Book Review: Brawler — Stories by Lauren Groff (*****)
Reading ‘Brawler’, I kept pausing every few pages, sometimes even mid-page and even mid-sentence. Certain sentences stayed with me longer than expected. There’s a density to her writing — not in a heavy or difficult way, but in the sense that a lot is happening in a very small space.
Lauren Groff writes nature in a way that feels fully present. The foliage, the fields, the light, the heat — none of it feels like background detail. At times it stands on its own, and at other times it seems to move alongside the character’s inner world. I noticed how often the environment carried the emotional weight of a scene without needing to spell anything out.
She is also very precise when it comes to the human mind and heart. There’s no over-explaining. Emotions appear as they are — messy, unresolved, sometimes contradictory. Many of the stories seem to hinge on a single moment where an ordinary person has to make a decision, often without a clear or satisfying resolution. Through it all, subtle tension simmers underneath and holds the stories together while driving them forward.
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Something I kept coming back to is how her characters are neither entirely likeable nor unlikeable. Human beings are flawed — that’s a given, but they also have bits and pieces in them that are soft and sweet and bright and always vulnerable to varying degrees — that is the dichotomy that runs through the entire collection. It doesn’t feel exaggerated, but it does feels familiar — and very, very human.
From what I’ve seen in other readers’ responses, this seems to be a common reaction to Groff’s work in general. People often talk about how striking her sentences are, how she can describe a place or a feeling in a way that feels almost physical. At the same time, some readers find her characters difficult to connect with, or feel that the stories can be emotionally distant. I can see both sides. For me, the writing itself carries so much weight that I didn’t always need a strong sense of attachment to the characters.
My favourites were Birdie, Under the Wave, and Such Small Islands. They were striking in terms of story as well as storytelling. The one that didn’t work as well for me was What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?, which is also the longest in the book. It felt slower and heavier, and I found myself less engaged with it, compared to the others.
I haven’t yet read Groff’s two other collections — Delicate Edible Birds and Florida, but after this, I really really want to.
Overall, I do think Lauren Groff is one of the finest short story writers working right now. For me, she sits comfortably alongside Karen Russell and Anthony Doerr — both writers who hold a special place in my reading heart — who can take something quite contained and give it a sense of scale without losing focus.
I’d definitely recommend this collection.
