Reviews

American Estrangement: Stories by Said Sayrafiezadeh

aliena_jackson's review

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3.0

I feel very neutral about this collection. I think Saïd Sayrafiezadeh can write (the man clearly has oodles of talent!) but I didn’t emotionally connect with any of the stories.

colemanwarnerwriter's review

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4.0

I've been obsessed with "A, S, D, F" ever since I stumbled upon it in The New Yorker. To this day it is one of my favorite short stories and I knew I had to pick up this collection sooner or later. These stories are witty and subtly strange (for a couple of the stories their strangeness obscured what I was supposed to take away from it). Sayrafiezadeh does not bother easing you into his weird, little, realistic worlds, but he does deliver a familiar tone of cautious optimism despite what occurs throughout these stories.

"Basically, what the doctor is suggesting is that you shouldn't be wasting your time with make-believe stories about boys being pursued through abandoned hotels by men wielding mallets -speaking of metaphor. What you really need to be doing is 'coming to terms,' and you need to be doing it now. You have to start figuring out how the obsolete past is interfering with the inescapable present, ten, fifteen, twenty years later, particularly how it's interfering with your attempt at happiness. But the main impediment, as far as the doctor's concerned, is that you don't know how to figure any of this out, and the other impediment is that you don't know if you want to."

ridgewaygirl's review

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5.0

This is a collection of short stories that focus on young men who are treading water in their lives, dealing with entry-level jobs, mothers dying of cancer and a general inability to have things go smoothly. But Saïd Sayrafiezadeh also fills these stories with ordinary pleasures and glimpses of hope; a man remembers when his mother buys him a shirt at Goodwill that gives him credibility at his new school or a young man stuck in a dead end job meets a girl he likes. Sayrafiezadeh doesn't mind making the reader uncomfortable or uncertain. He's writing about the working class, the marginalized and the discontented. And the stories are quietly perfect, from the clear and unobtrusive writing, to the way the author creates vivid settings within a single paragraph. This book reminded me of why I love short stories so much, that when they are well-crafted, they contain entire lives in single moments.

sev32's review

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4.0

very interesting stories… his protagonists tend to be unaware, privileged, self righteous assholes who warrant little affection and yet i find myself caring for them. i especially love an introduction to estrangement, midnight, and the story about crossing borders. i wish he would write about disaffected diaspora more because he’s so good at it. he has a natural rhythm and uses repetition amazingly well. his prose is simple, not overly flowery or complicated but really hones in on whatever he’s describing.

cmgreen's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

bellabaff's review

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dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

violet97's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

nickel_is_neat's review against another edition

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3.0

The second story was my favorite.

princesspearl's review

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3.0

i like his writing style a lot, but wasn’t totally satisfied with many of the endings 

mandasbooks's review

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medium-paced

3.0