“Revealing the Tenacity of the Human Spirit” A review of Sherrie Flick’s Thank Your Lucky Stars

Such a beautiful review of Sherrie Flick’s short story collection, Thank Your Lucky Stars! Alexa Dodd totally captures the strength and momentum of the work. Below we’ve included a brief excerpt of the review, but we hope you’ll read the full piece at the Atticus Review.

The apropos title of Sherrie Flick’s second short story collection comes from the last line of the first story. In “How I Left Ned,” a woman decides to leave her husband after she stumbles across two thieves’ farm stand, where they’re selling “hot” corn. As she rides off with these two strangers, she doesn’t look back. The encounter has revealed to her just how unhappy her marriage is, has made her realize her need to escape. Thus, her decision to gang up with criminals is as unavoidable as it is unexpected. The closing sentence, “I thanked my lucky stars,” propels us into the subsequent stories, even as we reflect on the absurd, yet profound trajectory that we’ve just read.