hsienhsien27's review against another edition
5.0
Won from TNBBC Giveaway, Thank you!
Well then, what can I say about this one? It's a pretty solid collection. Something rare for me to find in short story collections. It's one of the few books I was able to read in the car with few distractions and while waiting for classes. Eventually towards the end I tired out, more because of school than anything. So it took me a lot longer to finish than I intended to.
I'm always thinking of changing the way I review short stories. I don't know if should I review by each story or just review it as a whole. Despite that most of these stories are Suburban realist slice of life tales, they all manage to be completely different and effective. Effective as in bringing in the twinge in throats or that sinking sympathy that lets you down when you know, due to the realism, that it won't actually be solved anytime soon.
Plenty of people have reviewed this collection, it is a fairly popular book in the small press world. But I got to say that this collection is one of the few where I enjoy most of the stories. Almost all of the stories. The prose is lush but heavy in its intent of drawing the picture. The characters are the ones who lead the plot, but aren't cardboard plot devices. The stories are sometimes boring intentionally, very few were, but intentionally in the sense that suburban life is pretty darn boring. Characters are in different walks of life, racially, gender-wise, and class-wise, but all end up in the same sort of melancholic hole. Although I am not trying to say that everyone's experience is the same, but we all get the same feeling in varying degrees or perspectives. Does that make sense? She also manages to make original stories out of plot themes that are usually overdone, such as abortion and cancer. That sounds mean to say about others, but yeah.
Michalski is kind of like a grown up Miranda July. I don't know what is, but her stories reminded me of July, but Michalski was more filled out and less quirky. Not that there's anything wrong with quirkiness. Michalski was more, how do I say, poignant and less invasive? Read July and you will get what I mean. July has little quirks that made me a tad bit uncomfortable in some of our stories. Michalski's stories are a lot like those indie movies, except less hermit-like and a bit more outgoing in their way of trying to convey the story's feeling and flow. They are less feral and a bit more humane than July. I don't know what else to say, except to go on and read her novels. Women writers have a sort of magic that men don't have in their prose. I don't know what it is. (I kind of don't feel like putting quotes, not because I don't like them, but because I read this a long while ago and I kind of forget what sentences made me dog ear those pages. But I promise this is a beautiful book and you will find them yourself. I found them beautiful when I folded that page.)
Favorite Stories:
The Queen of Swords
The Mural
Neighbors
The Safest Place
From Here
Killing Rabbits
You Were Only Waiting For This Moment To Arrive
Rating: 5/5
Originally published here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2015/06/from-here-by-jen-michalski.html
Well then, what can I say about this one? It's a pretty solid collection. Something rare for me to find in short story collections. It's one of the few books I was able to read in the car with few distractions and while waiting for classes. Eventually towards the end I tired out, more because of school than anything. So it took me a lot longer to finish than I intended to.
I'm always thinking of changing the way I review short stories. I don't know if should I review by each story or just review it as a whole. Despite that most of these stories are Suburban realist slice of life tales, they all manage to be completely different and effective. Effective as in bringing in the twinge in throats or that sinking sympathy that lets you down when you know, due to the realism, that it won't actually be solved anytime soon.
Plenty of people have reviewed this collection, it is a fairly popular book in the small press world. But I got to say that this collection is one of the few where I enjoy most of the stories. Almost all of the stories. The prose is lush but heavy in its intent of drawing the picture. The characters are the ones who lead the plot, but aren't cardboard plot devices. The stories are sometimes boring intentionally, very few were, but intentionally in the sense that suburban life is pretty darn boring. Characters are in different walks of life, racially, gender-wise, and class-wise, but all end up in the same sort of melancholic hole. Although I am not trying to say that everyone's experience is the same, but we all get the same feeling in varying degrees or perspectives. Does that make sense? She also manages to make original stories out of plot themes that are usually overdone, such as abortion and cancer. That sounds mean to say about others, but yeah.
Michalski is kind of like a grown up Miranda July. I don't know what is, but her stories reminded me of July, but Michalski was more filled out and less quirky. Not that there's anything wrong with quirkiness. Michalski was more, how do I say, poignant and less invasive? Read July and you will get what I mean. July has little quirks that made me a tad bit uncomfortable in some of our stories. Michalski's stories are a lot like those indie movies, except less hermit-like and a bit more outgoing in their way of trying to convey the story's feeling and flow. They are less feral and a bit more humane than July. I don't know what else to say, except to go on and read her novels. Women writers have a sort of magic that men don't have in their prose. I don't know what it is. (I kind of don't feel like putting quotes, not because I don't like them, but because I read this a long while ago and I kind of forget what sentences made me dog ear those pages. But I promise this is a beautiful book and you will find them yourself. I found them beautiful when I folded that page.)
Favorite Stories:
The Queen of Swords
The Mural
Neighbors
The Safest Place
From Here
Killing Rabbits
You Were Only Waiting For This Moment To Arrive
Rating: 5/5
Originally published here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2015/06/from-here-by-jen-michalski.html
melanie_page's review
5.0
Stay tuned to follow along with the forthcoming virtual book tour for From Here, created by yours truly and Jen Michalski!
Jen's tour has taken off!
Please click THIS LINK to see the tour schedule! Links will be active even post-tour.
Jen's tour has taken off!
Please click THIS LINK to see the tour schedule! Links will be active even post-tour.
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