All’s Fair and Other California Stories

Feyder does a wonderful job of stirring up emotions and making you feel for her characters in her short story collection, All’s Fair and Other California Stories. But “Left Behind” would be a better name for these stories, since the title work and the first half of the collection end abruptly with no resolution of plot, character, or emotion. Feyder brings a clear eye to her settings with refreshing metaphors, but buries them under such verbose language that it doesn’t give the imagery space to breathe. Feyder’s collection is filled with people living between moments, who are caught in the pauses of real life. It’s a collection of waiting, but I’m still waiting to understand the point. I’m also missing why these are “California” stories. Aside from mentioning a few towns or pivotal moments in California history, you could pick up and place these stories outside of California with no significant change. Feyder’s got some nice language and interesting characters, but she needed a developmental edit to help her streamline what she’s trying to say and remove the clutter.