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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
As a fan of Edgar Allen Poe's work, I purchased this anthology with the anticipation of reading a collection of macabre tales told in the style of Poe. The cover of the book, a raven perched on an hourglass, only seemed to back-up my assumption. But I was to be disappointed.
There is a note from the editor, Robert Nagle, at the end of this book that says a bit about Jack Matthews, who passed away in 2013. Well, I wish Nagle had not decided to use "Second Death of E.A Poe" as the title of this anthology. This is not a collection of macabre tales in the style of Poe. The first story tells of a football player who gets a rare chance to play for his team only to suffer a humiliating loss; I found the writing to be okay. Unfortunately, it had no real conclusion-no reward that most readers expect at the end of a story. The second story soon had me bristling with outrage, since it had a recurring theme of criticizing a woman for being fat. A policeman is injured lifting the woman he is arresting into his car, and his wife convinces him to sue the woman for caused his injury. It should have been thrown out of court. If he had tried to lift a 300-pound desk (without first getting assistance like a sensible person would have done) and injured himself, would it be the desk’s fault?
Then I came upon the title story, Second Death of E.A. Poe, and I was blown away. Not only does it have a consistently superior caliber of writing to what I had seen thus far, but there is a complete and satisfying story arc, with a rich, multi-layered plot that I just loved! The writing fit the setting, the mid-1800's, beautifully. (Nagle says he made editing suggestions for this story, and I can only assume they were good ones.) The story deserved to be published on its own. The other stories were a mix of good and very good short stories; they could have made a more fitting anthology together without the Poe tale, mainly because they would not set you up to expect something more of different from them.
There is a note from the editor, Robert Nagle, at the end of this book that says a bit about Jack Matthews, who passed away in 2013. Well, I wish Nagle had not decided to use "Second Death of E.A Poe" as the title of this anthology. This is not a collection of macabre tales in the style of Poe. The first story tells of a football player who gets a rare chance to play for his team only to suffer a humiliating loss; I found the writing to be okay. Unfortunately, it had no real conclusion-no reward that most readers expect at the end of a story. The second story soon had me bristling with outrage, since it had a recurring theme of criticizing a woman for being fat. A policeman is injured lifting the woman he is arresting into his car, and his wife convinces him to sue the woman for caused his injury. It should have been thrown out of court. If he had tried to lift a 300-pound desk (without first getting assistance like a sensible person would have done) and injured himself, would it be the desk’s fault?
Then I came upon the title story, Second Death of E.A. Poe, and I was blown away. Not only does it have a consistently superior caliber of writing to what I had seen thus far, but there is a complete and satisfying story arc, with a rich, multi-layered plot that I just loved! The writing fit the setting, the mid-1800's, beautifully. (Nagle says he made editing suggestions for this story, and I can only assume they were good ones.) The story deserved to be published on its own. The other stories were a mix of good and very good short stories; they could have made a more fitting anthology together without the Poe tale, mainly because they would not set you up to expect something more of different from them.