Book Review: You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

Title: You Know When the Men Are Gone
Author: Siobhan Fallon
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Publication Date: January 20, 2011
Hardcover: 240 pages
ISBN: 978-0399157202
Genre: Literary Fiction, Short Stories

From the Publisher:

In Fort Hood housing, like all army housing, you get used to hearing through the walls… You learn too much. And you learn to move quietly through your own small domain. You also know when the men are gone. No more boots stomping above, no more football games turned up too high, and, best of all, no more front doors slamming before dawn as they trudge out for their early formation, sneakers on metal stairs, cars starting, shouts to the windows above to throw them down their gloves on cold desert mornings. Babies still cry, telephones ring, Saturday morning cartoons screech, but without the men, there is a sense of muted silence, a sense of muted life.

There is an army of women waiting for their men to return in Fort Hood, Texas. Through a series of loosely interconnected stories, Siobhan Fallon takes readers onto the base, inside the homes, into the marriages and families-intimate places not seen in newspaper articles or politicians’ speeches.

When you leave Fort Hood, the sign above the gate warns, You’ve Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming. It is eerily prescient.

My Review:

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon is one of the best collections of short stories I have read in the past decade, which makes my job of writing a review all the more daunting. How can I convey in a few words the true beauty of these eight fictionalised accounts of those who are either waiting for their loved one to return from duty or are in battle? We see Moge and the metamorphosis he makes through the story and of Marissa, waiting for him back home. Let me begin with the easy part of the review, what would I have liked to see done differently. Nothing. At first I thought I would have preferred the book to be about three times longer and the stories to be non-fiction, however that would distract from Fallon’s message (okay, I would have liked the book to have been longer, it is that good). You Know When the Men Are Gone comprises a series of eight short fiction stories rather than non-fiction accounts probably because it allowed Fallon more creative license to share a wider range of emotions as well as only needing eight scenarios to encompass a wide range of experiences and viewpoints faced by those left behind to continue with the every day things alone, missing their loved one, waiting to be reunited and always wondering. I truly enjoyed the disconnect between the stories as it portrays the disconnect from life each faces as they are relocated, deployed, return and deployed again. I am not from a military family and Fallon truly helped me to see military life from an entirely new perspective and I have an even higher regard for those left behind. I had never thought how difficult it would be to see a family out while a key member is missing or to come back and to experience sensory overload in a grocery store. You Know When the Men Are Gone is an absolutely brilliant collection of short stories and one I highly recommend to all readers and discussion groups.

About the Author:

Siobhan Fallon lived at Fort Hood while her husband, an Army major, was deployed to Iraq for two tours of duty. She earned her MFA at the New School in New York City. She lives with her family near the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA.

I received a complimentary ARC of You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon from Putnam to review. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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