I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinionsa re my own.

Author Elizabeth Bruce takes readers on a journey to discover the different ways to view a dollar in the collection “Universally Adored & Other Dollar Stories”.

The Synopsis

In Universally Adored and Other One Dollar Stories, Elizabeth Bruce gives readers 33 ways of looking at a dollar. Her empathetic, humorous, and disarming embrace of plain-spoken people searching for a way out, charms and provokes. These are bittersweet stories of resilience and defiance.

In “Universally Adored,” a color-obsessed artist draws a facsimile of a dollar—a masterpiece universally adored—to win her girlfriend back. While checking for spare change in the laundry, in “Bald Tires” a Tennessee housewife with a malcontent husband finds an unused condom in his Sunday trousers. In “The Forgiveness Man,” a runaway teen with a newborn follows a vagabond healer absolving the bedraggled godless through hugs of forgiveness. And in “Magic Fingers, a ladies’ room attendant tracked down by her abusive ex finds refuge in a cheap motel with a 1970s era bed massager.

Riffing on the intimate object of a dollar, Bruce’s humane short fictions—from a great mashed potato war to the grass Jesus walked on—ring with the exquisite voices of characters in analog worlds.

The Review

This was a memorable and thoughtful collection of short stories. The author artfully captures the complexities of the human condition through the lens of a one-dollar bill, perfectly capturing the monetary journey that most of the working class finds themselves on. The short yet poignant imagery found within each story’s writing style allowed the reader to feel transported and engaged with each story’s protagonist in a visceral way. 

The title story, Universally Adored, sets the tone of the collection, allowing the reader to feel the story’s emotional pull and the stories that would follow. Exploring relationships and the complex nature of individuality versus close relationships in general, the story showcases the dangers of personal goals undermining a relationship and the lengths a person will go to to make things right. Themes of struggle, desire, and beauty found in the least likely of places, the stories found within the collection will draw readers in and speak to them in an honest and hopeful voice.

The Verdict

Heartfelt, composed, and strikingly emotional, author Elizabeth Bruce’s “Universally Adored & Other Dollar Stories is a must-read collection. The profound themes and rich imagery build a crescendo of storytelling that readers can easily get lost in, and the powerful relatability of these stories and the engaging way the author writes will stay with readers long after the book concludes. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

About the Author

Elizabeth Bruce’s debut story collection, Universally Adored & Other One Dollar Stories, is forthcoming in January 2024 from the Athens, Greece-based Vine Leaves Press. Her debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Fiction Award, ForeWord Magazine’s Bronze Fiction Prize, and was one of two finalists for the Texas Institute of Letters’ Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction. Bruce has published prose in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Sweden, Romania, India, South Korea, Malawi, Yemen, and The Philippines, including in FireWords Quarterly, Pure Slush, takahē magazine, The Ilanot Review, Spadina Literary Review, Inklette, Lines & Stars, and others, as well as in such anthologies from Paycock Press’ Gargoyle series, Weasel Press’ How Well You Walk through Madness: An Anthology of Beat, Vine Leaves Literary Journal: A Collection of Vignettes from Across the Globe; Madville Publishing’s Muddy Backroads, Two Thirds North, multiple Gargoyle anthologies, and Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s This Is What America Looks Like. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.