AN ALL-ENCOMPASSING TAKE ON LOVE, Claire Wilkshire’s The Love Olympics, begins with a short story about a mother preparing to send their child off to university, a well-known feeling that tugs the heartstrings of mothers around the globe. Wilkshire’s collection continues, and with each short story, readers find connections, clues, and ultimate realities that some are unwilling to face. Wilkshire’s approaches each short story with authentic experiences that encourage readers not to put the book down.
Although The Love Olympics is a collection of short stories, there is an appreciation towards the connections between each level, some larger than others. It is these crossovers that allow the reader to interpret and understand the different perspectives that Wilkshire provides. On theme, it coincides with the ideologies around each love story having more than one point of view. We can understand different types of love, love languages, everlasting love, and temporary love throughout the stories. It’s refreshing to read stories that revolve around a theme, without constantly referring to romantic relationships, but the care, respect, and messiness when humans connect to or with other humans. This take allows readers to find themselves in certain characters because there is truth in each story.
While the writing and development of each story are strong, readers who enjoy connecting with characters throughout a short story will find it difficult. Specific stories in the collection don’t dive as deep into the focused character as others, leaving the reader wanting to know more or perhaps missing a later connection is another story. The older characters in the short stories were much more developed than the younger characters; however, this choice could be intentional for the author to emphasize certain relationships, lenses or points of view to develop the collection’s theme as a whole.
Wilkshire’s collection was unique; the connections throughout the stories create loops, thicker storylines, and build off of each other, which then encompasses the overall theme. I recommend this book for readers looking for something that follows a story within a story where the intertangles leave them making connections and finding themselves within the pages.
8/10
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