Book Review: ‘A Temporary Grace’ by Maggie Burton

Maggie Burton is no stranger to good writing. Her first poetry collection, Chores, was shortlisted for and won multiple awards. Her new short story collection, A Temporary Grace, was the perfect follow-up. 

Most of the stories revolve around relationships of some nature. Oftentimes, they’re romantic relationships, but other times the stories focus more on professional or platonic relationships. Themes like single motherhood and toxic partners threaded the collection together, but the stories were distinct enough from each other to keep the reader interested. 

Some of the stories, like “the arm,” are quite sweet. The way Burton depicts a young woman trying to make heterosexual relationships work, but ultimately stumbling face-first into a queer awakening is beautiful. The buildup and suspense had me reading faster to find out what happened next. Another story, “marty and the rat,” was similarly sweet and hopeful, with a little bit of weird sprinkled in.

Both stories highlight one of Burton’s strong suits: writing characters’ inner thoughts. So much of her stories rely heavily on the characters’ thoughts and feelings driving the story forward, more than dialogue between characters. And it works really well. Burton does a fantastic job of giving the reader just enough to get them invested, but withholding even more to keep them reading.

Most of the other stories have a darker edge to them. There are recurring topics around abuse, controlling partners, and mental health. Some of those stories are pretty bleak, but most, like “cards,” maintain their levity in the hope Burton gives the reader. The connections found in unexpected places were beautiful to see play out.

In others, it’s less hopeful and focuses more heavily on the worst possible scenarios and people. Burton takes the fears of what a conservative Christian lesbian could be and brings it to life in “hell together.” It’s a surreal and disturbing story.

While most of the collection felt cohesive in its themes and maintained that element of surprise, “systems thinking” felt out of place. The premise of trying to expose a cult/pyramid scheme was intriguing. Like with other stories, Burton masterfully sucked the reader in, but unfortunately, towards the end, the story started to feel predictable and cliché.

Burton’s strength was in shaping stories around really horrible people. A couple of the characters return throughout the collection, and each new story offers a new look at how they exert control and manipulate the people around them. It was deeply uncomfortable and disturbing, but the depth of the characters makes it so interesting to read.

Burton never shies away from complexity and nuance in how people treat other people, and she takes the reader through the worst of it. But her writing is so enthralling that it is impossible to leave the story before it’s over.