rdoose's review
3.0
3.5 stars. Effective stories and excellent writing -- complex female (and male) characters and stories about the side of life/reality that is often hidden or ignored.
However, nearly every story had a fatphobic comment, and it really kept me from fully enjoying/appreciating this collection. Fat characters only existed to be described as grotesque or comical, and if there were no fat characters in an individual story, the narrator still managed to work in a negative comment about fat people somehow. None of this served the stories in any significant way; I think it really dated the book, and made me question if there was some vitriol on the author's part because it was so incessant. I couldn't decided if she just really hates fat people, or if it was a lazy use of caricature. It's just a perspective that I prefer to keep out of my life, and I'm disappointed that it colored what was otherwise a thoughtful collection.
However, nearly every story had a fatphobic comment, and it really kept me from fully enjoying/appreciating this collection. Fat characters only existed to be described as grotesque or comical, and if there were no fat characters in an individual story, the narrator still managed to work in a negative comment about fat people somehow. None of this served the stories in any significant way; I think it really dated the book, and made me question if there was some vitriol on the author's part because it was so incessant. I couldn't decided if she just really hates fat people, or if it was a lazy use of caricature. It's just a perspective that I prefer to keep out of my life, and I'm disappointed that it colored what was otherwise a thoughtful collection.
dilan11's review
4.0
Nelson writes beautifully and yet there's something, a tone perhaps, that's a bit too pleased with itself so that with many of the stories I wound up being entertained but not particularly moved.
"...while that one eye swam luxuriantly, casting about drunkenly as if for better company at a cocktail party."Even with that line, I can't point to exactly what's missing.
Also, I have a strange amnesia about these stories. This is the 2nd time I've read this book and yet I couldn't remember anything. As I started reading again, it was all familiar and yet I didn't have any idea how any of them ended. Even if I put the book down for a day in the middle of a story , I have to review the entire story because I'd forgotten exactly what was happening. I noticed this much more with short stories in general but I don't think that this has ever happened to this extent before.
No matter what, I can't deny Nelson's command of language. These are definitely well written.
The story "Loose Cannon" deserves five stars. It is by far my favorite, and interestingly enough told from a male point of view. It is poignant and sad and yet hopeful. There is nothing smart alecky at all and the beautiful language is there purely to serve the emotion of the story. I also liked "Unified Front", again from a male pov. Perhaps this says more about me than it does about the quality of the stories.
I'd break the stories down like this.Incognito - *** Stitches - * The Lonely Doll - * Irony, Irony, Irony - * Palisades - * Loose Cannon - ***** Happy Hour - ** Goodfellows - * The Unified Front - **** One Dog is People - ** The Other Daughter - *** Ball Peen - ** Female Trouble - ****
"...while that one eye swam luxuriantly, casting about drunkenly as if for better company at a cocktail party."Even with that line, I can't point to exactly what's missing.
Also, I have a strange amnesia about these stories. This is the 2nd time I've read this book and yet I couldn't remember anything. As I started reading again, it was all familiar and yet I didn't have any idea how any of them ended. Even if I put the book down for a day in the middle of a story , I have to review the entire story because I'd forgotten exactly what was happening. I noticed this much more with short stories in general but I don't think that this has ever happened to this extent before.
No matter what, I can't deny Nelson's command of language. These are definitely well written.
The story "Loose Cannon" deserves five stars. It is by far my favorite, and interestingly enough told from a male point of view. It is poignant and sad and yet hopeful. There is nothing smart alecky at all and the beautiful language is there purely to serve the emotion of the story. I also liked "Unified Front", again from a male pov. Perhaps this says more about me than it does about the quality of the stories.
I'd break the stories down like this.Incognito - *** Stitches - * The Lonely Doll - * Irony, Irony, Irony - * Palisades - * Loose Cannon - ***** Happy Hour - ** Goodfellows - * The Unified Front - **** One Dog is People - ** The Other Daughter - *** Ball Peen - ** Female Trouble - ****
notagreatreader's review
4.0
These are great stories, kinda all melancholy, kinda sad, but constructing interesting and thoughtful characters and the little worlds that they inhabit.
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