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anna_chandler's review against another edition
2.0
This is a bizarrely misogynist collection of short stories.
This has most to do with the first and longest novella, but problems in it stem over to the other two. There's some fatphobia and odd ideas about homosexuality - though those could entirely be in the mind of the narrator, not the author, and just happen to repeat - but women always drop their careers to take care of children, women's sexuality is always about service (there are multiple blow jobs described, but no reciprocal pleasuring of the woman; their orgasms occur not only from solely penetrative sex but because of the man's ejaculation), and women exist in service to a man's dreams, to push him to write, to serve as muse or lost love.
This is only a mild problem in the third novella, which is also the only one from a man's point of view. It's a more significant problem in the second novella but the main character is also a really interesting one; Karen is sharp and fierce. Her story was my favorite and I could easily see it winning some "Gone Girl-esque" story competition. So if these ideas had popped up in only these two stories, I would have shrugged and let it go. The writing itself is solid, and the descriptions of food wonderful (naturally); the transitions in time themselves can be a little clunky but the back and forth through episodes, the tastes of future and then flashback, really develop each story and are a real asset. If it weren't for the first novella I'd have enjoyed the collection, noted a few mild issues, and rated it as a 3 and moved on.
However, there's the first novella.
When I say misogynist I am not claiming the author hates women. I thoroughly believe he doesn't. But there is no authenticity to his female narrator's voice. The interior world of women is missing; she's a flat character shaped by what men think women must be. Grimsley is the woman Guy in Your MFA would come up with...only non-ironically.
Grimsley exists only to mourn her only and lost love, Em, who is important because he could be a Novelist, and she desperately encourages him to be a Writer; she considers herself his Muse and is delighted, fulfilled at the end when she discovers she truly is the Daisy to his Gatsby; she considers herself fulfilled in life to be a endless font of support and affection and inspiration. At the novella's beginning we discover Grimsley to have faded into a quiet ordinary life of service to her career and siblings and their children, then is shocked to see again the adult Em. All well and good: the electricity of regained love is an excellent hook. But then we learn about their past college relationship, which... wasn't a relationship. They dated, briefly, and then for years he ignores her to only show up in her bed for two reasons: sex and praise for his newest short story. That's painfully realistic but there's no ironic narrative distance, no realization in her adulthood how painful and selfish this was of him. (That sex, as above, is only for him. Her pleasure exists as a reflection of his sexual pleasure, and no more.)
Her whole life is about receiving and complimenting those stories. And her life doesn't grow after he leaves, which in some way is purposeful and others a misstep. She has female friends as a student, but those friendships are only referred to, not existent. According to the narrative she had a strong relationship with her mother, but there's no texture to this either. She's supposedly a great reader but only reads men; there's one reference to a female author but this is the world of Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Grimsley even claims to immediately buy the hardcover version of any new Franzen novel. FRANZEN. (There's no reference to Bronte, by the way, even though Grimsley's tight, constrained plainness would be such the allusion to Jane.)
When Em visits the campus and Grimsley gently coaches him on his problems and his successes and his obvious depression that no one, even his wife has noticed, because he's not writing the 'right' things, and she pushes him to write, and they have a brief affair. Though in her 40's, she becomes pregnant (though in her 40's, her breasts are still perfect, as are the detailed, perfect breasts of every female character). While deciding whether to tell Em, he Fitzgeralds himself to death. Grimsley attends the funeral and meets his wife (who, by the way, happily doesn't notice she's pregnant; because Grimsely is able to convince her she's just "a porker" instead). His wife, realizing that her success and children and marriage are clearly nothing to her husband's Muse, sends Grimsely what Em was working on before his death (creating his death, the narrative hints at). Em is the writer of the interspliced flashbacks (and this was a nice touch). Em has carried a torch for Grimsley this whole time, and realizing he can't have her kills himself, and she is duly touched.
