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steveatwaywords's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
There are moments and tales of real poignancy in this collection of culturally intersectional desperations. Mukherjee stretches his experience to reach into scenarios across the planet, across politics and economic status, across legal borders--in the end, a reader cannot hope to guess what unspoken chapter of emigration and collision will be exposed next. For all of this, there are few works like it.
At the same time, we cannot guess the outcomes to such moments of abrupt circumstance. One of his off-stage characters describes the world as one of fractals, and this is as good a description of the narrative closures as we are likely to receive. Do not expect, then, that morally focused characters will find justice, that mistakes will be forgiven, even that a journey will find its end. Mukherjee's resolutions are often far more subtle, either open-staging a place for new tragedy or turning unexpectedly into a brief peaceful rest. As life offers no promises, nor do these stories.
While raw in this way (some of the characters and settings are affrontive and unsettling), unless readers allow the tales to dictate their own rules, most of these stories may feel unsatisfying. The connections and resolutions they offer are in micro-moments, in an emotive response, in a step inward to something new. This is, perhaps, as it should be. My own expectations for story are grounded in a Western patriarchal progression of narrative: no wonder, then, that I shift uneasily at times as I encounter her brutal and broken male perspectives, her "casting back" at my idealistic naivete for the fairy tale.
At the same time, we cannot guess the outcomes to such moments of abrupt circumstance. One of his off-stage characters describes the world as one of fractals, and this is as good a description of the narrative closures as we are likely to receive. Do not expect, then, that morally focused characters will find justice, that mistakes will be forgiven, even that a journey will find its end. Mukherjee's resolutions are often far more subtle, either open-staging a place for new tragedy or turning unexpectedly into a brief peaceful rest. As life offers no promises, nor do these stories.
While raw in this way (some of the characters and settings are affrontive and unsettling), unless readers allow the tales to dictate their own rules, most of these stories may feel unsatisfying. The connections and resolutions they offer are in micro-moments, in an emotive response, in a step inward to something new. This is, perhaps, as it should be. My own expectations for story are grounded in a Western patriarchal progression of narrative: no wonder, then, that I shift uneasily at times as I encounter her brutal and broken male perspectives, her "casting back" at my idealistic naivete for the fairy tale.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Racism, Sexism, Colonisation, Death, and Deportation
silhouettenkind's review against another edition
3.0
we read 6 of the stories in class and the others I read by myself. I liked most of the stories, but Mukherjee has a very individual style.
survivalisinsufficient's review against another edition
3.0
I liked these stories with different perspectives on immigrants, the immigrant experience, etc., but most weren't very memorable.
natmar's review against another edition
2.0
DNF.
I found almost every character insufferable. And don’t get me wrong, insufferable characters can be great characters. But these were irredeemably insufferable characters, and often it felt like Mukherjee wasn’t even critiquing their horrible qualities. Ex. a lot of the male characters were low key (or sometimes high key) misogynistic, and nothing was said for or against it; they just were (and that in itself can be a valuable thing to write about, but I just don’t think Mukherjee pulled it off).
That being said, “Fathering” was a 5/5 story from this collection. Definitely give that one a read. Its emotions are deliciously complex and entangled.
I found almost every character insufferable. And don’t get me wrong, insufferable characters can be great characters. But these were irredeemably insufferable characters, and often it felt like Mukherjee wasn’t even critiquing their horrible qualities. Ex. a lot of the male characters were low key (or sometimes high key) misogynistic, and nothing was said for or against it; they just were (and that in itself can be a valuable thing to write about, but I just don’t think Mukherjee pulled it off).
That being said, “Fathering” was a 5/5 story from this collection. Definitely give that one a read. Its emotions are deliciously complex and entangled.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
4.0
Most of the characters in Bharati
Mukherjee's The Middleman and
Other Stories are displaced,
foreign born people living in
America. They feel odd, out of
touch with the world in which
they live, yet out of touch with
the world from which they came.
I can easily see why Mukherjee
won the National Book Critics
Circle Award for these stories.
Highly recommended.
Mukherjee's The Middleman and
Other Stories are displaced,
foreign born people living in
America. They feel odd, out of
touch with the world in which
they live, yet out of touch with
the world from which they came.
I can easily see why Mukherjee
won the National Book Critics
Circle Award for these stories.
Highly recommended.
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