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supkevs's review
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
bfth23's review
4.0
Good book of short stories from a perspective that I never would have had. Gave me a new view on Vietnam (which I know very little about)
anitaconchita's review
1.0
Gross.
Honestly, can white men stop writing stories about Vietnamese prostitutes? That's just the most glaring problem with this book. I 100% agree with other reviews that found the stilted language, and the mimicry of Vietnamese refugee language highly problematic.
Honestly, can white men stop writing stories about Vietnamese prostitutes? That's just the most glaring problem with this book. I 100% agree with other reviews that found the stilted language, and the mimicry of Vietnamese refugee language highly problematic.
synkopenleben's review
3.0
Both "Mr. Green" and "Love" were excellent short stories. I can wholeheartedly recommend those two. Frankly, the rest wasn't that good, or even interesting. Some stories just seemed to drag on and on, others seemed to be ripped straight out of some pulp novels. I cannot comprehend how this collection as a whole merited a Pulitzer-prize. But who am I to judge?
"Mr. Green" and "Love": 5/5
The Rest: 1,5/5
Total: 3,25/5
"Mr. Green" and "Love": 5/5
The Rest: 1,5/5
Total: 3,25/5
aemowers's review
5.0
“I knew I was seeing them too flatly. They were complicated human beings, like all of us, in spite of how hard they worked at making their surfaces simple.”
Quite possibly my new favorite collection of short stories. Butler writes individual character voices with a precision I did not realize I was missing, yet still manages to capture a harmony between each of them seamlessly. A must-read.
Quite possibly my new favorite collection of short stories. Butler writes individual character voices with a precision I did not realize I was missing, yet still manages to capture a harmony between each of them seamlessly. A must-read.
marthajean's review
2.0
I liked American Couple and the one about the deserter and a couple others but I skimmed a few because
I wasn’t interested and they were redundant. I just found it a little weird so many perspectives were
coming from the same author when they all feel so personal and for some reason this didn’t strike me as virtuosic but as a little creepy.
I wasn’t interested and they were redundant. I just found it a little weird so many perspectives were
coming from the same author when they all feel so personal and for some reason this didn’t strike me as virtuosic but as a little creepy.
acton's review
5.0
These are short stories about Vietnamese immigrants living in New Orleans. What looks like a Vietnamese community to outsiders isn't as much as a community as it appears; these immigrants come from all walks of life, made their way to New Orleans by different paths, and are adjusting to American life in very individual ways. All these stories are intriguing, and the way Robert Olen Butler assumes such a variety of different voices is mighty impressive.
cmarie1665's review
4.0
Other than "The American Couple," I loved this story collection. (The American Couple was one of the most boring stories I have ever read, and at 70 pages, it was a very long, very boring story). While I feel like there's a risk of appropriating another culture's story, I also think a good fiction writer can portray human nature, despite his or her cultural background, and the idea that Butler can't write from a Vietnamese point of view, to me, seems to come from a problematic assumption about the Other. If Butler is a keen observer of human nature, why can't he write well from any point of view he wants to?