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timna_wyckoff's review
5.0
The stories here are nothing super special (although the context from the author's note makes the themes more interesting), but the writing is SO GREAT, every word/sentence is perfect.
geekwayne's review
5.0
'Thirteen Ways of Looking' by Colum McCann is a brilliant collection comprised of a novella and three short stories. I found myself mesmerized by the language and rhythm of the writing.
The title novella is a day in the life of an aging judge who meets his son for dinner and the tragic events that unfold around that. The father relates events of the past and present in a stream-of-consciousness way that reflects how I know I think, and may be familiar to other readers. Each of the 13 chapters includes a stanza from Wallace Steven's poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
The three short stories are about a writer on a deadline, a mother who buys her son a gift he has been wanting, and a nun sees her rapist and tormentor on television at a peace conference and has to confront her feelings all over again.
In an afterword by the author, it is told that the stories were written before a senseless attack on the author after he tried to help a woman on the street. The attack left him unconscious and hospitalized. we are fortunate to still have this voice among us. It's a beautiful collection of stories.
I received a review copy of this ebook from Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
The title novella is a day in the life of an aging judge who meets his son for dinner and the tragic events that unfold around that. The father relates events of the past and present in a stream-of-consciousness way that reflects how I know I think, and may be familiar to other readers. Each of the 13 chapters includes a stanza from Wallace Steven's poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
The three short stories are about a writer on a deadline, a mother who buys her son a gift he has been wanting, and a nun sees her rapist and tormentor on television at a peace conference and has to confront her feelings all over again.
In an afterword by the author, it is told that the stories were written before a senseless attack on the author after he tried to help a woman on the street. The attack left him unconscious and hospitalized. we are fortunate to still have this voice among us. It's a beautiful collection of stories.
I received a review copy of this ebook from Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
mjsteimle's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
mjfay's review
4.0
I don't have the language to critique his work, or explain why, but McCann's prose just mesmerizes me.
waggeldoris's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
toniclark's review against another edition
5.0
These are just stunning stories, magnificent writing, and the gorgeous audiobook narration (by McCann himself — oh, what a beautiful voice!) adds yet another dimension — one that seems to add emotion, sensitivity, and a deeper glimpse into the hearts of these brilliantly drawn characters. (Thanks to Goodreader Kelli for recommending the audio.)
There are, indeed, thirteen ways (and so many more) of looking at any situation, any life. The idea of multiple perspectives is most obviously employed in the title novella. Yet, these stories all explore the ways in which we scrutinize our own lives, as if studying ourselves in a mirror, turning the face this way and that, watching for something different to show up when we look from a different angle. What if this happened, what if that? If only I’d done thus and so. . . . What would my life be now?
The main characters are so alive — and treated with such empathy by the writer — that it’s hard to believe this is fiction (in three of the four pieces, anyway). That, combined with the pure poetry of the writing and the universality of the themes, elevates the collection to a high level of accomplishment. And tremendous pleasure for me. (I’ll no doubt listen to this one again, something I rarely do.)
And on some level, these are metafictions as well — one quite obviously so, the others more subtly. As the narrator comments in the title novella, “Just as a poem turns its reader into accomplice, so, too, the detectives become accomplice to the murder. But unlike our poetry, we like our murders to be fully solved: if, of course, it is a murder, or poetry, at all.”
From the Author’s Note: "Sometimes it seems to me that we are writing our lives in advance, but at other times we can only ever look back. In the end, though, every word we write is autobiographical, perhaps most especially when we attempt to avoid the autobiographical. For all its imagined moments, literature works in unimaginable ways.”
DON’T: Some people have read the title story as a murder mystery and expected to find out whodunnit. That’s not what it is.
DO: Start by reading Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird": http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45236
DO: Look into the McCann’s background (beyond his other fiction). Here’s an excerpt from the Los Angeles Review of Books:
“While developing the story, McCann himself was the victim of such an attack — a punch to the head, which left him unconscious and hospitalised and, by his own admission, broken in more ways than one.This brutal incident occurred in New Haven, Connecticut last summer [2014] after McCann intervened on behalf of a woman who was being assaulted in the street. Even more ironically, the reason McCann was in New Haven at all was to attend a conference at Yale University based on the concept of empathy — an annual summit for the storytelling charity Narrative 4, to whom Thirteen Ways is dedicated.
Founded by McCann in 2013, and supported by everyone from Dave Eggers to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Oprah Winfrey, Narrative 4 is an international organization devoted to the art of storytelling as a means of breaking down barriers. Bringing together youths from alternative backgrounds and inviting them to share their stories with one another, McCann and his team strive to shatter damaging concepts of “otherness” in the hope of creating a “next generation of empathetic leaders.”
