Book Previews

What’s a Duck Got to Do With It?

a wood duck on the water
July 29, 2019 by Liza Achilles 4 Comments

I’m not going to tell you what a duck has to do with it.

Obviously, you’ll enjoy the first story in the collection better if you discover the answer for yourself. The title of the short story collection Your Duck Is My Duck, by Deborah Eisenberg, is also the title of the first story in the collection.

While the story has little to do with ducks, there is the obligatory mention of a duck. However, being the good spoiler dodger that I am, I will say no more about this.

I will say that the six stories in the collection hang together very well. Each of them is quite different; Eisenberg’s range of rounded and believable characters is impressive. And yet, despite their differences, a careful reader can draw parallels.

Here’s the main commonality I noticed: each of the stories contains at least one innocent or altruistic person, who encounters at least one predatory or selfish person. . . . What could possibly go wrong?

I would also like to note that the language of these stories was so beautiful that I could not bear to write in the margins, as I often do. This book was far too gorgeous to deface.

Now, isn’t that ducky?