Rebecca Geleyn's review of my collection of stories Interpreters is now out in the Spring 2015 issue (no. 263) of The Fiddlehead. I was a bit nervous when I picked it up in the bookstore (it's the first review of the book I'd come across) and the sense of foreboding I had as I hurriedly thumbed through the pages to find it reminded of those times in high school when you discover people have been talking about you behind your back, a feeling that was emphasized by the equally strange sight of my own words being quoted back at me. I was afraid I was going to find something horribly soul crushing, but, mercifully, it's a generally positive review, at times opening up interpretations (pun intended!) that I hadn't entirely thought of myself. "This collection of stories," Geleyn writes, "shows the most poignancy when zeroing in on nuggets of problematic or untranslatable language. Interpreters moves towards the hermeneutic gap between words of two different languages, incommunicable because of their intrinsic link to lived experience and culture." Hermeneutic! Now that's a word I haven't used since my grad school days.
She does say, however, that at times "some stories ... resort too quickly to summarization, taking readers out of the immediate action," but that overall the book is "a promising first collection." She also adds that "Schafrick's stories are strikingly contemporary, dealing with online dating culture, individuals trying to keep up with an increasingly globalized world, acquaintances that travel and reappear in unexpected places, and challenging job markets." Phew! Not bad. Thank you! Pick it up at a bookstore near you.
