(Reviewed by JD Jung)
The title, The Sadness of Beautiful Things, provides an accurate description as well as the essence of the stories in this short book. These eight tales take a somber look at life and memories and reveal the thin line between love and grief. They also show how love takes different forms, often in misguided ways.
The author notes that though these are works of fiction, many are based on accounts of what people have told him. One quiet, eccentric neighbor in Kentucky related the tragic story of the time that he prepared his family for the end of the world after hearing the warnings from a radio preacher. “He felt anger then. How people could mistake conviction for truth.”
A hitchhiker fondly remembers the female driver who picked him up north of Birmingham, England. “The first of many times he would look for someone and not see them. Search for someone whose absence defined him.”
An Irish woman finds out late in life that she was adopted. She learns the pain of what her birth mother went through, but also feels an intensified love and appreciation for her now deceased adoptive parents. “…Kitty felt it was too late, just too late for anything to be changed—except of course in her heart….She felt open now, to the world, to the people suffering…”
Some are heart wrenching, while providing hope and a light at the end of the tunnel. Some are not quite as intense but still fulfilling, like the New York fighter who offered a teenage thief another chance.
As you can see from the examples, the stories are quite diverse not only in theme but also in location, from the United States to Britain, to Ireland to South Korea.
Though the stories are different, what is consistent is the author’s passion in the writing and his observation of daily life and the people who are part of it.
Though this is neither uplifting nor depressing as a whole, The Sadness of Beautiful Things is full of emotion and will make you look at life a little differently.
