6. "Silver Water"

I have one word for this story, and that word is strong. This was a strong short story. It was strong in that it had intense imagery that captured my attention from the very first line. It was strong in that its characters displayed incredible perseverance, each in their own, unique way. It was strong in that it stayed beautifully articulate from start to finish. It was strong in that it stuck with me and nearly brought tears to my eyes at one point.

I believe that one of the most important things that short story writers can think about is making their pieces strong like "Silver Water." In short stories, a writer has a limited amount of time to really sell what he or she has to the reader. I kind of see short stories as "make it or break it" moments--all you have are a few pages to give the reader something memorable. "Silver Water" was so memorable in the way that it really gripped my emotions.

First, I was so struck by the image of Rose's singing voice, like silver water. Then, I became sad as we watched Rose's mental health break down through the eyes of her sister Violet. I found a couple of humorous moments in the family's visits to psychiatrists. Finally, my heart was broken by the difficulties that the family faced because of Rose's return home from the halfway house. I found that I was not extremely saddened when Rose died. Since Violet was speaking in past tense from the beginning of the story, I was kind of waiting for it to happen. I found the ending to be more poignant than sad, and overall I thought that it was really the only way that the story could have ended.

Overall, "Silver Water" was fascinating to me because of the style of writing and because of the way it appealed to my emotions. I feel satisfied by this story--even though it was fewer than ten pages long, it made its way gracefully from a strong start to a strong finish. That's how I believe any solid short story should be.