Icarus was story about a college student named Clara. Overworked and stressed, she has turned to alcohol. We find her in the ICU, hip shattered, kidney removed. She has "fallen" off of her balcony after a night of heavy drinking. Her family attempts to have a little intervention in the hospital.
I found this story pleasant to read. The way we are introduced to Clara's situation is done very well, kind of the fuzzy wake up scene that we are all used to seeing in movies. I like how Clara doesn't really know what is going on. The way in which the story has little chapters has been executed so well. There aren't breaks to indicate a change of scene, but the change of voice and the immediate descriptions of an alternate set do this for us. It works very well in this story. Where this could be one long story separated by the incident, it brings the incident of her fall to the focal point and really keeps the reader interested. I wanted to know what would happen when I got to the next apartment scene and when I got to the fall itself.
I liked a lot of the characterization of Clara, the too-short denim shorts and her cellulite, her choice to drink wine, her prescription for prozac and her known capacity to stretch herself too thin.
My only complaint about this story would have to be the dialogue. Some of it is good, especially the stuff at the beginning, but the apartment scenes are a little trite, and the intervention is a little hard to read.
Also, I wish the room mate had been a little more disgruntled, maybe Clara could treat her even shittier or something.
Overall a good story. I would work on developing characters a little more, and touch up some dialogue. Again, the execution of hopping between story and back story was very well done.
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