The Office of Historical Corrections

Roxane

Rating: really liked it
WIth the seven brilliant stories in The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans demonstrates, once again, that she is the finest short story writer working today. These stories are sly and prescient, a nuanced reflection of the world we are living in, one where the rules are changing, and truth is mutable and resentments about nearly everything have breached the surface of what is socially acceptable. These stories are wickedly smart and haunting in what they say about the human condition. Whether it is a young woman testing the boundaries of what she can get away with or a bride keeping her soon-to-be husband’s friend close as she tries to discern the true nature of their relationship or a historian trying to uncover the truth about a racist tragedy from the past, Evans has the range. Her language is nimble, her sentences immensely pleasurable to read, and in every single story there is a breathtaking surprise, an unexpected turn, a moment that will leave you speechless, and wanting more.

Cindy

Rating: really liked it
Really unique premises and great lines across all the short stories. My favorite stories, in no particular order, were 1) "Boys Go To Jupiter" - for the decision to focus on a 'racist' protagonist and dive into her background story while simultaneously watch her be ignorant, 2)"Why Won't Women Just Say What They Want?" - which was veeeeery accurate to shitty boyfriends and their language/approaches to apologies, and 3) the titular novella - which was a really interesting concept with an impactful ending and gave every character a purpose to the narrative. Though I didn't resonate with every story in this collection, the writing is still sharp and smartly written. Evans does a great job with doing a lot with very little. Will definitely check out more of her writing.

s.penkevich

Rating: really liked it
I’ve really started this year on the right foot with Danielle Evan’s The Office of Historical Corrections. This brilliant collection of six short stories and a novella is a jaw-dropping, emotional ride through the racial discourse of modern society that will certainly make its residence in your heart and mind. While one might argue that this collection is fairly on-the-nose, and they wouldn’t be wrong though I don’t think in this case would be a negative. It isn't so much timely as it is a culmination of centuries building up and hitting in a moment when white people are willing to take a look. These stories have found the pulse on modern society and the characters are well-rounded and so teeming with life they are the perfect actors to relay these messages of racial injustices. These stories of Black lives cover a wide ground of issues, from generational pain and the whitewashing of history to the way men feel entitled to forgiveness even at the expense of a woman’s own feelings. Each story cuts right to the core and shows society for what it is and, more importantly, for whom society serves.

'If everything could be erased, anything could disappear.'

White supremacists, weasley libertarians, toxic men and stifling bureaucracies make up only some of the dangers within these stories. They are the ones most easy to see, to point at and say ‘this is wrong,’ but what Evan’s shows is how it can be the things that are harder to pin down that can cause just as much, if not more hurt and violence. Black men die in situations that get brushed under the rug as misunderstandings, or--worse--their own fault, family legacies are plunged in shame over clerical decisions nobody is willing to correct, and history is reshaped for the sake of comfort over truth. ‘White people love their history right up until it’s true,’ a character remarks in the titular novella, and through these stories we see exactly how truth is discolored in order to appease white lives. We see exactly how marginalized people are further harmed when society has a ‘commitment to civility and conflict avoidance’ that allows those to suffer as long as they keep out of sight and don’t infringe on the joy of those living in whitewashed lies.

The story Boys Go to Jupiter is a particular standout in this collection, especially given the timely issues of campus racial politics becoming trending battlegrounds for political argument. The story follows the aftermath of a white college girl’s confederate flag bikini photo going viral after a Black hallmate tweets it out in disgust. Evans takes a fascinating approach, spending much of the story weaving the white girl’s heartbreaking past with the present uproar of meetings with diversity panels and opportunist campus libertarians making a fuss about free speech. It is interesting to see how she so powerfully humanizes the character but in a way that makes it clear how the actions of white people, even those with no ill intent, can often become violence upon Black bodies.

Evan’s uses the threading of timelines in many of the stories in a way that continuously feels fresh. Personal motivations and past pains slowly fill in the details of present actions like watercolor spreading across a page, turning even routine moments into a masterpiece of racial discourse. A meeting of estranged cousins on a ferry to Alcatraz slowly unwraps as a tale of how the Black daughter in a white family was kept separate from all other relatives, denied an opportunity to even play with her cousins and grew up infused with shame for being Black. A woman lying about her fertility after sex with a wealthy music video producer unpacks a tragic story of a mother’s failed battle with cancer. These stories carry so much weight in them yet through Evan’s confident prose they smooth and free like a river, never feeling clogged by their own emotional baggage.