What's interesting - and telling - is that Em isn't really in love with Grimsley. He's in love with what she provided him - her inspiration, her coaching, her trim sexy body, her support. He's in love with Writing, and she represents Writing as his Muse, and conflicted with the success of his Hollywood career with what "Real Writing" means he drinks himself into a car crash. She, truly in love with Em, carries this as a success. It is tragic, but it is the one thing he's given her, other than the child. The child whom this whole story has been a narrative for, by the way, although I can't imagine what 18 year old boy would want to get to know his absent father (who may have secretly sired how many other children, Grimsley wonders) via the story of just how many times his father and mother had sex and how great it was. The child is a boy, of course. (The only way this novella squeaks by the Bechdel test, despite having a female narrator, is if you consider Grimsely's conversation with her doctor to not be about a male fetus.) The child is Em, and Grimsley so having well served Em and carried Em can now close the narrative at peace with her quite, obedient life.
It's....weird. It's every young-writer-man-imagining-his-perfect-girlfriend story. But told through the girlfriend's voice! Which would be great! Except. She is everything OF his imagination and nothing more.
Perhaps there's a narrative irony I didn't catch. But. The issues with this novella shadow over the other two, and then there's the acknowledgement, in which the author states these details as autobiographical, or semi-autobiographical. Now he's referring to his relationship with a mentor (Em runs into Grimsley as adults because he's returned to the college for his mentor's funeral; Grimsley has never left) - in fact, he states that's how the story started, about his relationship with his mentor. Grimsely is a slightly odd narrator, then. She knew almost nothing of Em's relationship with his mentor, and it serves as a narrative spark, not as a strong theme. Instead the author must want to tell the story of a man who gets too caught up with success and the demands of a home life to write the Great American Novel, and his relationship with the Novel's Muse: a 120lb (yes, this is stated) perky-breasted woman who is happy to offer him blowjobs and read his college work and encourage him to share his voice to the world and never ask for anything more.
Women are people first. This story either forgot that.
As I said, the other two are better; I'd recommend the second as a stand-alone novella if you're at the airport. But "In Short Measures"? Snuggle it next to Franzen and Harold Bloom and pay it no further heed.
This has most to do with the first and longest novella, but problems in it stem over to the other two. There's some fatphobia and odd ideas about homosexuality - though those could entirely be in the mind of the narrator, not the author, and just happen to repeat - but women always drop their careers to take care of children, women's sexuality is always about service (there are multiple blow jobs described, but no reciprocal pleasuring of the woman; their orgasms occur not only from solely penetrative sex but because of the man's ejaculation), and women exist in service to a man's dreams, to push him to write, to serve as muse or lost love.
This is only a mild problem in the third novella, which is also the only one from a man's point of view. It's a more significant problem in the second novella but the main character is also a really interesting one; Karen is sharp and fierce. Her story was my favorite and I could easily see it winning some "Gone Girl-esque" story competition. So if these ideas had popped up in only these two stories, I would have shrugged and let it go. The writing itself is solid, and the descriptions of food wonderful (naturally); the transitions in time themselves can be a little clunky but the back and forth through episodes, the tastes of future and then flashback, really develop each story and are a real asset. If it weren't for the first novella I'd have enjoyed the collection, noted a few mild issues, and rated it as a 3 and moved on.
However, there's the first novella.
When I say misogynist I am not claiming the author hates women. I thoroughly believe he doesn't. But there is no authenticity to his female narrator's voice. The interior world of women is missing; she's a flat character shaped by what men think women must be. Grimsley is the woman Guy in Your MFA would come up with...only non-ironically.
Grimsley exists only to mourn her only and lost love, Em, who is important because he could be a Novelist, and she desperately encourages him to be a Writer; she considers herself his Muse and is delighted, fulfilled at the end when she discovers she truly is the Daisy to his Gatsby; she considers herself fulfilled in life to be a endless font of support and affection and inspiration. At the novella's beginning we discover Grimsley to have faded into a quiet ordinary life of service to her career and siblings and their children, then is shocked to see again the adult Em. All well and good: the electricity of regained love is an excellent hook. But then we learn about their past college relationship, which... wasn't a relationship. They dated, briefly, and then for years he ignores her to only show up in her bed for two reasons: sex and praise for his newest short story. That's painfully realistic but there's no ironic narrative distance, no realization in her adulthood how painful and selfish this was of him. (That sex, as above, is only for him. Her pleasure exists as a reflection of his sexual pleasure, and no more.)
