You Think That's BadStories

One of the rare books that truly transfigures human suffering
When the bereaved mother of one of Jim Shepard’s characters refers to their household as “our miserable little kingdom,” it’s a description that could easily apply to any number of his stories. As its title portends, You Think That’s Bad is a book that traffics mostly in misery: circumstantial, existential, domestic, political, and, often, all of the above. The worlds Shepard portrays – ranging from 15th-century France to the Netherlands in the not-so-distant future – are flooding, freezing and falling apart. Death is omnipresent, and many of Shepard’s characters are directly engaged with its deferral or its delivery. And yet, and yet! This is one of those rare books that truly manages to transfigure human suffering. That’s not to say that it doesn’t border on the relentless at times, and in the hands of a less masterful writer, the book would undoubtedly collapse under its own weighty themes. Luckily, Shepard is more than up to the task, rendering heartbreak and grief with clear-sighted compassion, and the results are incredibly moving.

Though staying as unobtrusive as possible is the best many audiobook narrators can often do, Bronson Pinchot’s narration perfectly complements Shepard’s stories. It’s clear that he didn’t merely show up in the studio, but rather considered the tone of each story and shifted his own accordingly. This one might be even better in audiobook form.