hollydunndesign's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
I love stories set on university campuses, so it was no surprise that I adored this set of short stories. All of them have a backdrop of academia or unrequited love, (or both), which gave the collection a satisfying cohesion. Particularly memorable was the story of a woman hired who has to find a wife for a man she is secretly in love with, as well as one that follows a girl who plagiarises an essay. This was an excellent first read for 2015. There were a couple of stories that weren't quite so memorable or powerful, so it loses half a star for those. But overall this was a great collection.
I love stories set on university campuses, so it was no surprise that I adored this set of short stories. All of them have a backdrop of academia or unrequited love, (or both), which gave the collection a satisfying cohesion. Particularly memorable was the story of a woman hired who has to find a wife for a man she is secretly in love with, as well as one that follows a girl who plagiarises an essay. This was an excellent first read for 2015. There were a couple of stories that weren't quite so memorable or powerful, so it loses half a star for those. But overall this was a great collection.
theinkwyrm's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars
I think this was just not the collection for me. The writing was fine, if a little flowery, but I didn’t care about any of the characters and I actually DNFd one of the stories (Fialta- because I have zero interest in architecture). I did like that a lot of the stories had academic settings and that the author carried little things (character behaviors, phrases, etc.) that made the stories feel connected even though they weren’t. My favorites were the titular Bobcat, Min, and World Party. Overall, not a collection I think will be very memorable.
I think this was just not the collection for me. The writing was fine, if a little flowery, but I didn’t care about any of the characters and I actually DNFd one of the stories (Fialta- because I have zero interest in architecture). I did like that a lot of the stories had academic settings and that the author carried little things (character behaviors, phrases, etc.) that made the stories feel connected even though they weren’t. My favorites were the titular Bobcat, Min, and World Party. Overall, not a collection I think will be very memorable.
kaileycool's review against another edition
4.0
Read for City Lit book club. Cried at the last story. I loved how messy they were; the themes always surprised me. I will report back after the meeting. For real this time!
diameters's review
found out it was not diaspora lit on page 200 out of 250. good if a little too academia-centered. fialta stands out
audjmo91's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know if it was just my expectations from other short stories or essay collections I've read, but I thought some of them felt incomplete. It was a fine read, but I finished feeling a little unsatisfied. Maybe I should just assume more from what I'm given?
zeecorster's review against another edition
5.0
I've been reading a lot of short-story collections over the past year or so, but few stories are going to stick with me the way "Slatland" did in this stunning collection. It was lyrical and moving, with this deep vein of weirdness running through its very heart, and I felt almost electrified by the end.
And, really, that's how Rebecca Lee's writing made me feel all throughout. Her writing is so at home in the fractured society of today, and she's just humbly dropping truth after truth about human nature in each of these stories. Her prose isn't flashy; it doesn't draw attention to itself, but you finish a paragraph and its effectiveness washes over you like a gentle wave. My favorite quotes:
They looked like ideas would if released suddenly from the page and given bodies—shocked at how blood actually felt as it ran through the veins, as it sent them wheeling into the west, wings raking, straining against the requirements of such a physical world.
I understood how complicated it was to be an adult, and how haunting, and how lovely.
I can feel to this day her hand where it gripped my elbow whenever she laughed. Each of her fingers sent a root system into my arm that traveled and traveled, winding and stretching and luxuriating throughout my body, settling there permanently.
She just kept rearranging things with her long, bronze hands, which I guess is what cooking is.
And, really, that's how Rebecca Lee's writing made me feel all throughout. Her writing is so at home in the fractured society of today, and she's just humbly dropping truth after truth about human nature in each of these stories. Her prose isn't flashy; it doesn't draw attention to itself, but you finish a paragraph and its effectiveness washes over you like a gentle wave. My favorite quotes:
They looked like ideas would if released suddenly from the page and given bodies—shocked at how blood actually felt as it ran through the veins, as it sent them wheeling into the west, wings raking, straining against the requirements of such a physical world.
I understood how complicated it was to be an adult, and how haunting, and how lovely.
I can feel to this day her hand where it gripped my elbow whenever she laughed. Each of her fingers sent a root system into my arm that traveled and traveled, winding and stretching and luxuriating throughout my body, settling there permanently.
She just kept rearranging things with her long, bronze hands, which I guess is what cooking is.
saraklem's review against another edition
4.0
I don't think I've read a voice like Rebecca Lee's before, and I mean that in a great way. These stories do have the kind of ending that make you feel like you missed something and should re-read.
erica_lynn_huberty's review against another edition
3.0
I find it difficult to even review this collection. My immediate response to each story in “Bobcat” was total immersion in the narrative, and admiration for Lee’s deftly-crafted prose. But at the conclusion of each story—an amorphous, Henry James-like non-conclusion—I was left at sea: disconnected and frustrated. A disclaimer: I am a short story writer myself, who often tells first-person narratives in differing voices, and thrives on not giving too much information to readers. I wholly believe in the ambiguity of life and in not neatly tying up everything. So if I feel the way I do about this book, I am frankly shocked at how many readers (never mind the publisher) herald it. Each story has a large, engrossing arc that abruptly ends in a vague, lightening-speed semi-resolution. The problem with this is that Lee’s characters are so wonderfully fleshed-out, the dialogue witty and brilliant, the observations astute and complex, that to trail-off suddenly as each story does feels more lazy and bizarre than purposeful and philosophical. Claire Messud’s “The Hunters” would be an excellent example of what Lee’s stories seemed like they were trying to achieve. The best two in this collection are Slatland and Bobcat; though, again, each left me with an annoyed sigh by the end.