Scan barcode
emscji's review
3.0
12/10/10: A friend gave me this book (thank you, Judith) and it is a wonderful collection. Sometimes I think thematic anthologies can be hokey, or overthought: stories connected so tenuously or strenuously that the effort of noting their similarities serves only to distort their integrity. But that is not the case here. Maybe it's that so many stories exist about sisters that there is a wide range to choose from, so all the stories are great; maybe it's that the topic of sisters is such a rich vein to mine. Or maybe it's simply the talent of this editor--it seems only fair to give credit for that.
In any case, I read every story (which does not always happen) and loved more than half of them (ditto). Alice Munro's "The Progress of Love" is brilliant; Maeve Brennan's "The Springs of Affection" is wonderfully, terribly sad. I loved Lee Smith's "Cakewalk" and Joy Williams' "Traveling to Pridesup". And Elizabeth Bowen's "A Queer Heart" and Jean Stafford's "In the Zoo" are so poignant--they say so much, in so few words, about how shared experience, even if never discussed, can shape sisters' lives and relationships.
I forget sometimes how different, and how rewarding, short stories can be. I don't read them often, because it always seems like so much work to commit to a story line, only to have it end too quickly--whereupon I have to start all over again. A novel is more sustained (obviously). But it's a very good exercise, not to mention a rewarding one!
In any case, I read every story (which does not always happen) and loved more than half of them (ditto). Alice Munro's "The Progress of Love" is brilliant; Maeve Brennan's "The Springs of Affection" is wonderfully, terribly sad. I loved Lee Smith's "Cakewalk" and Joy Williams' "Traveling to Pridesup". And Elizabeth Bowen's "A Queer Heart" and Jean Stafford's "In the Zoo" are so poignant--they say so much, in so few words, about how shared experience, even if never discussed, can shape sisters' lives and relationships.
I forget sometimes how different, and how rewarding, short stories can be. I don't read them often, because it always seems like so much work to commit to a story line, only to have it end too quickly--whereupon I have to start all over again. A novel is more sustained (obviously). But it's a very good exercise, not to mention a rewarding one!
More...