poachedeggs's review
3.0
To me, this is a hyper-masculine short story collection, with lots of armaments, science and the rougher parts of history thrown in. The collection's extremely clever and innovative, and reflects Shepard's wide-ranging interests.
Some experiments are more successful than others, and I find myself liking a few quite a lot, and others, very little. "Love and Hydrogen", which is about two homosexual Nazis in a zeppelin, is really good, as is the first story, "The Gun Lobby", about a wife holding her husband hostage.
I'm not so sure about the sports/politics stories like "Ajax is all about Attack", which read a little more like essays/ideas masquerading as stories.
Shepard seems to me to be the kind of author who will have a cult following, and be a favourite with critics, but whose work is actually more academic than literary.
Some experiments are more successful than others, and I find myself liking a few quite a lot, and others, very little. "Love and Hydrogen", which is about two homosexual Nazis in a zeppelin, is really good, as is the first story, "The Gun Lobby", about a wife holding her husband hostage.
I'm not so sure about the sports/politics stories like "Ajax is all about Attack", which read a little more like essays/ideas masquerading as stories.
Shepard seems to me to be the kind of author who will have a cult following, and be a favourite with critics, but whose work is actually more academic than literary.
secondhusk's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
margaret_adams's review
5.0
First-rate collection. Favorites: the titular Love and Hydrogen, about a romance on the Hindenburg and Krakatau, about a volcanologist with a volcanic brother.
renatasnacks's review
5.0
this book was so hella good. i can't wait to read more by jim shepard. smart, funny, fun, insightful, blah blah blah one of them is about a giant shark.
gneumatic's review
4.0
The title story is about a clandestine love affair between two gay Nazi soldiers stationed aboard the Hindenberg on its doomed voyage to America. Another favorite is a re-telling of classic horror movie "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" from the Creature's pov. "Ajax is all About Attack" examines the similarities between Dutch "total football" and radical politics. Brilliant stories, brilliantly told.
tangereen's review
4.0
Stand-out stories include: mars attacks, glut your soul on my accursed ugliness, runway, the mortality of parents, john ashcroft: more important things than me, piano starts here and krakatau.
bookishwendy's review against another edition
4.0
I'll start with the usual disclaimer: I am not a huge fan of short story collections by one author, which often are so similar to one another in tone and theme and subject matter (Lahiri? Proulx?) that after the first couple they all start to blend together and I find myself skimming impatiently to the end, while thinking "well, I've already got the point of this.... Love and Hydrogen still does this to some degree, but I liked how eclectic the stories were in subject matter, if not in their general themes and tones of dissatisfaction with life. The best stories in this collection seem to be clustered near the beginning and end of the book--I adored the titular "Love and Hydrogen" and "Climb Aboard the Mighty Flea" for taking such interesting and unusual viewpoints as gay crew members on the Hindenburg, and a German test pilot in 1945 (talk about doomed!)--the voices and historical details here are riveting and unique. I also liked "Mars Attacks" for its use of a deck of gruesome collectors cards depicting a fictitious martian invasion to provide structure for a story that's really about a dysfunctional relationship between brothers (this theme pops up in many of the other stories, but I liked its presentation here best), and also "Batting Against Castro" for being the most humorous and relatively "light" story of the bunch. The more contemporary setups fell rather flat for me (with the exception of "Spending a Night with the Poor" and "Hands in the Air"). The only story I really disliked was the one about John Ashcroft, narrated from his point(-less) point of view. I could have lived without that one, but recommend the collection as a whole. I'll be looking for more from this writer.
P.S. I excited to come across one of his stories in the 2010 Best American Short Stories...and then heartily disappointed once I had read it. I'm glad I read this collection first.
P.S. I excited to come across one of his stories in the 2010 Best American Short Stories...and then heartily disappointed once I had read it. I'm glad I read this collection first.
tdstorm's review against another edition
4.0
This collection was a mixed bag for me. Shepherd's genre of choice seems to be re-imagined historical fiction. The title story, a case in point, tells of two gay lovers employed aboard the Hindenburg. "Won't Get Fooled Again," tells the story of the rock band The Who from the perspective of John Entwhistle, the bass player. "Descent into Perpetual Night" tells of William Beebe, naturalist and explorer and one of the guys who took the first deep-sea dives in the bathysphere. The list goes on. At least half of the stories in this collection have a basis in some nonfictional event or person.
Shepherd is very good at this historical fiction, but more to my taste are stories like "Creature from the Black Lagoon," which takes the pov of an ancient marine sleestak-like creature who stalks a group of explorers who enter his lagoon. I also enjoyed "Runway" and "The Gun Lobby," both of which reminded me of Ron Carlson's writing, told as they are with such humor and absurdity.
Shepherd is very good at this historical fiction, but more to my taste are stories like "Creature from the Black Lagoon," which takes the pov of an ancient marine sleestak-like creature who stalks a group of explorers who enter his lagoon. I also enjoyed "Runway" and "The Gun Lobby," both of which reminded me of Ron Carlson's writing, told as they are with such humor and absurdity.
whitejamaica's review against another edition
3.0
Read the first 10 stories, ending after "Reach for the Sky". Will finish these some day.