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nunuseli's review against another edition
4.0
Si bien al libro 'El joven audaz sobre el trapecio volante' (magnífico título) le pongo cuatro estrellas, a William Saroyan como escritor le pondría cinco estrellas como cinco soles, a pesar de que éste es el primer libro que leo de él (aunque ya vendrán más). No sé si sabré explicar el por qué. No es sólo que William Saroyan sea uno de esos escritores que caen bien, a los que te hubiera encantado poder conocer en persona para poder charlar sobre libros y sobre la vida mientras de fondo sonaba jazz en un antiguo fonógrafo. En este libro hay una gran cantidad de cuentos maravillosos, algunos buenos y otros que no están tan conseguidos, pero incluso en estos cuentos que no te gustan tanto notas que los ha escrito una persona con la que conectas a un nivel muy profundo.
Un buen número de cuentos están protagonizados por niños introspectivos que empiezan a tomar conciencia de ellos mismos y de la belleza y la tristeza que los rodea. Puede que haya muchas historias sobre niños introvertidos, pero hay pocas que realmente sepan transmitir lo que de verdad es ser una persona introvertida. Y esto Saroyan lo hace como nadie. Otro gran número de cuentos están protagonizados por personajes que durante la gran depresión no tienen un mendrugo de pan que llevarse a la boca, la mayoría de los cuales son escritores que viven en habitaciones alquiladas amuebladas sólo con libros que quieren por encima de todas las cosas y si tienen suerte también disponen de un viejo fonógrafo. Y finalmente hay los cuentos no tan conseguidos que se pierden en marasmos demasiado experimentalistas y abstractos.
Sin embargo, en todos los cuentos de Saroyan se desprende un immenso e incontenible amor por la vida y por la literatura. Son cuentos de una intensidad y un vitalismo extemos. Con una pizca de sentido del humor y una gran capacidad de transmitir los sentimientos y las sensaciones que tenemos todos nosotros. Son historias sobre soledad, incomunicación, tristeza, amistad, amor, monotonía, pobreza, literatura, cine, frío... historias sobre todo lo humano. Historias escritas con mucho amor (por cursi que suene esto). Y si digo historias es porque realmente antes que cuentos o relatos son historias. Mi favorita es 'Risa' sobre la incomunicación entre una profe sustituta y un alumno suyo. Pero también la historia de amor que es '1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8' y la metaficcional 'Un día de frío' y en realidad hay tantas de magníficas... Todo un descubrimiento. Ya desde el tercer relato supe que Saroyan iba a ser uno de esos escritores de los que me querría leer todo lo que ha escrito. Así de magnífico es, asi de cercano y de immenso es.
Un buen número de cuentos están protagonizados por niños introspectivos que empiezan a tomar conciencia de ellos mismos y de la belleza y la tristeza que los rodea. Puede que haya muchas historias sobre niños introvertidos, pero hay pocas que realmente sepan transmitir lo que de verdad es ser una persona introvertida. Y esto Saroyan lo hace como nadie. Otro gran número de cuentos están protagonizados por personajes que durante la gran depresión no tienen un mendrugo de pan que llevarse a la boca, la mayoría de los cuales son escritores que viven en habitaciones alquiladas amuebladas sólo con libros que quieren por encima de todas las cosas y si tienen suerte también disponen de un viejo fonógrafo. Y finalmente hay los cuentos no tan conseguidos que se pierden en marasmos demasiado experimentalistas y abstractos.
Sin embargo, en todos los cuentos de Saroyan se desprende un immenso e incontenible amor por la vida y por la literatura. Son cuentos de una intensidad y un vitalismo extemos. Con una pizca de sentido del humor y una gran capacidad de transmitir los sentimientos y las sensaciones que tenemos todos nosotros. Son historias sobre soledad, incomunicación, tristeza, amistad, amor, monotonía, pobreza, literatura, cine, frío... historias sobre todo lo humano. Historias escritas con mucho amor (por cursi que suene esto). Y si digo historias es porque realmente antes que cuentos o relatos son historias. Mi favorita es 'Risa' sobre la incomunicación entre una profe sustituta y un alumno suyo. Pero también la historia de amor que es '1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8' y la metaficcional 'Un día de frío' y en realidad hay tantas de magníficas... Todo un descubrimiento. Ya desde el tercer relato supe que Saroyan iba a ser uno de esos escritores de los que me querría leer todo lo que ha escrito. Así de magnífico es, asi de cercano y de immenso es.
thursday_nxt's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
karinaleonard's review against another edition
3.0
I read the preface, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze," "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8", "Love, Death, Sacrifice, and So Forth," and "Seventy Thousand Assyrians." I want to read more because I found him a very different author. He explains some of his ideas about writing in the preface, which helped me understand and put in context the stories I read.
kmccubbin's review against another edition
5.0
"I am out here in the far West, in San Francisco, in a small room on Carl Street, writing a letter to common people, telling them in simple language what they already know."
