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My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro by Jeffrey Eugenides
thaurisil's review against another edition
4.0
"Please keep in mind: my subject here isn't love. My subject is the love story." With this warning, Eugenides presents a collection of short stories that are not about love. No, not about boy meets girl and they fall in love and grow old together, not about fluffy marshmallows and candy floss, not about the type of love you find in rom-coms. Instead, this collection covers all sorts of relationships, not just love, though that is included as well, but the variants of infatuation, love and sex that are commonly mistaken for love.
This is clearly not what anyone expects upon picking up the book, and this will understandably turn many off. But for me, this was a pleasant surprise that widened the scope of the book, prevented it from becoming a monotonous humdrum of "traditional" love, and allowed for the inclusion of many brilliant stories.
Some stories were, to me, terribly boring, like Robert Musil's Tonka, Vladimir Nabokov's Spring in Fialta, and Harold Brodkey's Innocence (most of which was about the mechanics of one sex act, yuck). That these were pretty long only increased my aversion to them.
But most of the stories were very good. My favourite was David Bezmozgis' Natasha, about a boy who gets attracted to his new Russian step-cousin Natasha, but she has too much experience of the world for him with his naivete to really understand her. Another one that I liked very much was William Trevor's Lovers of Their Time, about a married man who has an affair with a young counter-girl, but their affair is financially unviable and he ends up returning to his wife, an unromantic woman who views his affair with disdainful practicality.
Others that I enjoyed included Anton Chekhov's The Lady With the Little Dog (atmospheric), William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily (shocking ending), Milan Kundera's The Hitchhiking Game (nuanced and emotionally realistic), Lorrie Moore's How to Be An Other Woman (effective in the second-person), Mary Robison's Yours (unexpected and sad), George Saunders' Jon (touching), Stuart Dybek's We Didn't (raises what-ifs) and Alice Munro's The Bear Came Over the Mountain (very, very, very sweet).
I applaud Eugenides' arrangement of the stories. Long stories followed shorter ones, and easy-to-read stories followed more demanding ones. In fact, anyone who can make me like a Miranda July story (I tried reading her collection of short stories No One Belongs Here More Than You and gave up after three stories) has done excellent work. And after stories of pre-marital sex and extramarital affairs, Eugenides ends off the collection with Munro's The Bear Came Over the Mountain, a story about the self-sacrificial love of an old man to his wife, to give us the story of true love that we picked up the book to find. His introduction is also beautifully written, and adds a perfect touch to a fabulous anthology.
This is clearly not what anyone expects upon picking up the book, and this will understandably turn many off. But for me, this was a pleasant surprise that widened the scope of the book, prevented it from becoming a monotonous humdrum of "traditional" love, and allowed for the inclusion of many brilliant stories.
Some stories were, to me, terribly boring, like Robert Musil's Tonka, Vladimir Nabokov's Spring in Fialta, and Harold Brodkey's Innocence (most of which was about the mechanics of one sex act, yuck). That these were pretty long only increased my aversion to them.
But most of the stories were very good. My favourite was David Bezmozgis' Natasha, about a boy who gets attracted to his new Russian step-cousin Natasha, but she has too much experience of the world for him with his naivete to really understand her. Another one that I liked very much was William Trevor's Lovers of Their Time, about a married man who has an affair with a young counter-girl, but their affair is financially unviable and he ends up returning to his wife, an unromantic woman who views his affair with disdainful practicality.
Others that I enjoyed included Anton Chekhov's The Lady With the Little Dog (atmospheric), William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily (shocking ending), Milan Kundera's The Hitchhiking Game (nuanced and emotionally realistic), Lorrie Moore's How to Be An Other Woman (effective in the second-person), Mary Robison's Yours (unexpected and sad), George Saunders' Jon (touching), Stuart Dybek's We Didn't (raises what-ifs) and Alice Munro's The Bear Came Over the Mountain (very, very, very sweet).
I applaud Eugenides' arrangement of the stories. Long stories followed shorter ones, and easy-to-read stories followed more demanding ones. In fact, anyone who can make me like a Miranda July story (I tried reading her collection of short stories No One Belongs Here More Than You and gave up after three stories) has done excellent work. And after stories of pre-marital sex and extramarital affairs, Eugenides ends off the collection with Munro's The Bear Came Over the Mountain, a story about the self-sacrificial love of an old man to his wife, to give us the story of true love that we picked up the book to find. His introduction is also beautifully written, and adds a perfect touch to a fabulous anthology.
selenajournal's review against another edition
5.0
i have a hard time rating this book as a whole. some of the stories made me cry. others made me want to skip to the next one. some i had already encountered in another life.
