Jan 24

Jan 24 The Office of Historical Corrections

Author: Danielle Evans
Publisher: Riverhead
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

The award-winning author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self brings her signature voice and insight to the subjects of race, grief, apology, and American history.

Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and x-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief — all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history — about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight.

In “Boys Go to Jupiter,” a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederate-flag bikini goes viral. In “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain,” a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend's unexpectedly dramatic wedding. And in the eye-opening title novella, a black scholar from Washington, DC, is drawn into a complex historical mystery that spans generations and puts her job, her love life, and her oldest friendship at risk.

TL;DR Review

The Office of Historical Corrections is a collection of absolutely masterful stories that buzz with life and echo with resonance.

For you if: You like really really great literary short stories. (Or you think short stories “aren’t for you.”)

Full Review

“But what did it matter what she deserved, faced with the hilarity of one more person telling her glibly that better was out there when she was begging for mediocrity and couldn’t have that?”

Wow. Wowowow. The Office of Historical Corrections deserves all the hype it’s gotten — it’s an absolute standout short story collection. In fact, during a recent book club meeting, we contemplated which of the stories we’d most like to see developed in a novel. My answer was that Danielle Evans is so good at this form, and these stories and novella are so perfectly paced and crafted, that I wouldn’t choose any. This is how these stories belong.

I listened to this collection on audiobook, which was a really great way to experience them. The voice actors did a great job, and these stories are electric enough to feel super self-contained and immersive. They deal with tough subjects that are hard to look at and away from, but through the lens of beautiful, complete characters who could feel like they could literally walk off the page.

The titular novella, in particular, is excellent. I find myself still thinking about it. So, too, with several others (really, all of them), but especially “Why won’t women just say what they want?” and “Boys Go to Jupiter.”

If you think that short story collections “aren’t for you,” I challenge you to try this one. And if you already know you love short stories, this one is definitely not to be missed.