Learning the Art of Forgiveness in Chris Benjamin’s short story collection

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π‘©π’π’π’Œ π’“π’†π’—π’Šπ’†π’˜ 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒅 π’ƒπ’š π‘Ύπ’“π’Šπ’•π’† π‘΅π’π’˜! π’˜π’Šπ’•π’‰ 𝑱𝒐𝒏 π‘»π’‚π’•π’•π’“π’Šπ’†, π’šπ’π’–π’“ 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒐 π’‘π’–π’ƒπ’π’Šπ’„π’‚π’•π’Šπ’π’ π’Šπ’ π‘¨π’•π’π’‚π’π’•π’Šπ’„ π‘ͺ𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒅𝒂

π“π‘πž 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 π…π¨π«π π’π―πžπ§πžπ¬π¬ 𝐛𝐲 𝐂𝐑𝐫𝐒𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐚𝐦𝐒𝐧

Book launches are holy experiences that always leave me pumped up with secular joy. That was the case last week, when I attended Sue Murtagh’s launch for We’re Not Rich. Some 200 people beamed love and pride at Murtagh for an hour. It was like a wedding, or all of her birthdays rolled into one big celebration.Β 

I had a similarly uplifting experience a few weeks ago when I got to host the launch for Chris Benjamin’s new short story collection, The Art of Forgiveness. I’ve known this book since it was an idea in Chris’s head, then a novel, and now these perfectly shaped slices of life. Where Murtagh slices into the lives of the propertied upper middle class, Chris cuts into poorer, harder lives lived out in trailers and rented spaces.Β 

At the launch at the Glitter Bean Cafe, Chris said up until now, he’d thought chapbooks were β€œjust for cool poets,” but now he’d broken open the format for short fiction writers. And this is my reading advice to you: buy a copy of The Art of Forgiveness and stick it in your pocket or pouch (it will fit). For the next few weeks, half the time you reach for your phone, grab this instead. The lovely paper pages will sooth your emotions, and you will feel a little fuller after consuming a few pages. Repeat the process and in a month or so, you will have read a wounded collection of short stories, and you yourself will somehow feel more whole.Β 

Our phones and the wild worlds they portal into can teach us much about the art of holding grudges. It takes a book, and an author, to teach us about the Art of Forgiveness.