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-new-way-of-looking-colum-mccann-and-the-empathy-of-his-fiction/
There are, indeed, thirteen ways (and so many more) of looking at any situation, any life. The idea of multiple perspectives is most obviously employed in the title novella. Yet, these stories all explore the ways in which we scrutinize our own lives, as if studying ourselves in a mirror, turning the face this way and that, watching for something different to show up when we look from a different angle. What if this happened, what if that? If only I’d done thus and so. . . . What would my life be now?
The main characters are so alive — and treated with such empathy by the writer — that it’s hard to believe this is fiction (in three of the four pieces, anyway). That, combined with the pure poetry of the writing and the universality of the themes, elevates the collection to a high level of accomplishment. And tremendous pleasure for me. (I’ll no doubt listen to this one again, something I rarely do.)
And on some level, these are metafictions as well — one quite obviously so, the others more subtly. As the narrator comments in the title novella, “Just as a poem turns its reader into accomplice, so, too, the detectives become accomplice to the murder. But unlike our poetry, we like our murders to be fully solved: if, of course, it is a murder, or poetry, at all.”
From the Author’s Note: "Sometimes it seems to me that we are writing our lives in advance, but at other times we can only ever look back. In the end, though, every word we write is autobiographical, perhaps most especially when we attempt to avoid the autobiographical. For all its imagined moments, literature works in unimaginable ways.”
DON’T: Some people have read the title story as a murder mystery and expected to find out whodunnit. That’s not what it is.
DO: Start by reading Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird": http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45236
DO: Look into the McCann’s background (beyond his other fiction). Here’s an excerpt from the Los Angeles Review of Books:
“While developing the story, McCann himself was the victim of such an attack — a punch to the head, which left him unconscious and hospitalised and, by his own admission, broken in more ways than one.This brutal incident occurred in New Haven, Connecticut last summer [2014] after McCann intervened on behalf of a woman who was being assaulted in the street. Even more ironically, the reason McCann was in New Haven at all was to attend a conference at Yale University based on the concept of empathy — an annual summit for the storytelling charity Narrative 4, to whom Thirteen Ways is dedicated.
Founded by McCann in 2013, and supported by everyone from Dave Eggers to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Oprah Winfrey, Narrative 4 is an international organization devoted to the art of storytelling as a means of breaking down barriers. Bringing together youths from alternative backgrounds and inviting them to share their stories with one another, McCann and his team strive to shatter damaging concepts of “otherness” in the hope of creating a “next generation of empathetic leaders.”
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-new-way-of-looking-colum-mccann-and-the-empathy-of-his-fiction/
essjay1's review
4.0
The title story was compelling reading, about the murder of the old judge, and I enjoyed both Sh’kol about a mother whose son disappears in Galway, and Treaty, about a nun who was taken prisoner in her youth and sees her captor 30 years later on TV.
anitaashland's review
4.0
The book opens with a 143 page novella about the last day in the life of a judge. The scenes switch back and forth between his thoughts as he goes about his day and the police investigating his possible murder and the future trial. A very interesting structure for a novella.
The first short story is about a writer composing a short story for a magazine. His brainstorming for the story is the story, which is a unique twist. Basically, the rough draft he writes in his head is the story we read.
The next short story is a suspenseful one about a divorced mother spending Christmas in Galway with her 13-year-old son who is dead and was adopted from Russia.
The final short story is my favorite one. The main character is an aging nun who smokes. While staying temporarily at a retreat to recover from exhaustion she catches a glimpse on TV of a man who raped 37 years ago. She is intent on confronting him, which leads to a gripping showdown.
The first short story is about a writer composing a short story for a magazine. His brainstorming for the story is the story, which is a unique twist. Basically, the rough draft he writes in his head is the story we read.
The next short story is a suspenseful one about a divorced mother spending Christmas in Galway with her 13-year-old son who is dead and was adopted from Russia.
The final short story is my favorite one. The main character is an aging nun who smokes. While staying temporarily at a retreat to recover from exhaustion she catches a glimpse on TV of a man who raped 37 years ago. She is intent on confronting him, which leads to a gripping showdown.
littletaiko's review
4.0
Very excited that McCann had a new book out as he is one of my favorite authors. This book is actually a novella and three short stories. Loved the title novella with it's stream of consciousness narrative, especially when we are spending time with the judge. Another of the stories shows the inner workings of an author's mind as they contemplate what to write next - found this one to be completely fascinating. All of the stories were quite good and are recommended.