Elephant Hook and Other Stories

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson University.

An elephant hook is a sharp instrument used to snag an elephant’s
ear—the most sensitive part of its body. The characters who populate
Sherman’s stories are constantly being snagged by life’s equivalent
of elephant hooks.

Mostly set in circuses, these stories concern people in hopeless
situations—dealing with botched relationships, infidelity, rivalries,
violence, deaths, disfigurement, and disease. The resilience of the
characters to the blows they are dealt makes the stories uplifting. And
though the local color of circus life provides a fascinating backdrop to
the stories, the collection’s strength lies in Sherman’s ability to
write fully fleshed characters about whom the reader comes to care.