To really know someone it is best to avoid looking at the extraordinary events in their life, instead examining the small, quiet days in between. Ellen Slezak understands this, and these are the moments she presents her readers in LAST YEAR'S JESUS.

In this collection of one novella and nine short stories, Slezak captures the loneliness and frustration as well as the hope and pride of people who are busy surviving and often not doing much else. Her characters all come from working class Polish Catholic Detroit, and their values are rooted in this identity. Faced with death, fear, and sadness and often feeling vulnerable, Slezak's creations usually find hope in the simplest gestures, in the most unexpected relationships. In short, these stories are beautiful and emotional studies in realism.

The title story sets the tone for the rest. In it, Theresa, a young woman lacking experience and confidence, joins a passion play as it walks the Stations of the Cross at Easter. In this emotional and religious moment she begins a flirtation with the man who played Jesus in last year's play. Her imagination takes her only so far, as the reality of life with her grandmother grounds her. In the end, she finds herself standing alone, the exciting moment passed, as last year's Jesus pays attention to this year's Veronica.

Other stories in the collection are equally as melancholy, ironic and easily related to: a young, pregnant woman bonds with her senile grandfather while tending a tomato patch; a lonely man finds himself the caretaker of the elderly man across the street; a young woman reaches out to a widow and her daughter; a boy literally comes in from the cold to build a friendship with an older woman on his block. Themes of intergenerational bonds, neighborliness, unexpected friendship, and subtle kindness permeate Slezak's stories. Each story finds the characters reaching out or being reached out to just at the moment that care and acknowledgment is most needed. Sometimes this moment is brief, easily missed, but it always relieves a tension or begins to heal a lonely or broken heart.

Sweet, sad and deceptively simple, LAST YEAR'S JESUS is short story writing at its best. It is not without a touch of humor, but it is ironic humor and always bittersweet. The drama of injustice, both personal and societal, is constrained in these pages, surfacing in brief bursts of emotion and energy. Despite its often slow pace, this is a well-written and touching yet brutally honest collection. Slezak's affection for her characters and their culture is obvious and it is refreshing.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

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