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Customer Review
Product Description
Flan Parker has always had an inquisitive mind, searching for what’s hidden below the surface and behind the door. Her curious nature and enthusiastic probing have translated into a thriving resale business in the university housing complex where she lives with her husband and two young children. Flan’s venture helps pay the bills while her husband works on his dissertation, work that lately seems to involve more loafing on the sofa watching soap operas than reading or writing. The secret of her enterprising success: unique and everyday treasures bought from the auctions of forgotten and abandoned storage units.
When Flan secures the winning bid on a box filled only with an address and a note bearing the word “yes,” she sets out to discover the source of this mysterious message and its meaning. Armed with a well-worn copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass that she turns to for guidance and solace, Flan becomes determined to find the “yes” in her own life. This search inward only strengthens her desire to unearth the hidden stories of those around her–in particular, her burqa-clad Afghan neighbor. Flan’s interest in this intriguing and secretive woman, however, comes at a formidable price for Flan and her family.
Set during the year following the September 11 attacks, Self Storage explores the raw insecurities of a changed society. With lush writing, great humor, and a genuine heart, Gayle Brandeis takes a peek into the souls of a woman and a community–and reveals that it is not our differences that drive us apart but our willful concealment of the qualities that connect us.
From the Hardcover edition. Top to learn more
An engaging and incredibly touching novel
Gayle Brandeis, winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change (THE BOOK OF DEAD BIRDS), has penned another novel that is both engaging as a story and timely in subject matter. In it, she expertly flings a cartload of characters searching for love, security and identity into a melting pot infused with political upheaval, fear and post-9/11 muck. The result is a book that is both chaotic and solid, frightening and incredibly touching.Aptly titled SELF STORAGE, the narrative focuses on the business of the self and how we as humans store the "stuff" that makes up both our inner core and our external appearance, using Walt Whitman's gorgeous LEAVES OF GRASS/"Song of Myself" as its guide. All the main characters struggle valiantly with this process --- some successful, others not --- in order to define what of themselves is private and what can be shared openly with others. The book also addresses identity on a larger scale, and confronts...
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February 8, 2007
(New York, New York) | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 4
Falls a bit short
This novel did a good job of capturing the American climate in the post 9-11 world. The instant suspicions of the others living in the graduate housing due to their neighbors' obvious Afghan origins rang very true. It seems that after that tragic day merely being Arabic makes a person instantly suspect, much like merely being Japanese made people instantly suspect during World War II. Brandeis does a nice job of pointing out how quickly we resort to prejudice due to a sort of paranoia caused by a tragedy of such epic scale.Some of the plotting, however, was a real stretch and some things were left rather unfinished. I would have liked to see more development of the relationship between the main character and her Afghani neighbor. I'm also not quite sure I bought the reconciliation between husband and wife at the end as it seems to me that their marital problems were far too deeply rooted for such swift resolution.
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July 17, 2007
(USA) | Helpful Votes: 8 | Rating: 3
A fun read
Aside from the "say yes" and the social commentaries that others are trying to make about Self Storage, I just found it to be a fun read. I didn't find it life changing, and I didn't want to run out and say "yes". It filled my afternoon. I liked the honesty of Flan's character, and was a bit puzzled by Shae's character, and wished I could have known more about her neighbor, and the ending left me a bit confused. But all in all, I love the writing and the quirkiness of the woman who found her treasures in Self Storage.
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April 28, 2007
(beautiful NE Oklahoma) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4
