THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS: BOOK REVIEW
When things happen, they don’t just happen. People make decisions based on the life they’ve lived up until that moment, and those choices lead to more choices and the cycle continues. We are a product of our choices, but even more importantly our choices are a product of our environment, which is a product of the choices made by people before us. Here in the U.S. this fact is abundantly clear, and we stand at a crossroads. We can continue to allow the choices made throughout history to affect us, or we can end the cycle. We can become aware of the ways in which we move through the world, interact with others, and shape the structure of society for generations to come.
Danielle Evans gives us the opportunity to immerse ourselves as readers in different collections of choices, environments, and characters who are simply doing their best with what they’ve been given. These are characters who are dealing with racism and forms of socioeconomic inequality head on, their own personal histories intertwining with the greater social context to create compelling narratives. They make good choices, bad choices, and questionable choices and as a reader I found myself able to empathize with all of them in some way.
The novella in this collection of short stories shares the collection’s title and forces the reader to confront issues of truth, fact, and who gets to decide the way history is told. Cassie and Genevieve are two black women who work for the Office of Historical Corrections and, as the name of their employer would suggest, their job is to correct any historical inaccuracies they may find. The two women are friends before their employment, but as it becomes clear that their approaches to the job are drastically different, they drift apart. The Office forces them together long after Genevieve leaves her post, and the two women are reunited when Cassie is sent to rectify one of Genevieve's over-zealous corrections. The two women were ultimately both doing what they thought was right in an attempt to exercise power that history has long denied them. Evans successfully elicited my empathy for both character’s motives, drawing parallels between intent while also clearly showing where consequences did not always line up. The novella was the most compelling story and one of my favorites out of the bunch.
It’s a good thing Evans didn’t start with the novella, because some of the other short stories couldn’t compete. While I found “Boys Go to Jupiter” and “Anything Could Disappear” to be richly complex and a witty commentary on the current moment, “Alcatraz” and “Why Won't Women Just Say What They Want,” were two of my least favorites. This was not due to any fault in Danielle Evans’ writing, as I am sure every reader would have favorites and least favorites. Each story has a distinct narrative voice that delivers the common themes slightly different each time. Evans really takes advantage of the short story collection here, and there should be something for everyone.
In “Boys Go to Jupiter” we see how a character’s personal history can influence the choices we make when a young woman named Claire poses for a picture in a confederate flag bikini and struggles to respond to the negative attention she gets online and on her college campus. What starts small snowballs into a much greater conflict of ideals as a result of the choices Claire makes. In “Anything Could Disappear” a young woman is on the road to a new life when she unexpectedly gains a travel companion. The young toddler helps to shape the life she makes for herself, but she must ultimately make a choice that could undo the life she’s built. These were the two standout stories for me, but different characters may speak to different people, pulling you into their story.