Each story is blissfully imaginative and unique and manages to still be just as memorable beside a novella that is so strong, inventive and insightful that it will certainly remain one of the high points of this year’s reading 12 months from now. The novella has such a wonderful set-up: a government agency that corrects historical inaccuracies. This, naturally, leads to complaints of government oversight, accusations of distorting history for liberal purposes or simply being fake news / un-patriotic. It even has its own adversaries, a white supremacist group of libertarians seemingly based on the Proud Boys. Cassie, the young Black woman who is proud of, and good at her job, is sent to investigate a correction done by her life-long rival, another Black woman who has reinvented herself as Genevieve. A sign has gone up to make a small Wisconsin town confront it’s legacy of having murdered a Black man to take his land, but it seems perhaps the man may have survived and started anew in Chicago. Pursued by a local who goes by the name of White Justice, Genevive and Cassie confront the truth while also having to confront their tumultuous relationship.

The story is outstanding and boils to a shocking conclusion. Honestly, even if you don’t read the short stories, read this story. Its execution lives up to the early promise of it’s whimsical and charming set-up. And that ending… Evans has a knack for ending abruptly, causing the most emotional impact. While some might say the stories end inconclusive, the emotional climax carries a weight much more than plot could convey any further.

The Office of Historical Corrections is such an utterly fantastic and poignant collection of stories. They rush bravely and headfirst into the racial discourse that needs to be had in our modern world and is unafraid to tackle the big issues. What’s most impressive is these stories feel so authentic and real and despite being built around a lot of big issues, it doesn’t feel like an Issues book. Evans has a delicate and careful storytelling that brings these to life and will certainly bring them right into your heart.

4.75/5

emma

Rating: really liked it
2020 was, in many (read: basically all) ways, the worst year of all time forever, but there was one good thing:

i have never read so many books in one year where i had nothing to say other than "read this."

so, uh.

read this.

and that's all.

-------------
pre-review

oh, man.

review to come / 4.5 stars might raise to 5

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tbr review

too many books are sounding too good lately. it's a problem.

Lauren

Rating: really liked it
READ THESE!! topical, thought-provoking, lean, powerful prose. loved "boys go to jupiter," "richard of york gave battle in vain," and "the office of historical corrections" the most, but there truly wasn't a bad one.

Paromjit

Rating: really liked it
This is an outstanding multilayered short story collection from the award winning Danielle Evans, consisting of 6 short stories and one novella, beautifully written, often revisiting common themes and issues, but approached through a different lens. The fine tuned, astute, and diverse storytelling are reflective of contemporary American realities and national challenges, providing insights on issues such as race, injustice, violence, culture, history and who gets to tell it, grief, loss, identity, resilience, survival, gender roles, and what it is to be a woman, particularly a black woman. The characterisations are wonderfully riveting with narratives that so often move in surprisingly unexpected directions, giving us glimpses of lives, depicting the frailties and flaws of humanity, and specific circumstances and decisions which have the author providing a perceptive social commentary. My particular favourites were 'Anything Could Disappear', 'Boys Go to Jupiter, and the title story, 'The Office of Historical Corrections'. Wonderfully entertaining and engaging fiction, where every story is a gem, from a remarkably gifted author. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.

Barbara

Rating: really liked it
First I’d like to thank GR friend BookClubbed for your excellent review of the audio version of “The Office of Historical Corrections” by Danielle Evans. I would not have chosen this because I don’t follow short story novels, preferring fiction novels. This collection of short stories and a novella are astounding. Each leaves the reader/listener in ponderance mode.

In an interview with the NYTimes, she stated “This book is substantially about grief. I was writing it when my mother was sick……I was thinking about how you write about the absence of choice. It was probably related to both my sense of personal crisis and a sense of national crisis.”

