estaskato's review against another edition
2.0
I really, really wanted to like these stories. Don’t get me wrong, I liked a couple— the ones with actual narrative! Powell just seemed to pick a shock value phrase and then stream of consciousness into a explicitly stated “moral” for like 3 pages, which isn’t necessarily bad, until it’s what 75% of the stories are. There’s no uniqueness in narrators, and also I don’t want a man to describe nipples to me ever again. In addition, Powell blatantly fetishized women of color? He calls a woman of color “chewy” at one point? Anyway. His style is very nice, but it seems as though he banks on it instead of coming up with good characters or a plot. Unfortunately, two stars.
bruscato's review against another edition
4.0
I received this as a Goodreads Giveaway *
Cries for Help, Various reads like a fever dream that I'm convinced if read aloud is positive alchemy. I strongly suspect Padgett Powell is functioning on another level of reality. And I can only imagine while reading these (very short) stories a shift has taken place in the universe making sense of the impossible and leaving the mundane trampled in its wake. Powell's writing style is the literary equivalent of a Vulcan mind meld.
I can see a lot of the stories here being fleshed into novels in their own right but love the disorienting knowledge that this snippet, this snapshot in alternate reality is all I get. It's definitely something to chew on and savor.
Cries for Help, Various reads like a fever dream that I'm convinced if read aloud is positive alchemy. I strongly suspect Padgett Powell is functioning on another level of reality. And I can only imagine while reading these (very short) stories a shift has taken place in the universe making sense of the impossible and leaving the mundane trampled in its wake. Powell's writing style is the literary equivalent of a Vulcan mind meld.
I can see a lot of the stories here being fleshed into novels in their own right but love the disorienting knowledge that this snippet, this snapshot in alternate reality is all I get. It's definitely something to chew on and savor.
brien_k's review
2.0
I received this book as an advanced reader's copy from the publisher. I love short stories, and really wanted to like these...but I just couldn't. Too bizarre, too unconventional for me.
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