Reviews

Universal Love by Alexander Weinstein

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devontrevarrowflaherty's review against another edition

5.0

I enjoyed reading Universal Love by Alexander Weinstein. I would recommend it. (I did already, to my husband.) There are some things to mention, like how I know the author. There are other things, like how my husband has become a huge fan. (He doesn’t know the author.) If there is any part of you that would like to read a book of sci-fi short stories, or if you like Black Mirror especially when the stories are about tech, then this is a must-read for you. And good news, there is another book from Weinstein with the same type of short stories inside.

These stories are definitely thematic, but not connected to one another in more obvious ways. In each, we encounter a world that is recognizable but that has advanced in technology in some specific way. This “advance” has created yet another barrier to relationship/to love. Insightful and interesting, the stories each end with a mixture of bittersweet: both prophetic doomsday warning and the extension of hopeful endurance of humanity, even if it’s just a thing flickering fragilely yet insistent in the background. From a dating app that substitutes for all relationships, to a pair of robotic, adopted children in a world where robots become addicted to huffing their own components, Weinstein goes where our questions are and extends out beyond in a reading that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

I was going to say that it is best to read this book of short stories with some space between each one, letting the emotions and the world of each story dissipate before diving into the next one—giving the feelings and thoughts space for real-life palate cleansing. However, my husband read this book in like a day or two. Then he picked up the other Weinstein short story book and read that one in like a day or three. To each his own, then. I suppose this is on-brand for me, to read collections over time with space between. I probably just get distracted the second there’s some sort of break in a book. (Thank goodness there are authors who use cliff hangers and suspense.)

I do know Alexander Weinstein. He is the founder and director of Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. Three years ago I received a fellowship from the MVICW; the conference was moved online due to a worsening of the Pandemic so I only “met” him online while hunkered down in a Del Ray Beach condo. I ordered his book then (when it was new), and it’s been floating around my house ever since. Then when I reapplied this year for the first in-person, post-Pandemic MVICW conference I received another (different) fellowship and spent a long week in Martha’s Vineyard with Weinstein, four other teaching authors, and 52 other writers. In preparation, I read Universal Love, then bought Children of the New World while there and got it signed. Which means that I read this book before actually meeting Weinstein and my opinions are what they were before. But it also means that I have a relationship of sorts with the author (including him doing a manuscript evaluation on one of my sc-fi short stories) and maybe you should know that.

Come what may, I was impressed with this book and was intrigued with each new idea and story. All the stories are written well and contain fascinating (sometimes disturbing) glimpses of our future which in turn throw light on our present (in the true nature of sci-fi). The writing is on the literary side yet really easy to read and the sci-fi elements are on the light side, usually. There isn’t going to be any deep world-building here, just a gentle dip into a slightly different possibility. Highly recommend. From virtual aliens to holograms of your dead mother, this is a great read, a not-to-miss if you like the genre.

Note: There is a second cover design that is harder to find, but which comes across better than the candy-colored one with the heart. I like the heart cover fine, but it doesn’t say what it should be saying to a passing browser.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alexander Weinstein is the founder and director of Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. That’s not usually the first thing in his bio, though. He is an author of two books of short stories, Universal Love and Children of the New World. Children of the New World was published first and received great reviews from the highest places, including a New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and a number of “best ofs” mentions, from like NPR and Google. Unfortunately, his second book was published about a moment into the Pandemic and it was far from the only book that fell flat due to the market and the state of things. In my husband’s opinion, though, the second one is better than the first, meaning that the problem was all about the timing and that I need to get around to reading Children so I can weigh in.

His short stories have appeared in some impressive places, including American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Rolling Stone, Pleiades, Lightspeed, Adroit, and Best American Experimental Writing. He has won some awards including an honorable mention for the Pushcart and has had reviews in The New York Times and The Atlantic. He is a professor of creative writing at Siena Heights University in Michigan. He is currently working in film and, I think (I might be remembering wrong), working on a novel.

QUOTES:

“‘Honey,’ she said and lit a cigarette in the car. ‘You never seemed that interested in my life.’ / And, for the first time, I understood that I hadn’t been” (p25, “A Year of Nostalgia”).

“It was like living in an expensive apocalypse where everyone’s dying slowly but drinking cold=brewed nitro lattes” (p66, “Comfort Porn”).

“One could always have it removed, we reasoned. And we turned to our husbands and wives–our companions who should have stopped us–but they, too, were exhausted from all the pleading” (p79, “We Only Wanted Their Happiness”).

“And soon we found ourselves in one of two camps: those who’d fed ants sugar crystals and watched them build tunnels in glass terrariums, and those who’d held magnifying glasses over their backs to watch them curl and incinerate under the sun’s concentrated ray” (p150, “Sanctuary”).

“Our visitors didn’t need to tear us apart–we were doing that ourselves–and the distance they’d traveled was far less than the gulf between us and our own neighbors” (p156, “Sanctuary”).

***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***

doods's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.25

Some super fun little scifi stories about love. Really enjoyable

riakul's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.5

Liked most of them. Very interesting settings even if the story was a bit flat for me at times.

fakewhales's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

dalhausen's review against another edition

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3.0

This is on par with his first book of short stories and it feels about the same, in terms of having a kind of shoegaze quasi sci-fi feel. I loved his exploration of abandoned cities/structures in Children of the New World and was pleased to find it here, too, as well as some interesting new ideas that would transfer perfectly to an episode of Black Mirror or the newest Twilight Zone reboot. His style is very accessible, some of his ideas are clever, and though none of these stories particularly stood out to me as incredible, a few were very good.