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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
In Samantha Kolber’s What She Stole, adult Eloise Goldstein discovers during bodywork that childhood experiences may still be stored in her body. That takes her back to seventeen, when she is caught stealing a gold sequined purse from Macy’s during prom shopping with best friend Darjeena. Confined to a mall security room until her mother Sharon arrives, Eloise begins revisiting the earlier thefts and family memories that led her there. Her father Chet’s violent temper has made home unpredictable, and Sharon’s migraines leave Eloise responsible for younger brother Seth for hours at a time. As one recollection leads into another, Eloise starts questioning what she remembers about growing up and what may have been hidden from her. What begins as a shoplifting detention opens into a larger story about the Goldstein family’s past.
Samantha Kolber’s What She Stole is a really well-executed literary coming-of-age novel, and Eloise is a protagonist we want to root for, especially in her fascination with the sounds of ordinary words. Kolber fleshes her out as someone whose thoughts move from a conversation with friend Gianni to deciding the word twelve is beautiful for how its letters slow her mouth. Sharon is brilliantly written as a mother Eloise can never quite read, with her Bronx past taking readers to an Avenue A bus stop where she smokes Tareyton 100s in mauve pumps. I love how Kolber immerses readers in the settings, from the hot seaside boardwalk beneath Eloise’s bare feet to winter trees outside an English classroom inspiring her first poem. Well written and extremely thoughtful, readers who enjoy true, pure literary fiction will adore this.
