"In each of the stories in Robert Oldshue's debut collection, the characters want to be decent but find that hard to define," says the Iowa University Press of November Storm, winner of the 2016 Iowa Short Fiction award. And this is a good assessment of what connects each of these stories; what makes them almost feel, together, like a novel. At the same time, each of them is also very different, bringing forth as many aspects of this idea of decency as possible. This is the first thing that makes this book commendable.

However, more important than content and theme is Oldshue's ability to master the short story form, which can be difficult to accomplish. On the one hand, Oldshue's style rambles along, going off on what seem like tangents and getting overly involved in back stories. However, even with these digressions, he beautifully succeeds in bringing the stories back together to get to his main point. Mind you, his final lines often feel a tad on the mysterious side but, with just a moment's thought, the reader gets his point. That is the most magical part of these stories - those last lines. (Okay, I know, some people will think that's cliché, but seriously, if you think about it, when done just right, that punch at the end can be amazing.) ... continued