Last Day on Earth - Eric Puchner

 

Last Day on Earth, published in 2017, is a nine-story collection from Eric Puchner that focuses on family relationships and difficult coming-of-age situations. None of the characters in the nine stories can be said to be having an easy time negotiating their way through the lives they are living. But even with all of that in common, the nine stories are very different from each other in style - one of them even being outright science fiction. 

The stories are largely of two distinct types. They either feature a boy struggling at a key juncture in his coming-of-age experience, or they feature characters in middle age who are disappointed by the lives they find themselves living. As I look back on the collection, four of the stories particularly jump out to me:

"Mothership" is a story about an unstable woman who is taken into her older sister's home after being released from a psychological care facility. The lack of control exhibited by the younger sister and how her behavior impacts her sister's whole family is fascinating to watch.

"Independence" explores the deep friendship that has developed between three book nerds who work in a small indie bookshop together. The story explores the fragility of a relationship comprised of two men and one woman and how easily the relationship can be destroyed.

"Expression" is the story of two unpopular teens who find themselves at the same arts seminar one summer. The two boys share a dorm room even though one of the two actually lives within walking distance of the campus. It's a story about the exploitation of another family's secrets for personal gain.

"Last Day on Earth" explores the relationship between a fifteen-year-old boy and his single-parent mother whose ex-husband left her burdened with the care of his two hunting dogs when he left. She is in the process of carrying the two elder dogs to a shelter that will only try to place them for seventy-two hours before euthanizing them. Her son is desperate to save them.

At first glance, I thought that the stories in Last Day on Earth would be a good bit over the top in their exploration of the relationships between family members and close friends. Turns out that I was wrong about that; these stories all have something important to say, and Puchner says it well.

Eric Pucher author photo