For a while I thought of "Five Star" books as the ones that must simply be perfect, but then you have to have room for writers like William Saroyan. Loud, brash, sometimes messy, Saroyan's short stories are a true American treasure. They read much like Joyce's "Dubliners" stories with a similar sense of lusty humanism and unforced epiphany. Saroyan even quotes "Finnegans Wake" at one point.
But lest you take that to mean that this is a didactic and over-intellectualized collection let me say that Saroyan IS the great American humanist author you've been looking for without knowing it. His brilliance is passion and his passion is brilliant. These writings get under the fingernails of real people. There are no stereotypes and the embrace of the human condition is honest and effusive. Almost giddy at some points.
You might occasionally feel that Saroyan's prose is over the top, but you'll never doubt his sincerity. He would be saying those exact things to you about homeless Russian gamblers, San Francisco prostitutes, the Depression and Armenian immigrants and the movies in that exact way if you met him on the street.
This is also one of the best views of the 30s from the ground floor you'll ever see.
"Try to learn to breathe deeply; really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell." - Saroyan
For a while I thought of "Five Star" books as the ones that must simply be perfect, but then you have to have room for writers like William Saroyan. Loud, brash, sometimes messy, Saroyan's short stories are a true American treasure. They read much like Joyce's "Dubliners" stories with a similar sense of lusty humanism and unforced epiphany. Saroyan even quotes "Finnegans Wake" at one point.
But lest you take that to mean that this is a didactic and over-intellectualized collection let me say that Saroyan IS the great American humanist author you've been looking for without knowing it. His brilliance is passion and his passion is brilliant. These writings get under the fingernails of real people. There are no stereotypes and the embrace of the human condition is honest and effusive. Almost giddy at some points.
You might occasionally feel that Saroyan's prose is over the top, but you'll never doubt his sincerity. He would be saying those exact things to you about homeless Russian gamblers, San Francisco prostitutes, the Depression and Armenian immigrants and the movies in that exact way if you met him on the street.
This is also one of the best views of the 30s from the ground floor you'll ever see.
"Try to learn to breathe deeply; really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell." - Saroyan
abbie_'s review
3.0
3.75 stars
It can always be a bit of a risk reading a short story collection as your first book by a particular author, but I think the stories in this collection gave me a great taste for William Saroyan’s style and the themes he addresses in his work! While I wasn’t blown away by every one, there was more than enough tucked away in this collection to make me eager to read one of his novels one day... and there is the fact that he’s very well known for his short stories, so maybe it wasn’t that much of a risk after all...
.
Born to Armenian parents in California, a lot of Saroyan’s stories deal with immigration in some way, with feelings of displacement and not belonging running through them, but I thought he really excelled when writing about the struggles of being a writer and of America during the Great Depression. A lot of the stories in this collection would appeal to those of you who harbour ambitions to become a writer, and a lot of my favourites were on that topic, including Fight Your Own War (a young writer steadfastly refusing to be conscripted for the war), A Cold Day (a poor writer reflects on the necessity of writing every day no matter your circumstances) and Myself Upon the Earth (a reflection on the need to write for yourself and not to be published).
.
A few of the stories were forgettable or a bit hard to follow, but for the most part they were enjoyable and his style is very readable! Although a lot of his characters are writers, they all feel individual and very well developed considering you’re only with them for ten pages or so - it makes me think that the characters in his novels will be the kind that will stay with you for a long time!
It can always be a bit of a risk reading a short story collection as your first book by a particular author, but I think the stories in this collection gave me a great taste for William Saroyan’s style and the themes he addresses in his work! While I wasn’t blown away by every one, there was more than enough tucked away in this collection to make me eager to read one of his novels one day... and there is the fact that he’s very well known for his short stories, so maybe it wasn’t that much of a risk after all...
.
Born to Armenian parents in California, a lot of Saroyan’s stories deal with immigration in some way, with feelings of displacement and not belonging running through them, but I thought he really excelled when writing about the struggles of being a writer and of America during the Great Depression. A lot of the stories in this collection would appeal to those of you who harbour ambitions to become a writer, and a lot of my favourites were on that topic, including Fight Your Own War (a young writer steadfastly refusing to be conscripted for the war), A Cold Day (a poor writer reflects on the necessity of writing every day no matter your circumstances) and Myself Upon the Earth (a reflection on the need to write for yourself and not to be published).
.
A few of the stories were forgettable or a bit hard to follow, but for the most part they were enjoyable and his style is very readable! Although a lot of his characters are writers, they all feel individual and very well developed considering you’re only with them for ten pages or so - it makes me think that the characters in his novels will be the kind that will stay with you for a long time!
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