Her whole life is about receiving and complimenting those stories. And her life doesn't grow after he leaves, which in some way is purposeful and others a misstep. She has female friends as a student, but those friendships are only referred to, not existent. According to the narrative she had a strong relationship with her mother, but there's no texture to this either. She's supposedly a great reader but only reads men; there's one reference to a female author but this is the world of Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Grimsley even claims to immediately buy the hardcover version of any new Franzen novel. FRANZEN. (There's no reference to Bronte, by the way, even though Grimsley's tight, constrained plainness would be such the allusion to Jane.)
When Em visits the campus and Grimsley gently coaches him on his problems and his successes and his obvious depression that no one, even his wife has noticed, because he's not writing the 'right' things, and she pushes him to write, and they have a brief affair. Though in her 40's, she becomes pregnant (though in her 40's, her breasts are still perfect, as are the detailed, perfect breasts of every female character). While deciding whether to tell Em, he Fitzgeralds himself to death. Grimsley attends the funeral and meets his wife (who, by the way, happily doesn't notice she's pregnant; because Grimsely is able to convince her she's just "a porker" instead). His wife, realizing that her success and children and marriage are clearly nothing to her husband's Muse, sends Grimsely what Em was working on before his death (creating his death, the narrative hints at). Em is the writer of the interspliced flashbacks (and this was a nice touch). Em has carried a torch for Grimsley this whole time, and realizing he can't have her kills himself, and she is duly touched.
What's interesting - and telling - is that Em isn't really in love with Grimsley. He's in love with what she provided him - her inspiration, her coaching, her trim sexy body, her support. He's in love with Writing, and she represents Writing as his Muse, and conflicted with the success of his Hollywood career with what "Real Writing" means he drinks himself into a car crash. She, truly in love with Em, carries this as a success. It is tragic, but it is the one thing he's given her, other than the child. The child whom this whole story has been a narrative for, by the way, although I can't imagine what 18 year old boy would want to get to know his absent father (who may have secretly sired how many other children, Grimsley wonders) via the story of just how many times his father and mother had sex and how great it was. The child is a boy, of course. (The only way this novella squeaks by the Bechdel test, despite having a female narrator, is if you consider Grimsely's conversation with her doctor to not be about a male fetus.) The child is Em, and Grimsley so having well served Em and carried Em can now close the narrative at peace with her quite, obedient life.
It's....weird. It's every young-writer-man-imagining-his-perfect-girlfriend story. But told through the girlfriend's voice! Which would be great! Except. She is everything OF his imagination and nothing more.
Perhaps there's a narrative irony I didn't catch. But. The issues with this novella shadow over the other two, and then there's the acknowledgement, in which the author states these details as autobiographical, or semi-autobiographical. Now he's referring to his relationship with a mentor (Em runs into Grimsley as adults because he's returned to the college for his mentor's funeral; Grimsley has never left) - in fact, he states that's how the story started, about his relationship with his mentor. Grimsely is a slightly odd narrator, then. She knew almost nothing of Em's relationship with his mentor, and it serves as a narrative spark, not as a strong theme. Instead the author must want to tell the story of a man who gets too caught up with success and the demands of a home life to write the Great American Novel, and his relationship with the Novel's Muse: a 120lb (yes, this is stated) perky-breasted woman who is happy to offer him blowjobs and read his college work and encourage him to share his voice to the world and never ask for anything more.
Women are people first. This story either forgot that.
As I said, the other two are better; I'd recommend the second as a stand-alone novella if you're at the airport. But "In Short Measures"? Snuggle it next to Franzen and Harold Bloom and pay it no further heed.
alsmilesalot's review against another edition
3.0
Not sure it is quite 3 stars. I love the authors non-fiction and his blog and, well, everything of his I have ever laid my hands on but these didn't quite work for me and I'm not sure what is a mismatch in my expectations/hope vs. what is a limitation of the writing or the story.
tanirochelle's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
tonyroma4646's review against another edition
3.0
I struggled pretty badly trying to finish this book. The novellas did really well in keeping with the general theme of the book focusing on love and the loyalty(ies) it entails.
The first novella was the longest and weakest of the three. It was such a drag. The second and third novellas were much better, but still fell a little flat for my taste.
The first novella was the longest and weakest of the three. It was such a drag. The second and third novellas were much better, but still fell a little flat for my taste.