That, in a nutshell, summarizes each story. Each story there is a crisis and an absence of choice. Grief does factor in all the stories. Now, it sounds morose, but it’s not. Author Danielle Evans is a skilled writer, and each sentence is beautiful. And she has an almost acerbic humor. For example, in her novella, a character Geni takes her job as an historical corrector seriously. She makes a little girl cry at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate by telling visitors about how ruthless he was with his slaves. Also, in the same novella, Cassie, the main character corrects a bakery about Juneteenth. A friend of Cassie’s said, “you corrected a cake????” Evans has particular fun in her short story about an artist who has been notoriously cruel to the women in his life, including his daughter. He wants to make a grand gesture of apologizing to all the women, and it doesn’t go well. Learning about all the obnoxious things he has said/written/done to women, is something that makes the reader/listener think/say “OMG! He didn’t….” and then chuckle out of horror.

This beauty of a short story collection is the winner of the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and made many notable books of the year lists. It’s a highly acclaimed collection and I am very happy to have read it. As I wrote before, it’s a collection that induces reflection and contemplation.

luce (currently recovering from a hiatus)

Rating: really liked it
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4 ½ stars

The Office of Historical Corrections is a striking collection of short stories, easily the best one to be published this year. Unlike many other collections—which tend to have a few forgettable or ‘weaker’ stories—The Office of Historical Corrections has only hits. There isn’t one story that bored me or wasn’t as good as the rest. This is truly a standout collection. If you happen to be a fan of authors such as Curtis Sittenfeld, Edwidge Danticat, and Brit Bennett you should definitely give The Office of Historical Corrections a shot.

This collection contains 6 short stories and 1 novella. Although each one of these has its own distinctive narrative, they do examine similar themes but they do so through different, and at times opposing, perspectives. With nuance and precision Evans navigates the realities of contemporary America, focusing in particular on the experiences of black people in a country that considers white to be the 'norm'.
There are so many things to love about this collection. Evans’ prose is superb. Her writing is incisive, evocative, and perfectly renders her characters and the diverse situations they are in without ever being overly descriptive or purply. While short stories and novellas are usually plot-driven, Evans’ narratives spouse a razor-sharp commentary—on race, modern culture, class—with compelling character-studies.

The scenarios and issues Evans explores are certainly topical. In ‘Boys Go to Jupiter’ a white college student, Claire, is labelled racist after her sort-of-boyfriend posts a photo of her wearing a Confederate bikini. Rather than apologising or even acknowledging what this flag truly symbolises Claire decides to make matters worse for herself by ridiculing a black student’s outrage at her bikini and by claiming that the flag is part of her heritage. As this controversy unfolds we learn of her childhood, of how she became close with two siblings who were for a time neighbours of hers, of her mother’s illness and eventual death, and of the part she played in her friend’s death. This story is very much about denial, culpability, and grief. It also brought to mind ‘White Women LOL’ by Sittenfeld and Rebecca Makkai's ‘Painted Ocean, Painted Ship’.
The titular novella instead follows two black women who have never been on easy terms. This is partly due to their different economic backgrounds and partly due to their different temperaments. Having lost touch after college they both end up working at the Institute for Public History where they are tasked with correcting historical inaccuracies/mistakes. Often their corrections raise awareness about America’s colonial and racist past in order to challenge white historical narratives. Given all discussions about decolonising the curriculum and about historical statues and monuments this novella definitely touches on some relevant topics. The revisions made by the Institute for Public History are often not well met and they are targeted by white ‘preservationists’. As our narrator unearths the true story behind a black shopkeeper’s death back in 1937 she unwillingly joins ‘forces’ with Genevieve, her longtime not-quite-friend. The two women have very different approaches and their search for the truth behind this man’s death soon sparks the anger of the white ‘preservationists’.
All of these stories are worth a read. My personal favourites where ‘Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain’, ‘Alcatraz’, ‘Why Won’t Women Just Say What They Want’ (which had some serious Kevin Wilson vibes), and ‘Anything Could Disappear’ (this almost had me in tears).

There are so many things to love about this collection: Evans’ focus on women and the thorny relationships they can have with one another, the wry humour that underlines these stories, Evans’ ability to capture diverse and nuanced emotions. The list goes on.