i couldn't stop reading this book. i couldn't stop re-reading the stories. reading them aloud to my boyfriend. watching the look on his face to see if they resonated as strongly with him. it was beautiful. and it was heart-breaking. and it hurt. i felt so dreadful after reading some of them, like it was me this was happening to. these stories held my attention in some odd way.
i will never forget some of them. the hitchhiking game. spring in fialta. spring in fialta fixes everything.
i'm going to re-read this soon.
i couldn't stop reading this book. i couldn't stop re-reading the stories. reading them aloud to my boyfriend. watching the look on his face to see if they resonated as strongly with him. it was beautiful. and it was heart-breaking. and it hurt. i felt so dreadful after reading some of them, like it was me this was happening to. these stories held my attention in some odd way.
i will never forget some of them. the hitchhiking game. spring in fialta. spring in fialta fixes everything.
i'm going to re-read this soon.
amna99's review against another edition
1.0
I love short stories. And I love LOVE stories. So I bought this book prepared to be heartbroken and joyful and wallow in the genius of truly magnificent writing. After all the book promises these are the GREATEST love stories.
Well I started reading. And eventually I slowed down. I wasn't looking forward to each story. I just wanted to finish the bloody book. Hardly any of the stories moved me. Did I have a heart of stone?
I finally twigged what the problem was when I looked at the authors list at the back of the book.
21 out of 27 of the authors are male.
6 are female
21 are American
26 are white
So what you have is a book of love stories from the view point of mostly white American men collected by a white American man.
I am appalled. How limited is the reading list of Jeffrey Eugenides? And who on earth thought it was a good idea to let him pick a short story collection?
If you are a white male then you will probably love this book. If not and you are bored to tears by the white male dominated culture of fiction, journalism, tv and cinema then give this book a miss. It's not worth the effort or the snores.
Well I started reading. And eventually I slowed down. I wasn't looking forward to each story. I just wanted to finish the bloody book. Hardly any of the stories moved me. Did I have a heart of stone?
I finally twigged what the problem was when I looked at the authors list at the back of the book.
21 out of 27 of the authors are male.
6 are female
21 are American
26 are white
So what you have is a book of love stories from the view point of mostly white American men collected by a white American man.
I am appalled. How limited is the reading list of Jeffrey Eugenides? And who on earth thought it was a good idea to let him pick a short story collection?
If you are a white male then you will probably love this book. If not and you are bored to tears by the white male dominated culture of fiction, journalism, tv and cinema then give this book a miss. It's not worth the effort or the snores.
bookysue's review against another edition
5.0
I FINALLY finished this book after like...over a year or something. A long time. And even though it took me so long, I recommend reading it the way I did - spaced out. This collection is so awesome that I wouldn't want the stories blurring together in my memory. They're all so different and amazing for very different reasons.
Out of all the stories in the book, there were probably only two that I didn't care for. And even those weren't terrible - they just didn't make me feel as much as the others did.
One story from the collection, "How to Be an Other Woman" by Lorrie Moore, quickly joined my list of favorite short stories of all time. And several others I already knew and loved, such as Chekhov's classic "The Lady with the Little Dog."
But even beyond the genius of the stories in the collection, the introduction itself is worth the cost of the book in itself. Eugenides manages to tie all the stories together and effectively explain why a collection of love stories ends up including so many tales of woe, rather than a bunch of fluffy, lovey-dovey, happy-ending stories.
HOWEVER, if you're like me and don't like to know anything about the stories before you read them, I'd recommend reading his introduction AFTER you finish the book. I did it this way, and it was a fantastic ending to such an enjoyable year-long read.
Out of all the stories in the book, there were probably only two that I didn't care for. And even those weren't terrible - they just didn't make me feel as much as the others did.
One story from the collection, "How to Be an Other Woman" by Lorrie Moore, quickly joined my list of favorite short stories of all time. And several others I already knew and loved, such as Chekhov's classic "The Lady with the Little Dog."
But even beyond the genius of the stories in the collection, the introduction itself is worth the cost of the book in itself. Eugenides manages to tie all the stories together and effectively explain why a collection of love stories ends up including so many tales of woe, rather than a bunch of fluffy, lovey-dovey, happy-ending stories.
HOWEVER, if you're like me and don't like to know anything about the stories before you read them, I'd recommend reading his introduction AFTER you finish the book. I did it this way, and it was a fantastic ending to such an enjoyable year-long read.
jenniferdinsmore's review against another edition
2.0
I had to abandon this halfway through. I do like short stories, but after awhile I find collections of them, especially so focused on a certain topic, lose my interest.
