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pinkbasil's review against another edition
3.0
This is my pandemic book. Started last March, finished this morning. I wish I’d liked it better —there were some very good stories and others that I found dull or annoying. But I made it through it.
amandasamuelson's review against another edition
slow-paced
4.0
A mammoth book of Deborah Eisenberg’s four short story collections. Overall I was really fond of Eisenberg’s stories, her writing is clearly very skilled, and she has an uncanny ability to transport you directly into the world she has created in a relatively small amount of pages. These stories are quite long, and thus I certainly recommend taking time between each, or at least between each collection, to sit with them. Some of the stories weren’t as interesting to me and were a bit tougher to get through. Overall my favourite collection was Twilight of the Superheroes. I loved seeing how her writing changed and progressed throughout the years she was writing these stories (the first collection was published in 1986 and the last was published in 2006). Here is a list of my favourite stories from each collection:
Transactions in a Foreign Currency
“What It Was Like, Seeing Chris”
“A Lesson in Traveling Light”
Under the 82nd Airborne
“A Cautionary Tale”
“The Custodian”
All Around Atlantis
“Someone to Talk to”
“All Around Atlantis”
Twilight of the Superheroes
“Twilight of the Superheroes”
“Window”
“The Flaw in the Design”
Transactions in a Foreign Currency
“What It Was Like, Seeing Chris”
“A Lesson in Traveling Light”
Under the 82nd Airborne
“A Cautionary Tale”
“The Custodian”
All Around Atlantis
“Someone to Talk to”
“All Around Atlantis”
Twilight of the Superheroes
“Twilight of the Superheroes”
“Window”
“The Flaw in the Design”
iammandyellen's review against another edition
4.0
I have a longer review posted on my blog (http://booklech.blogspot.com/) if anyone is interested... but for now, some favorite quotes:
(from 'twilight of the superheroes' p795):
"'Fifty percent of respondents say that the event taking place is not occurring,' Madison says, 'The other fifty percent remain undecided. Clearly the truth lies somewhere in between.'"
(from 'like it or not' p875)
"'It's a wonder we can understand anything at all about ourselves...We can't even see our own kidneys.'"
(from 'twilight of the superheroes' p795):
"'Fifty percent of respondents say that the event taking place is not occurring,' Madison says, 'The other fifty percent remain undecided. Clearly the truth lies somewhere in between.'"
(from 'like it or not' p875)
"'It's a wonder we can understand anything at all about ourselves...We can't even see our own kidneys.'"
djrmelvin's review against another edition
4.0
(Disclosure: This book was received free via the First-Reads program, with the understanding that I might read and review it.)
Not only "the collected stories", these are the complete stories of Deborah Eisenberg - four books in one very massive tome. This is a book to pick up and put down, read a story or two, go onto something lighter or maybe less introspective, and then come back to it when you have a hungering for a short visit to a deep place. I say deep, because no matter how much humor Eisenberg grants a character or a subject on the surface, you will be drawn down into stories that are so much more than their plots. There's a sort of progression through the four collections, starting with characters trying to define themselves by the people that surround them, then by the places they visit, until finally the stories that take familiar situations and challenge us to see them through the eyes of characters that we probably wouldn't run across every day in the real world.
There's a lot Virginia Woolf in Eisenberg's style, except that Eisenberg seems to like and sometimes even enjoy her characters. That makes reading even her darker and her most abstract stories for more enjoyable.
Not only "the collected stories", these are the complete stories of Deborah Eisenberg - four books in one very massive tome. This is a book to pick up and put down, read a story or two, go onto something lighter or maybe less introspective, and then come back to it when you have a hungering for a short visit to a deep place. I say deep, because no matter how much humor Eisenberg grants a character or a subject on the surface, you will be drawn down into stories that are so much more than their plots. There's a sort of progression through the four collections, starting with characters trying to define themselves by the people that surround them, then by the places they visit, until finally the stories that take familiar situations and challenge us to see them through the eyes of characters that we probably wouldn't run across every day in the real world.
There's a lot Virginia Woolf in Eisenberg's style, except that Eisenberg seems to like and sometimes even enjoy her characters. That makes reading even her darker and her most abstract stories for more enjoyable.
meganreadsome's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this book, but the writing style felt too tedious. I can’t put my finger on it, some of the storied had good concepts, I just couldn’t get into it. Plus the sheer size of the book was overwhelming!
braincabbage's review against another edition
2.0
The majority of this collection of short stories evoked the feeling in me of being a kid and having to sit at the dinner table with a group of adults, such as my extended family, and having to listen to their inane chit-chat while politely sitting still and pretending to care even though I would much rather do anything else at all. It was so banal, included way too many over-privileged soliloquies and most of it was just boring. I don't know why I finished it tbh. Maybe because I didn't hate it, I was just bored.
kellymce's review
Let me just say, I love having a big fat book of short stories written by a woman for my bedside reading. See also: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6670287-the-collected-stories-of-lydia-davis
kriziaannacastro's review
3.0
Well I read one story and that's "The Girl Who Left Her Socks on the Floor". It was more than a girl leaving her socks on the floor, it was so much more. I guess the problem I have with short stories is that they are too short. I love getting to know about the characters. I like taking my time. This is a 10-minute read so plus for that.
tippycanoegal's review
4.0
Deborah Eisenberg is a phenomenal writer and best of all, she is very smart and very funny.