Reviewed by Kate

Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye. The mind of a woman who has just finished talking to her daughter is the setting for this stream-of-consciousness story. The author leads us skillfully through the alternating denial, anger, sadness, painful memories and soul-searching that one phone call can provoke.

There is a lovely voice speaking here, it is an emotional time for the narrator, and yet flashes of wry humor also surface. Especially when the woman is imagining telling her other children, at supper, that before they were born she gave up a daughter for adoption. Claire manages to convey very accurately the way that this revelation causes the narrator to rethink her whole life, because everything has changed in the course of a few minutes. The process of trying to put things into a new frame makes for an engrossing narrative.

Perhaps the slight use of coarse language in the first paragraph is the only jarring note? Better maybe to establish the situation and character before using words which, although strong in speech, are a bit weak in print.

I enjoyed the fact that this story was honest rather than sentimental, and for a look at a mind in flux this is a very well-realized story.