This one was taking me too long to read so I'm moving on! Maybe I'll come back to it one day... Read up to pg. 220
This one was taking me too long to read so I'm moving on! Maybe I'll come back to it one day... Read up to pg. 220
carlylottsofbookz's review against another edition
3.0
Because Jeffrey Eugenides takes his sweet time between writing incredible novels, when I heard there was a short story compilation edited by him it was purchased on my amazon account and being shipped to my house as fast as my fingers could go.
After reading the first few stories I began to get worried. I didn't bother to read what the theme of the compilation was when I purchased--his name was enough for me. But the first few stories (by some of the 'classics'--Faulkner, Joyce...) had me terrified I had signed up for something I was not interested in at the least.
Thankfully, those stories were at the front of the book, and just like trudging down your veggies before you can have dessert, the book got way better.
I'm a completionist, I'm a person who needs o finish books, so I can't recommend skipping the first few stories...but if you can hold out it will be worth it!
After reading the first few stories I began to get worried. I didn't bother to read what the theme of the compilation was when I purchased--his name was enough for me. But the first few stories (by some of the 'classics'--Faulkner, Joyce...) had me terrified I had signed up for something I was not interested in at the least.
Thankfully, those stories were at the front of the book, and just like trudging down your veggies before you can have dessert, the book got way better.
I'm a completionist, I'm a person who needs o finish books, so I can't recommend skipping the first few stories...but if you can hold out it will be worth it!
nssutton's review against another edition
3.0
this had been on my to-read list since last valentine's day and came up at just the right time for some head in the clouds reading nearly a full calendar year later. most of these stories (saunders, carver, july) i'd read in other collections. as far as 826 anthologies go, it was just okay and i'm sort of happy to move on to something else.
jacqui_des's review against another edition
1.0
I realised almost immediately that this was not a collection of what I would consider 'love' stories and it took me over 2 years to get through what felt like the longest 587 pages of my life. Needless to say, after this I decided to give up on books I'm not enjoying. There were a couple of stories that were good but overall, I really didn't enjoy this collection.
Introduction
First Love and Other Sorrows - Harold Brodkey
The Lady with the Little Dog - Anton Chekhov
Dirty Wedding - Denis Johnson
The Hitchhiking Game - Milan Kundera
The Moon in its Flight - Gilbert Sorrentino
Tonka - Robert Musil
Red Rose, White Rose - Eileen Chang
Innocence - Harold Brodkey
Introduction
"That words were music, that, at the same time they were marks on a page, they also referred to things in the world and, in skilled hands, took on properties of the things they denoted…"
"Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name."
"We value love not because it’s stronger than death but because it’s weaker. Say what you want about love: death will finish it."
"The perishable nature of love is what gives love its profound importance in our lives."
"It is perhaps only in reading a love story (or in writing one) that we can simultaneously partake of the ecstasy and agony of being in love without paying a crippling emotional price."
First Love and Other Sorrows - Harold Brodkey
"I hadn’t known I could feel like this—that I could pause on the edge of such feeling, which lay stretched like an enormous meadow all in shadow inside me."
The Lady with the Little Dog - Anton Chekhov
"…essentially, if you thought of it, everything was beautiful in this world, everything except for what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher goals of being and our human dignity."
Dirty Wedding - Denis Johnson
"It wasn’t my life she was after. It was more. She wanted to eat my heart and be lost in the desert with what she’d done, she wanted to fall on her knees and give birth from it, she wanted to hurt me as only a child can be hurt by its mother."
The Hitchhiking Game - Milan Kundera
"Jealousy isn’t a pleasant trait, but if it isn’t overdone (and if it’s combined with modesty), apart from its inconvenience there’s even something touching about it."
The Moon in its Flight - Gilbert Sorrentino
"I’ll give her every marvel: push gently the scent of magnolia and jasmine between her legs and permit her to piss champagne."
Tonka - Robert Musil
"And without her he would never have known how ugly this beard was, for one knows little of oneself unless one has someone else in whom one is reflected."
"It is not that the woman loved is the origin of the emotions apparently aroused by her; they are merely set behind her like a light. But whereas in dreams there is still a hair’s-breadth margin, a crack, separating the love from the beloved, in waking life this split is not apparent; one is merely the victim of doppelgänger-trickery and cannot help seeing a human being as wonderful who is not so at all. He could not bring himself to set the light behind Tonka."
Red Rose, White Rose - Eileen Chang
"When a man yearns for a woman’s body, then starts to care about her mind, he fools himself into believing that he’s in love. Only after possessing her body can he forget her soul."
Innocence - Harold Brodkey
"We weren’t the king and queen of Cockandcuntdom yet.