paigicus's review
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Adult/minor relationship
seawarrior's review
2.0
I bought this book with the hope that it would introduce me to Eugenides' writing and ultimately push me to finally read Middlesex or The Virgin Suicides, yet I was so disinterested and appalled by the plots and characters in these stories that I no longer want to engage with Eugenides' work at all.
The two stories that bookend this collection, "Complainers" and "Fresh Complaint" were least offensive to me and newly published, yet all others were previously accepted by prestigious publications like The New Yorker or Best American Short Stories. It depresses me that these type of stories are considered the pinnacle of American literature. Almost all of them featured miserable, middle aged white men in dissatisfying marriages who are thirsting after wealth or inappropriate relationships. In one, a man replaces semen his former girlfriend consensually obtained and planned to use for her pregnancy with his own. In three others, middle aged men pursue sexual relationships with barely legal young women. In another, a man who described his attraction to his underage intersex patient, later travels to the location of a fictional isolated tribe where pedophilic rituals are institutional, and justifies accepting and submitting to their mores.
It's not inherently wrong to write stories with immoral characters, but I have no idea what I was supposed to learn intellectually or emotionally from the majority of these. They just repulsed me. The writing style held little appeal for me either. It was typically undescriptive and straightforward, with very few passages that felt interesting or wise to me. I would never recommend this collection to anyone, unless I hated them and wanted them to experience psychic distress. It may be the worst book I will read this year.
The two stories that bookend this collection, "Complainers" and "Fresh Complaint" were least offensive to me and newly published, yet all others were previously accepted by prestigious publications like The New Yorker or Best American Short Stories. It depresses me that these type of stories are considered the pinnacle of American literature. Almost all of them featured miserable, middle aged white men in dissatisfying marriages who are thirsting after wealth or inappropriate relationships. In one, a man replaces semen his former girlfriend consensually obtained and planned to use for her pregnancy with his own. In three others, middle aged men pursue sexual relationships with barely legal young women. In another, a man who described his attraction to his underage intersex patient, later travels to the location of a fictional isolated tribe where pedophilic rituals are institutional, and justifies accepting and submitting to their mores.
It's not inherently wrong to write stories with immoral characters, but I have no idea what I was supposed to learn intellectually or emotionally from the majority of these. They just repulsed me. The writing style held little appeal for me either. It was typically undescriptive and straightforward, with very few passages that felt interesting or wise to me. I would never recommend this collection to anyone, unless I hated them and wanted them to experience psychic distress. It may be the worst book I will read this year.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement, Incest, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Medical trauma, Infidelity, Animal cruelty, Transphobia, and Dementia
Minor: Sexual content
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