cwalsh's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't love all of these stories, but I truly appreciated each one. There's a lot of variety in this collection, but each piece examines themes of privilege, memory, ethics, and heartbreak in a fresh way.
These stories are a bit on the long side (lookin' at you, Merge), almost novella length, but Eisenberg's ability to construct fulfilling characters with her subtly political, weird, and quirky style is unparalleled.
Favorites: Your Duck is My Duck, Taj Mahal, and Merge.
These stories are a bit on the long side (lookin' at you, Merge), almost novella length, but Eisenberg's ability to construct fulfilling characters with her subtly political, weird, and quirky style is unparalleled.
Favorites: Your Duck is My Duck, Taj Mahal, and Merge.
kow1728's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
clarkness's review against another edition
4.0
On getting older:
"The worst thing is, you're just not a part of the world any longer. When you're young, everyone is holding hands, all of your friends, even the people you don't like, everyone in the world. But at a certain point, when you get older, you float a little off the surface of the earth. Everyone is rising up off the surface of the earth. Everyone is farther away from one another. You can't hold hands any longer. You stretch out your hand, but you can't reach anyone else's. And when you look down, you see that what you thought was the world, is just a wrapping around the world, a loose, disintegrating wrapper with a faded picture of the world on it. The world is where young people live."
"The worst thing is, you're just not a part of the world any longer. When you're young, everyone is holding hands, all of your friends, even the people you don't like, everyone in the world. But at a certain point, when you get older, you float a little off the surface of the earth. Everyone is rising up off the surface of the earth. Everyone is farther away from one another. You can't hold hands any longer. You stretch out your hand, but you can't reach anyone else's. And when you look down, you see that what you thought was the world, is just a wrapping around the world, a loose, disintegrating wrapper with a faded picture of the world on it. The world is where young people live."
lenawadera's review against another edition
4.0
Pozycja zupełnie spoza mojej strefy komfortu, która usatysfakcjonowała mnie w (prawie) całej swojej rozciągłości. Było w niej coś niesłychanie świeżego i wsysającego. A takim hipnotyzującym rytmem przekładu można mnie karmić o każdej porze dnia i nocy!
czytomasz's review against another edition
2.0
Świetnie napisane opowiadania, ale niestety, odniosłem wrażenie, że to takie pisanie dla samego pisania. Treści nie ma tu zbyt wiele, raczej nie wyniosłem z tej książki niczego i nic ze mną nie zostanie na dłużej. Za każdym razem czytelnik wrzucany jest w sam środek jakiejś sytuacji, bez większego wyjaśnienia, zazwyczaj w środowiska klas wyższych lub związanych z artystyczną bohemą, gdzie łatwo jest zabłądzić w mnogości bohaterów. Nie jest to mój typ literatury, skąd moje delikatne „odbicie się” od książki, ale być może Wy dostrzeżecie w niej coś, czego ja nie widzę.
phg_q's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
sydneyedens's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
2.5
overall fine - accessible stories, although none blew me away. enjoyed the various narrators. to be honest though, i couldn’t finish “merge” - the main pov was too annoying lol. taj mahal was my fave
edgwareviabank's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
A book that has been on my list for ages, to the point I can't remember how it made it there in the first place. I must have read something, years ago, that made me think it was right up my street; a newspaper review, perhaps, or a recommendation on a blog I trust. However, my experience reading these short stories was hit and miss.
- Your Duck Is My Duck: I expected more from the titular piece. It starts with an interesting premise, and there was a lot in the main character's first-person voice that I could relate to: most of all, wry humour, a slightly self-deprecating tone, and a frustrating artist's block. On the other hand, the story seems to end too soon, without exploring some of the characters' motivations in enough depth. They're sketched out just enough to convey the message the author wanted to send across; however, upon turning the last page, I felt I hadn't quite been given enough to be confident I'd really got it.
- Taj Mahal: A group of faded movie stars, and the daughter of a late actress who was part of the group, meet to reminisce about the past, in the wake of a controversial biography that calls into question their own recollections and relationships. The stories that emerge are so fascinating, as is the sense that no one involved can supply a reliable truth: every memory is influenced by the person recalling it, the way they see themselves, and the way they want to be seen. All the characters' voices are so distinctive, I never wanted the piece to end: I'd love to read a novel about them all.
- Cross Off And Move On: my favourite, about the politics of a dysfunctional family, growing up with a mean-spirited and regretful mother, and living with the constant feeling of not measuring up to expectations, be it other people's or your own. The narrative arc feels complete, and the main character is the most relatable I came across in this book: the impact of her upbringing on her sense of self and adult relationships is painfully real.
- Merge: I enjoyed the unlikely crossover of misfits unsure of their place in the world (a trust fund baby down on his luck; an elderly lady living like a recluse with an inherited dog she can't get herself to walk; a younger woman harbouring an eerie fascination with the research work of the older woman's vanished husband). I couldn't get on board with the higher concepts about language and communication the author weaved through the plot. I'm sure there was a connecting thread; it was too abstract and obscure for me to grasp, so reading this story felt like a slog: I couldn't wait for it to be over.
- The Third Tower: beautiful writing - sad and dreamlike, telling the story of a teenager with a vivid imagination who gets hospitalised in a world where self-expression is seen and treated as a disease. Still, the piece as a whole felt almost as obscure as Merge (a little more transparent, but only just about). I enjoy trying to work out where the title of a short story might have come from, and with this one I came up with absolutely nothing, which again made me wonder whether I was failing to grasp something fundamental.
- Recalculating: another family saga in short story format, sharing themes of grief and memory with Taj Mahal and Cross Off And Move On. No surprise, then, that this was the other standout story for me in the collection, only hampered by what felt like a vague, unsatisfactory ending.