Tiny Vices
Siblings reunite for a weekend in Linda Dahl’s Tiny Vices, a wise novel about navigating midlife in which tense relationships and a woman’s self-protectiveness collide.
On a spring break trip to Rincón Bay, Mexico, Kathy experienced trauma that she later repressed. As a married adult in Tucson, she’s encouraged by her therapist to face her lingering fears. Kathy thus convinces Corina, her sister with dementia; Pete, her pill-addicted brother who is undergoing dialysis; and Becca, their youngest sibling who struggles with her son, to return to the same beach under the pretense of recreating their childhood vacations. In Mexico, the siblings’ domestic problems threaten to overwhelm them.
The busy, alternating cast includes spouses and a housekeeper; their characterizations are taut. Many funnel their aches into creativity, and their interests include art, poetry, and jazz. Kathy’s marital malaise mixes with her social activism, hinting at her need to rescue others because she can’t help herself. Some secondary plot lines distract from the novel’s progression, though, as with the housekeeper’s sexual awakening.
Arizona’s stifling summer heat intensifies the siblings’ desire to get away. Throughout, people make allowances for themselves while pretending to manage their challenges: Pete bristles over his sisters’ support of him and undermines his diabetic diet, and Kathy’s husband dives into a book project to distract himself from their problems. Indeed, people’s efforts to avoid burdening others often result in emotional withholding, which becomes its own burden. Later, Kathy’s preoccupation with others’ lives results in an irreparable rift in her own. Further, little progress is made regarding Kathy’s traumas, whose tolls on her life are heartbreaking.
Tiny Vices is a simmering novel about the consequences of denying the past for too long.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
