End Times: Stories by Michelle Syba

End Times is an impressive and emotionally charged collection of short stories, with an enchanting cast of characters that struggle with meaning, God, and feeling like the end may be near. Within we discover a divide between the believers and non-believers of an evangelical Jesus and truly thinking about the emptiness of life. The stories paint a real picture of the meaning of faith, how people come to it, and how hard it is to ever really get away from it, even if you want to. This collection allows you to glimpse into understanding how it feels to be a true believer and gain a greater understanding of how things happen, and how faith gets and keeps its grasp on those it has.

“Seven stories make up End Times, and all offer some kind of view of what it is like to have faith or not to have faith, having lost it, or left it behind.”

Seven stories make up End Times, and all offer some kind of view of what it is like to have faith or not to have faith, having lost it, or left it behind. The stories are sharp, beautifully written and demand to be read carefully. Syba is a sharp observer of modern life, and her observations are brilliant, sometimes even funny. “He liked his customized life, the bespoke sneaker and the grand cu coffee pods, the weekly meal kit with an elongated baggie holding a single green onion to garnish the evening’s updated bún bó hué, ready in under thirty minutes.”

In the first story, End Times, we see the divide between an immigrant mother and her now adult children, who have become non-believers and struggle with their own lives. Syba does an excellent job at pointing out how people come to religion, the loneliness and despair that might lead them there, to community, to acceptance. Many of her characters are immigrants to North America, leaving behind one way of life and searching for another. She points out with clear intention the differences between the one who immigrated here and the children that come after, the disconnect of one never really understanding the other. Another memorable story is Matsutake, where a couple who have lost a child, and a couple who could never have children meet in an RV park. One couple has faith, and one doesn’t. Who’s in the right? Does anyone have to be right? A recurrent theme in this collection comes from the idea of having children, not having children and the regrets and longings that emerge from that large decision or non-decision.

Syba challenges our own beliefs and shows us the ways that people find religion, the difficulties of modern society, and what connects and divides. She captures the unknowing and blind trust of faith when you need something to fill you. She touches on queerness, childlessness, how people become a certain way, and even the storming of Parliament Hill due to Covid restrictions. Her characters and observations are sharp and timely, leaving you with space to ruminate. We are left pondering what is community and how it works for us and in the absence of faith, can we find it? A stunning and moving collection.

Michelle Syba was born in Toronto and grew up Pentecostal. In university, she left the faith and became a zealot for literature, completing a Ph.D. in English at Harvard. Her work has been published in The New Quarterly, Image, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. She lives in Montreal.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Freehand Books (May 1 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1990601286
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1990601286