Improvement is billed as a novel, but it is actually more a series of short stories featuring characters who are tangentially connected. The first story, narrated by Rayna, a young single mother, concerns her involvement with a boyfriend and his pals to smuggle cigarettes across state lines. Her decision to sever herself from the enterprise leads to unforeseen and tragic consequences, including the death of Claude, a member of the theft ring. Then we move to the third-person story of Darisse, Claude's girlfriend, following his death. Then to Teddy, the truck driver who accidentally killed Claude in a traffic accident. And so on. The stories end with a return to Reyna, as she attempts to atone for her part in Claude's death.
These are very quiet stories, with a minimum of drama, written in an unadorned yet graceful style. The author exhibits great compassion for her characters, who become understandable and real in just a few pages. Each story could have become a novel all by itself, and I found myself disappointed each time one ended that it was not expanded further.
All that being said, I found this to be a very forgettable book. I finished it about a week ago, and I had to look back over it to write this review. I am surprised that it won this year's National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award, especially because another of the finalists for the award was Sing, Unburied, Sing, which is a much better book.
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