jessgock's review against another edition
4.0
The Torturer's Apprentice was the title du jour on a message board I was reading, so I picked up a copy for myself to see what everyone was talking about. It's a collection of exceedingly well-written short stories, and although the title suggests the macabre, I think a better adjective might be "grotesque," with all associated Flannery O'Connor connotations. Stories include an unreligious man who develops stigmata and has to cope with throngs of believers who want to see his wounds; a man who decides to buy a slave without really thinking through the mundanities of owning another person; a woman who begs her lover to beat her; a boy who can change his body into any shape he wishes, but finds it increasingly difficult to return to his normal shape; and an American man in Germany who finds himself confronted by a group of neo-Nazis while in a Jewish cemetary. To name just a few.
Although the stories tend to be dark and feature protagonists who are ill at ease in their surroundings, it's surprising how many of them leave room for positivity at the end. Like the Leonard Cohen song that says "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in," the protagonists often (although not always) get a glimpse of something beautiful in spite of their surroundings. Other times, though, the stories just end in a twist of bleak irony, more O. Henry than O'Connor. Definitely recommended.
Although the stories tend to be dark and feature protagonists who are ill at ease in their surroundings, it's surprising how many of them leave room for positivity at the end. Like the Leonard Cohen song that says "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in," the protagonists often (although not always) get a glimpse of something beautiful in spite of their surroundings. Other times, though, the stories just end in a twist of bleak irony, more O. Henry than O'Connor. Definitely recommended.
biblioberg's review against another edition
3.0
This weird collection of short stories was a strange read.
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