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princessfabulous's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
jaclyncrupi's review against another edition
4.0
Adam Johnson is able to imagine characters and stories and then write about them like nobody else. I almost think we need a new name for the kind of fiction he writes. Whatever he's doing, it's exciting. Two stories from this collection will stay with me for life: Nirvana and Interesting Facts. Genius. He can turn humour to darkness so quickly he'll give you whiplash. He can reveal humanity and define our modern lives and make it look completely effortless. The title story was probably my least favourite. Dark Matter was heartbreaking and so different in tone to the rest. Overall, this is an impressive collection.
acsaper's review against another edition
3.0
Short stories are hard for me. I don't always 'get' it. And, then I'm left feeling bad (did I miss something? did i not understand? am i stupid? not literary 'enough'?). Johnson's short stories however were imminently digestible and just the right amount of abstract for me to know what's going on but nonetheless be touched by the poetic abstraction of a story.
fiddler76's review against another edition
5.0
6* collection of absolutely brilliant short stories. There is an almost invisible thread running through the stories. This is a book which is hard to put down, but I needed to put it down after each story to absorb the impact. Highly recommended.
stacy_wilson's review against another edition
5.0
Fortune Smiles is less a collection of short stories, and more like a collection of emotional dick punches. All six stories are exquisitely and precisely crafted. The short story format only serves to distill their emotional impact with a powerful, concentrated delivery. Adam Johnson has an uncanny talent for making his characters seem terribly real and convincing.
christianholub's review against another edition
3.0
This is perhaps the first short story collection I've read where it really feels like the stories are in conversation with each other. For one thing, the story "Dark Meadow" literally exists as fiction within the world of "Interesting Facts." But even beyond that, a lot of these stories live in the ruins of the 20th century's worst excesses and share similar themes. "George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine," for example, revolves around an abandoned Stasi prison in East Germany and focuses on the former warden, who lives his life in denial of the atrocities he committed long ago. He's not the only character here in denial about the reality of his life; in the title story, North Korean defector Sun-ho chooses to revere his vision of an ancient Korea long gone rather than face the difficulties of adjusting to life in capitalist South Korea. In this regard, the most heroic figure in this book is therefore a pedophile: Mr. Roses, the narrator of "Dark Meadow." Mr. Roses knows exactly what he is, understands how he came to be that way (prolonged sexual abuse in his childhood), and works hard every day to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone else and perpetuate the vicious cycle.
I'm giving it a three-star ranking because two of the stories were kinda clunky ("Hurricanes Anonymous" and "Interesting Facts") but the last three are pretty great, and the title story is good enough that it might make me pick up Johnson's novel about North Korea.
I'm giving it a three-star ranking because two of the stories were kinda clunky ("Hurricanes Anonymous" and "Interesting Facts") but the last three are pretty great, and the title story is good enough that it might make me pick up Johnson's novel about North Korea.
vegantrav's review against another edition
4.0
Fortune Smiles won the 2015 National Book Award for fiction, which is the only reason I was motivated to read it. In my estimation, A Little Life was more deserving of that award, but I still enjoyed Fortune Smiles.
Two of the six short stories in this collection made the whole book worth reading. Of the remaining four, one ("Hurricanes Anonymous") I did not really care for at all, and the other three I thought were good but not anything especially great.
The two that I was most moved by were "George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine" and "Dark Meadow."
"George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine" is set in Germany around two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it tells the story of the former warden of a Stasi prison. The warden is convinced that he was a great warden and that nothing untoward ever occurred at his prison. It is remarkable to watch him try to justify himself--in part by intentionally blinding himself--to former prisoners and to his daughter and even to himself.
"Dark Meadow" presents a character from whose perspective stories are almost never told (Lolita being a prominent exception): a pedophile. The protagonist is man who was raped multiple times as a boy and who has grown up to be a pedophile himself. He is a non-practicing pedophile in that he does not rape or physically abuse children, but he does, to help quell his desires, utilize child pornography. What is truly amazing about this story is that Adam Johnson takes a person that we would expect to find vile and loathsome and makes him a man whom we can understand and who, although we don't condone his desires, we even sympathize with. Johnson's deft touch and humane approach in addressing such a controversial topic as well as the story itself and the portrait he paints of the protagonist show the depth of his literary talent.
These two short stories made reading the entire collection worthwhile to me. I also appreciated the fact that it was a very quick read: though it is in excess of 300 pages, Fortune Smiles is a very easy read, and I was able to finish it in a single day. Finally, having still not gotten around to reading Adam Johnson's Pulitzer winner, The Orphan Master's Son, the talent I have seen in this collection of short stories has convinced me to put The Orphan Master's Son on my to-read list.
Two of the six short stories in this collection made the whole book worth reading. Of the remaining four, one ("Hurricanes Anonymous") I did not really care for at all, and the other three I thought were good but not anything especially great.
The two that I was most moved by were "George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine" and "Dark Meadow."
"George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine" is set in Germany around two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it tells the story of the former warden of a Stasi prison. The warden is convinced that he was a great warden and that nothing untoward ever occurred at his prison. It is remarkable to watch him try to justify himself--in part by intentionally blinding himself--to former prisoners and to his daughter and even to himself.
"Dark Meadow" presents a character from whose perspective stories are almost never told (Lolita being a prominent exception): a pedophile. The protagonist is man who was raped multiple times as a boy and who has grown up to be a pedophile himself. He is a non-practicing pedophile in that he does not rape or physically abuse children, but he does, to help quell his desires, utilize child pornography. What is truly amazing about this story is that Adam Johnson takes a person that we would expect to find vile and loathsome and makes him a man whom we can understand and who, although we don't condone his desires, we even sympathize with. Johnson's deft touch and humane approach in addressing such a controversial topic as well as the story itself and the portrait he paints of the protagonist show the depth of his literary talent.
These two short stories made reading the entire collection worthwhile to me. I also appreciated the fact that it was a very quick read: though it is in excess of 300 pages, Fortune Smiles is a very easy read, and I was able to finish it in a single day. Finally, having still not gotten around to reading Adam Johnson's Pulitzer winner, The Orphan Master's Son, the talent I have seen in this collection of short stories has convinced me to put The Orphan Master's Son on my to-read list.
cornmaven's review against another edition
4.0
There are only 6 stories in here, but boy are they powerful. The overarching theme is trauma and disaster - brought on by nature and/or humans - and how the victims, bystanders, and perpetrators deal with it. Johnson moves smoothly from cancer, to post East Germany to child porn to North Korean defectors. It's amazing. The child porn story was almost too difficult to read.
This is the first Adam Johnson book I have read, and it will likely cause me to seek out more. His writing style is very easily ingested; there was a different "voice" for each story, and I liked that.
This is the first Adam Johnson book I have read, and it will likely cause me to seek out more. His writing style is very easily ingested; there was a different "voice" for each story, and I liked that.