Review by Teresa Tumminello Brader
Lisa C. Taylor’s novel The Shape of What Remains (Between the Lines Publishing/Liminal Press, 2025) is narrated by Teresa Calvano, a professor, wife, and mother whose second-born child was killed at the age of six. Her story opens ten years after the tragic accident. “I’m living, though my life for the last ten years has been more like the skin a snake sheds. The shape of the snake remains but there’s no substance.” (107) As her story spools out, Teresa—she’s also known as Terri and Tess, depending on the relationship—reveals her deep mourning; her inability, sometimes willful, to take the needed next steps; the impact all of this has on her relationships with others, especially her husband and their oldest child, who has recently started college.
The death of a child is never easy to read about, or to even contemplate, nor should it be, but Teresa has a way of describing herself in wry terms, without being flippant or inappropriate, that helps lighten the mood for the reader. Though the topic might be too raw for someone whose own child has died, this fictional account is certainly revelatory for anyone wanting to understand why someone hasn’t ‘moved on’ after a death. As shown through Teresa’s eyes, her husband Luke presents a different way of grieving, though that’s not an excuse for some of his actions. The depiction of his breakdown over their daughter’s death, delayed as it might be, is moving.
Despite their both being academics dependent on uncertain funding, the lifestyle of Teresa and Luke comes across as privileged in many ways, a depiction of how “the lives any of us lead can be rearranged in an instant by a random tragedy.” (108) No matter how comfortable or easy someone’s life appears, chance can never be controlled: “The greatest hazards are invisible and arrive unbidden.” (260) With the help of a friend who loves her unconditionally and the nudge of a new life to nurture, Teresa comes to the realization that she needs to return to herself, though change is never easy.
My mind is not my friend, pulling me into dark places where I’m suddenly feeling who the hell am I to go back? None of us can ever go back. We move ahead not backward. It’s unnatural to want to relive the past. (145)
Though at times the first-person narration includes information the reader might think is repetitive, or that Teresa wouldn’t likely be thinking to herself, such is the nature of trauma, and in the long run those issues are minor. In addition to being an award-winning short-story writer and a prolific poet, the author has spent much of her non-writing life as a counselor and therapist helping others deal with the processing of their grief. Her novel uses the wisdom she’s acquired through her support of the bereaved to give a realistic portrayal of an individual who gradually realizes that—though life can never be the same after such a life-changing tragedy—pleasure, wonder, and love are always there to be given and received.
The Shape of What Remains by Lisa C. Taylor
Between the Lines Publishing/Liminal Press, 2025, 300 pages, $15.99 [paper],
139781965059203
Teresa Tumminello Brader, a native New Orleanian, gathers inspiration from the city, Lake Pontchartrain, and its denizens. Her books, Letting in Air and Light (2023), a work of hybrid memoir/fiction, and Secret Keepers (2025), a short-story collection, are from Belle Point Press. The former was honored as one of three nominees for the 2025 One Book One New Orleans citywide read and literary outreach.