chamblyman's review
4.0
Fantastic collection! Reminded me of some of my favorite short story writers: Vonnegut, George Saunders, Stephen Millhauser, and Jim Shepard. Smart, funny, inventive stuff!
whoisrjc's review
funny
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Gorgeously written, but heavy handed and punishingly masculine in perspective.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, and Rape
library_hungry's review
Too clever by half. The first two stories are both told in the first person plural, which is a bit much. It's all very allegorical, but with an ironic veneer that makes it seem very heavy handed.
The second story, "Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre" started out so funny that it's what drew me to the book. Every year something hideous happens and a bunch of people at the picnic die. But every year everyone goes back. But the details that elaborate on it--how everyone starts out irate but gradually over the course of the year chills out about it, and if there are commercials on TV it can't be too bad, and the few people who keep protesting are seen as zealots and crackpots--are not really insightful. Nothing about the story goes very far beyond "somehow people keep convincing themselves to do stupid things over and over," with no new twist, no thoughts on why, nothing to make you feel anything but pathetic for ever watching bad TV or eating Twinkies.
The second story, "Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre" started out so funny that it's what drew me to the book. Every year something hideous happens and a bunch of people at the picnic die. But every year everyone goes back. But the details that elaborate on it--how everyone starts out irate but gradually over the course of the year chills out about it, and if there are commercials on TV it can't be too bad, and the few people who keep protesting are seen as zealots and crackpots--are not really insightful. Nothing about the story goes very far beyond "somehow people keep convincing themselves to do stupid things over and over," with no new twist, no thoughts on why, nothing to make you feel anything but pathetic for ever watching bad TV or eating Twinkies.
murwe's review
*'Loeka Discovered', 'Life in the Harem' and some of the 'Animalcula': 4 stars.
karencarlson's review
5.0
Wonderful; quirky stories with a point. Detailed comments (with spoilers) at A Just Recompense.
kawai's review
5.0
A criminally under-read author.
The collection is entertaining without being facile, intelligent without pretension, touching without melodrama, humorous while avoiding low-hanging fruit, and unique without being contrived.
What more could you want in a short story collection?
The collection is entertaining without being facile, intelligent without pretension, touching without melodrama, humorous while avoiding low-hanging fruit, and unique without being contrived.
What more could you want in a short story collection?
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