Evans’ stories are thought-provoking and populated by memorable and fully fleshed out characters. Although she exerts an admirable control over her language, her writing is arresting. Evans does not waste words and she truly packs a punch in this ‘infamous’ medium (short stories are often seen in terms of their limitations) .
Throughout this collection Evans’ touches themes of injustice, forgiveness, history (a character’s personal history as well as a nation’s history), freedom and identity, grief, loss, fear, failed relationships and human connection.
This is a fantastic collection and you should definitely give it a try.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

sarah

Rating: really liked it
The Office of Historical Corrections is a collection of 6 short stories and one novella all written by Danielle Evans. They similar cover themes of race, prejudice, womanhood, home and truth but in differing ways from story to story. As is always the case with short story collections, I found some to be stronger than others and just naturally connected with a few more than the rest. When a story was good- it was really good, but I also found a few to be lacking.

➽Happily Ever After
This was the first story in the collection, and while it was a solid opening, it didn't really wow me. It followed a woman who works at a titanic replica, and gets invited to participate in a music video shoot. It focuses on her relationship with men, and while some lines were thought provoking I was overall underwhelmed.

➽Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain
This short story was about a wedding that goes off the rails and the interconnecting lives of some of the attendees. I was pleasantly surprised by it, and found it to be engaging and exciting.

➽Boys Go To Jupiter
Boys Go To Jupiter was undoubtedly one of my favourites in this collection. We follow Claire, a white student who gets labelled racist after wearing a Confederate bikini, and digs herself deeper into the hole when she defends her actions. We learn about her background, and a story of grief and denial surfaces. I liked the ambiguity of the story, and how it didn't tell readers what to think. Whether or not you sympathise with Claire is left to you, but either way it was a thought provoking tale about culpability and ignorance.

➽Alcatraz
Alcatraz is one of the stories that has completely erased itself from my memory, which says a lot about my enjoyment of it. It was about a family whose patriarch was dishonourably discharged from the army. Some of his descendants are invited for a family reunion at Alcatraz, where he was imprisoned.

➽Why Won't Women Just Say What They Want?
I really enjoyed this one! It discusses apologies, a topic I had never really thought of that deeply before. It shows the unlikely bond fused between the exes of a famous artist who caused suffering to each of them.

➽Anything Could Disappear
My absolute favourite of the collection, Anything Could Disappear, kept me on the edge of my seat. It follows a young black woman who boards a bus couriering drugs and exits it becoming the mother of an abandoned baby boy. The ending was heartbreaking, and it was the one that made me most emotionally invested out of the whole collection.

➽The Office of Historical Corrections
This was the one novella included, and the title piece of the collection. In reading reviews, this seems to be a favourite for many- so I went in with high expectations. However, they weren't quite met and I was left feeling slightly disappointed. I really liked the premise, but the execution was a bit lacking. Let me be clear, I thought it was well written and had some interesting themes, but I just wasn't as connected to it as I had hoped. This is definitely an unpopular opinion, so I would not dissuade you from picking it up, but perhaps temper your expectations first.

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection. If you have access to the audiobook, I would recommend it as it is narrated by a different person for each story. If I could only recommend three I would be 'Anything Could Disappear', 'Boys go to Jupiter' and 'Why Won't Women Just Say What They Want'.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Libro.fm for this ALC

Release Date: 10 November 2020

Elyse Walters

Rating: really liked it
These stunning short stories explores unwavering strength, and power.
Themes include relationship issues, identity, girlhood, sex, jealousy, grief, violence, and love...
while exploring racial, cultural, political and personal complexities.

...Haunting, humorous dialogue...
...elegiac storytelling.... reflecting often on our unfulfilling lives...
the unconscious things we do each day...
To me these stories reveal how often it’s feelings that make our lives, rather than intent.
The art of feeling good is not exactly something most of us are highly accomplished
at...
so when life feels insignificant, and meaningless—we make choices out of loneliness and desperation.
Sad themes are stuffed into a humorous envelope.

Wonderful snapshots of slices of live.
Not one bad story: each one looks at the pursuit of equality between men and women.
Characters are textured with struggles, and understandings.
Sometimes homesick, other times a desire to run....
....a little like life: sometimes wanting freedom- but other times just the pure comfort of security.

I had a special heart for the short story “Alcatraz”... (Setting in Oakland, San Francisco, and other east bay town)....
and loved that many of these stories were in California.

