You Can’t Get There From Here by Megan Gordon is a collection of short stories and essays that speak to the many hardships we go through in life and love. From affairs to finding yourself, the author brings you into the mind of individuals going through some of the hardest chapters in their life. I personally had to re-read some of the short stories as I really wanted to grasp the symbolism used by the author, as well as understand the mindsets of the varying characters better. There were moments when reading these short stories where my heart just pulled and my eyes welled. Even reading through the stories a second time, I found myself enjoying them more than the first time I read them.
There were many different things I enjoyed when reading this book. The author does a wonderful job tying in the senses to different emotions and settings. They use the sense of smell wonderfully to describe the stages of a relationship. These smells were described so well as if I could smell what the author was explaining through the pages. I also liked how the author explained the experiences of women in a creative but unapologetically honest way. There were moments where I thought, “I am so glad I’m not the only one who feels this way”. The author did a great job walking through some of the harder aspects of being a woman. Another great aspect of these stories is that each story put me in a different mind space and each mind was so different from the next. I felt like I was there with the characters, going through what they were going through. It was so honest and painful but beautiful at the same time; as if I was reading their journal and seeing into how they really were feeling. Some scenarios were hard to read because it hit so close to home, but I enjoyed the fact that I could heal and reflect along with these stories.
I can’t say there was much I disliked about the novel. There were some passages I couldn’t relate to but that’s to be expected as the stories, while similar in theme, were very different. But in that sense, that’s what makes this a great read for anyone. I recommend this to any reader who wants to dive deeper into human emotions and relationships, and all the good and bad that can happen within them. I think there is at least one story or one part of a story that any reader can relate to. These stories are honest, heartbreaking and looks at the human experience without any of the frills, butterflies and rainbows. You Can’t Get There From Here is definitely a must read!
