I really love this author, and this book did not disappoint. However, I didn't like it as much as Blackberries, Blackberries. I didn't like how some of the stories just ended, and I felt like not enough was given for it to end the way it did. I like the idea of stories from different homes on the same street, and I enjoy how entertwined the character's lives were. Crystal has the ability transport me into someone else's life, even if just for a little while and that is the quality I love most ab...

I really liked the book. I felt like I knew the people who lived on Water Street by the time I finished the book.

I was not a fan of this novel. I can appreciate each short story individually and as it functions as a single narrative. I think my problem stems from a lack of cohesion. Yes, the novel takes place on Water Street. Yes, the characters are mostly connected to each other. Yes, each character has a known story and a hidden story. Yes, the many questions we (as readers) are left with are realistic; after all, we never get all the answers in life, so it makes sense to have these stories with open-end...

I loved this collection of thirteen interlinked lyrical and hard-as-nails stories that all take place in or around a small rural Kentucky town, on and around Water Street, and its nearby environs. Love, loss, crushes, tragedy, race, mental health, family relationships, aging and coming of age, the secrets underlying the lives of these friends and neighbors, in the past and how those pasts affect the present. Each story, told by a first-person narrator begins at a salient point in their lives, as...

A linked collection of short stories set in a small Kentucky town. The format works so very well here; brief mentions of characters in one story gain deeper meanings once those characters have their turn in the spotlight, and by the end, the entire project thrums with a level of subtle emotional intensity that'd've been hard to develop and maintain in a novel.Wilkinson writes with unshowy ease and empathy about the intimate, small-time dramas that shape people's lives, and while these stories of...

Members of the neighborhood recall moments of their youth, coming of age among family and friends. There are secrets that have been held on to for years and questions that remain unanswered. There are characters whose descriptions will sound familiar and very much like some of the folks many of us recall from our youth. There is love, happiness, sadness and regrets as each of these neighbors reflects on their experience in days gone by.

Reading this book felt like coming home. This book is so small town in the best possible way. Growing up in Danville, just 15 minutes from Stanford, it was so lovely to see this area represented and the stories of my community and surrounding communities being told. The short stories feel so real, and it was really fascinating to see the interconnection between them. Just wonderful.

How had I never heard of this writer? This is a wonderful collection, juicy, real, and sexy, about family and children and couples in a community on Water Street in a small Kentucky town.

Crystal Wilkinson is one of the finest writers today. She captures a town and its people with keen observations. Particularly loved “Before I Met My Father” and “The Fight.”

I had read excerpts of Wilkinson's work in a Kentucky and Appalachian Writers course. She visited our class and told us some stories from her personal life, gave us some insight into her writing, and gave us a short private reading, and she also did a public reading and signing at the local bookstore, which I also attended. I chose to read Water Street before Blackberries, Blackberries mostly because I had read the short piece "In Plain Sight" from this text and had absolutely fallen in love wit...

Amazing

A series of short stories with overlapping characters from a small town in Kentucky. Enjoyed it.

Easy ReadI grew up on wright street but ibelive their might of been some characters like the ones on Water Street.

Crystal Wilkinson's Water Street portrays a neighborhood of characters facing joys, sorrows, losses, and gains--a microcosm of humanity, and there's not one person in the book readers won't fall in love with, never mind the flaws. Here's a writer who shows us who we are.

Crystal Wilkinson's Water Street is an engaging novel that transports the reader to a middle-class neighborhood in small town Stanford, Kentucky, USA. The residents are hardworking, law-abiding citizens who go to work, church, pay their taxes, and raise their families to the best of their abilities. In the opening passages of the book, the author mentions that every person has two stories to tell: one story by day and the other by night which is kept near the heart for safekeeping. Wilkinson all...

I really enjoyed this short story collection. Crystal moves between time and families, and the writing is very real and at the same time lyrical. It also seems like love and intimacy were a part of all of the stories presented....but then that’s a real reflection on life. We all are seeking love and intimacy, and sometimes it reveals itself perfectly.

If you’ve followed me on here for a while you know there are two things I’m not so keen on reading. The first one is series and the second one is short story collections. Now it seems as if I’m turning over a new leaf with the later. Water Street by Crystal Wilkinson is my third attempt at reading them and they seem to be getting better and better. I dare say I’ve been lucky or I just know how to choose a good book. Whatever it is Water Street is a short Water Streetstory collection you must che...

InsightfulEach short story is a vignette focusing on a character with a tie to the setting of Water Street, Stanford, KY. Characters reflect intricacies of racial realities, family relationships, insecurities and disillusionment. Poignant writing, precise detail, sensitive perspectives of different stages of life and the personal choices that fill them.

It's interesting reading this after Birds of Opulence. Wilkinson wrote Water Street first, but both texts exist in the same world, with the same characters. There were some things included in Water Street that she later updated for Birds of Opulence, certain continuities and back stories that really establish these people in this place. Reading both of these books so close together really shows her growth as an author.

Crystal was the teacher in a writing seminar I took, so I come at this with some bias. I probably would not have selected this book if not for that connection. But I'm glad I did. Crystal's writing is a pleasure and she crafts the characters so well. She makes each one unique and evokes their inner secrets and emotions. The stories here are intertwined and I kept thinking I should go back and chart out the characters and connections. Each story does stand alone though and each is engaging and re...