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A review by erinlcrane
Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin
3.0
I read through this *very* quickly. Schweblin wrote these short stories the way I like them - weird, idea-driven, and intense. It made it really easy to get through them.
This is a 3.5 I'm rounding down because I've enjoyed her other work more. But I still had a good time, even when it felt like the story didn't amount to much.
My favorites are Headlights, Preserves, Mouthful of Birds, The Digger, The Test, Toward Happy Civilization, and On the Steppe. The earlier stories worked better for me overall than the later ones.
Ones that have stuck with me but which I have mixed feelings about are Heads Against Concrete and The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides. Heads Against Concrete includes racism that I feel a little unsure about - meaning it's not clear to me how much Schweblin actually wants me to condemn the racism. As for The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides - it feels a little too on the nose. Some of the stories feel like they present very obvious metaphors and others don't. But that will depend a lot on the reader.
I also feel like it dipped into fatphobia at times. I don't remember her other work well enough to say whether that's a trend or an exception.
But overall, this collection is doing exactly what I like short stories to do. I like to be dropped into a weird situation to make of it what I will. Some were more successful for me than others!
This is a 3.5 I'm rounding down because I've enjoyed her other work more. But I still had a good time, even when it felt like the story didn't amount to much.
My favorites are Headlights, Preserves, Mouthful of Birds, The Digger, The Test, Toward Happy Civilization, and On the Steppe. The earlier stories worked better for me overall than the later ones.
Ones that have stuck with me but which I have mixed feelings about are Heads Against Concrete and The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides. Heads Against Concrete includes racism that I feel a little unsure about - meaning it's not clear to me how much Schweblin actually wants me to condemn the racism. As for The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides - it feels a little too on the nose. Some of the stories feel like they present very obvious metaphors and others don't. But that will depend a lot on the reader.
I also feel like it dipped into fatphobia at times. I don't remember her other work well enough to say whether that's a trend or an exception.
But overall, this collection is doing exactly what I like short stories to do. I like to be dropped into a weird situation to make of it what I will. Some were more successful for me than others!