The Office of Historical Corrections – Danielle Evans
Expectation: A collection of stories exploring different facets of American history that were misrepresented.
Reality: A top-to-bottom solid collection that takes you on several intriguing and understated journeys that force the reader to question “what would you do?”
My Take:
Rarely do I provide an urgent plea to others to stop what they are doing and read a book immediately, but I’m going to do that here. Danielle Evans’ “The Office of Historical Corrections” is a phenomenal collection of stories — each one layered and nuanced — that speaks to the strangeness of the world since 2016.
We all know what happened that year in American politics, but it’s also watershed events of the subsequent years, like #MeToo, COVID-19, Charlottesville, the insurrection, George Floyd’s murder and the repeal of Roe vs. Wade, that have created both a tsunami of awareness and positive changes while also alienating huge swaths of the population.
This strange dichotomy — this rejection of progress for Blacks, women, LGBTQIA+ and other minorities while espousing small government and individualism — is the America that Evans explores through six stories and a novella.
Each one is urgent, relevant cultural commentary that never feels preachy or overwrought, which is no small feat considering she tackles racism, sexism, health inequities, reparations, attention economy and domestic terrorism, among other topics.
Unlike other short story collections, no two stories felt the same. Evans played with genres, offering the reader everything from a quasi-buddy comedy to speculative fiction and a revenge fantasy. Her throughline was with structure, macro ideas explored at a micro, character-driven level, that makes the reader ask themselves “what would you do?”
Every story here has its merits, but the standouts were:
“Boys Go to Jupiter” — on the surface it’s about a white student at a small liberal arts college facing backlash for wearing a Confederate flag bikini, but in reality it’s an exploration of cancel culture, trauma and guilt.
“Why Won’t Women Just Say What They Want” — is a #MeToo comeuppance story like nothing you’ve read before.
“The Office of Historical Corrections” — a novella that accounts for nearly 40 percent of the collection, it follows Cassie, an agent at a government agency responsible for correcting historical falsehoods who finds herself investigating a decades old small town mystery that has shades of Clayton Bigsby.
For the most part Evans keeps the narratives tight, but each story had a tendency to run a little long. Only one chapter — “Alcatraz” — didn’t really work for me, but that’s like earning a silver medal at the Olympics. From top-to-bottom, this is the best short story collection I’ve read since Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies.”
Each story was narrated by a different performer, and it was a who's who of audiobook all-stars: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Nicole Lewis, Brittany Pressley, Shayna Small, January LaVoy, Adenrele Ojo and Janina Edwards. While the novel itself is rather slim, I’d highly encourage you to treat yourself with a listen.
Rating (story): 5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: February 15 – February 19, 2023
Multi-tasking: Okay. Each of the stories is character-driven, and you definitely want to hear the nuance of Evans' sentences.