Scintillating....entertaining stories...
Beautifully executed.

Danielle Evans is a talented award winning author.
This was my first time reading her work.
Very impressed!

Thomas

Rating: really liked it
I wanted to enjoy this one so much more especially because I liked Danielle Evans’ first short story collection so much! The Office of Historical Corrections contains so many stories with intriguing premises: a famous male artist who makes a performance out of apologizing to all the women he’s harmed, a white woman who wears a Confederate bikini and receives backlash once photos of her get posted online, and a Black scholar who uncovers complicated truths about an old friend while working at a federal agency committed to correcting historical inaccuracies. However, I struggled to really feel much when reading these stories, beyond a general appreciation of Evans’ writing style and ideas.

I think my lack of enjoyment of this collection stems from feeling disconnected from the characters. While reading these stories, I felt that I experienced these characters’ emotions and thoughts from a careful distance. For example, quite a few characters lose loved ones throughout the collection – it seems that Evans likes using unexpected death as a plot device – yet oddly enough the characters’ grief felt muted to me, or just written in a way that didn’t resonate. Further, many of these stories, if not all of them, revolve around race, with “Boys Go to Jupiter” and “The Office of Historical Corrections” addressing race and racism in particularly striking ways. Yet I felt removed from the characters in these stories. When reading “Boys Go to Jupiter,” I was like, okay I understand this story shows how this white woman can both have suffered loss in her life and still be complicit in horrifying racism, and that doesn’t feel that compelling to me? And while I think I recognize the emotions “The Office of Historical Corrections” may have been supposed to elicit within me, the nonlinear/erratic formation of its plot threw me off from immersing myself in the main character’s journey.

Overall, if you are a fan of short stories that touch on issues related to relationships and race, I’d tentatively recommend this book or at least the first few stories, though I wouldn’t immediately highly recommend The Office of Historical Corrections. I definitely want to read more short story collections from authors of color!

Brittany

Rating: really liked it
These were novellas that truly did so much in such little time. I feel like most of the time novellas end up being too short for the amount of story they’re trying to tell, but I truly feel like each novella left me pondering the story as it finished- not in the way that I felt confused or unsatisfied, but in a shocked & rethinking so much kind of way. The only thing that knocked a star off is that there were a 2 or 3 stories where I felt like I wanted just a few more answers than the open ended feeling left, but that’s more of a personal preference

Book Clubbed

Rating: really liked it
Evans is a master of her craft. The voices she inhabits in each story are so good, so natural, that they are both conversational and insightful. She almost makes you forget how hard writing short stories are. In this collection, the stories tend to be long-form, and Evans lets them breathe, often exploring flashbacks or backstories in conjunction with the present, although she never lets the pace flag.

Her details never error and her intuitive understanding of each emotional maneuvering are downright jealousy-inducing.

These stories are damn funny as well. I wasn't laughing out loud, as the humor cut right to the quick, but the sharp jokes come in combinations of jabs, uppercuts, and knockouts. Like any detail in her stories, the jokes are characterizing, a ratcheting of tension or a temporary release valve. I also appreciate her willingness to write about sex in a forthright and realistic manner.

She tackles racism with aplomb, from the mundane to the oppressive, and how those two often masquerade as each other.

I love how she challenges our instincts to fill in the blanks with "Anything Could Disappear." I love how she plays with form in "Why Won't Women Just Say What They Want" and animates archetypes, rearranging a story we thought we had heard every version of. I love the ending novella as well and how it remixes the genre of mystery, historical fiction, and a-stranger-comes-to-town tropes into a pulse-pounding tale of lineage and loyalty.

At a certain point, Evans is just flexing on us, windmill dunking in a playoff game and hanging on the rim. I'm just glad I got to be in the stands and witness her performance.


Join the Book Clubbed step-family and listen here.

Emily B

Rating: really liked it
These are my kind of short stories. Honestly, I cant say why specifically but if you're thinking of reading them then I suggest you do it :)

Also I felt like the novella The Office of Historical Corrections had a Temporary vibe about it at times, but with a more serious message.

Traci Thomas

Rating: really liked it
A stellar collection. So much empathy. Some really unlikeable and yet deeply realistic and complex humans in these stories. Also, plot. Thank goodness.