In her vigorous and moving new book, Lauren Groff brings
her electric storytelling and intelligence to a world in
which storms, snakes, and sinkholes lurk at the edge of
everyday life, but the greater threats and mysteries are
of a human, emotional, and psychological nature. Among
those navigating it all are a resourceful pair of
abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless,
childless couple, a searching, homeless woman; and an
unforgettable, recurring character - a steely and
conflicted wife and mother.
The stories in this collection span characters, towns,
decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape,
climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its
gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a
place of residence. Groff transports the reader, then
jolts us alert with a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a
flash of cruelty, as she writes about loneliness, rage,
family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy
and effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and
connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and
despair, love and fury—the moments that make us alive.
Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a
magnificent achievement.
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