Read for a short story book club. In the beginning I thought I knew where this was going but it took me by surprise. Not necessarily for the best, but it kept me on my toes. I appreciated a lot of the commentary around addiction and suffering and the overall struggle of being alive. It made me think of my friend I lost to an overdose and how much she was going through that I didn't have the understanding to talk with her about back then.

Stories like this are always fascinating to me because I can remember when we were in high school and she was using and I had no idea what to say to her other than drugs were bad. But then I think about everything I've lived since she passed and how I get it - I get the narrator and Sonny talking about suffering being unavoidable and everyone is trying to find ways to make it manageable. Like, life is awful and hard and it totally makes sense that some people see certain options and desirable to make it all something you can handle.

As with most things I'm reading right now, I'm finding that I wish there was a bit more meat to it. I get this is a short story and not everything will get as much attention and development, but the narrator would make almost passing comments about rather large life events like his daughter dying and while yes, there was a longer scene eventually about how that happened in more detail, it still felt glossed over and a blip in the overall story to the point that I don't really know why it was included. Maybe I will feel different as I think about it more but these are my initial reactions right after finishing.