local library, bookstores or Amazon. Let me know what you think! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
If you like short story collections, also check out The First Stain, an Inked in Gray anthology.
Cover image: Photo by Simon Migaj on Unsplash
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