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A review by amyreadsbooks917
The Nimrod Flipout: Stories by Etgar Keret
4.0
This is officially the last book I'll read in 2012. I finished it while on the bus home from Memphis on New Year's Eve.
I like Keret's quirky story telling. The stories are short vignettes into the characters' lives, and many are no longer than three pages in length. My enjoyment of each story is hit or miss, but overall I love his tone and strange unquestioned plots. People would probably categorize them as either unbearably pretentious or highly literary depending on their own taste. I'm on the literary side. I think that the way he writes allows the reader to draw deeper meaning.
--SPOILERS--
Some of my favorites included:
Surprise Egg (A victim of a suicide bomber has an autopsy that shows she had multiple tumors throughout her body and would only have had a few days to live anyway. The mortician struggles with whether he should share this information with her family.)
Glittery Eyes (A little girl obsessed with glitter is intrigued by a boy who has glittery eyes. After finding out that you can only have glittery eyes by drastically longing after something -- and finding out that the thing he longs for is her -- she rejects him and glares at him jealously for the rest of the school year.)
A Thought in the Shape of a Story (This reminded me of Ray Bradbury. A colony of explorers on the moon have thoughts that are in the shapes of very specific items. When one young man starts thinking thoughts in the shape of parts for a rocket, the community bands together to "correct" and help him. Then they all die.)
Ironclad Rules (A "surprise ending" of sorts. A man receives relationship advice from an older guy in a restaurant while he "wife" is in the bathroom. The older man says that it's nice seeing a couple who has been together so long being so affectionate. In the end, the man has to leave the restaurant to catch a flight to go home to his wife and kids.)
For Only 9.99 (Inc. Tax and Postage) (A man finds success in $10 self help pamphlets, but with that help comes the realization that he's not capable of anything on his own. He doesn't seem to mind.)
I like Keret's quirky story telling. The stories are short vignettes into the characters' lives, and many are no longer than three pages in length. My enjoyment of each story is hit or miss, but overall I love his tone and strange unquestioned plots. People would probably categorize them as either unbearably pretentious or highly literary depending on their own taste. I'm on the literary side. I think that the way he writes allows the reader to draw deeper meaning.
--SPOILERS--
Some of my favorites included:
Surprise Egg (A victim of a suicide bomber has an autopsy that shows she had multiple tumors throughout her body and would only have had a few days to live anyway. The mortician struggles with whether he should share this information with her family.)
Glittery Eyes (A little girl obsessed with glitter is intrigued by a boy who has glittery eyes. After finding out that you can only have glittery eyes by drastically longing after something -- and finding out that the thing he longs for is her -- she rejects him and glares at him jealously for the rest of the school year.)
A Thought in the Shape of a Story (This reminded me of Ray Bradbury. A colony of explorers on the moon have thoughts that are in the shapes of very specific items. When one young man starts thinking thoughts in the shape of parts for a rocket, the community bands together to "correct" and help him. Then they all die.)
Ironclad Rules (A "surprise ending" of sorts. A man receives relationship advice from an older guy in a restaurant while he "wife" is in the bathroom. The older man says that it's nice seeing a couple who has been together so long being so affectionate. In the end, the man has to leave the restaurant to catch a flight to go home to his wife and kids.)
For Only 9.99 (Inc. Tax and Postage) (A man finds success in $10 self help pamphlets, but with that help comes the realization that he's not capable of anything on his own. He doesn't seem to mind.)