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corydoesmath's review
2.0
I loved the art and the fact that each scene was an artistic blip. It had the cool effect of feeling like you were actually watching a movie - movement with seemingly little effort. The story was a little lackluster and the ending wasn't satisfying.
lulubella's review
3.0
Oh, boy. Lots of feelings from this one. I'm going to need some time to think it over.
francomega's review against another edition
3.0
Sad series of vignettes about three teen boys growing up in a small rural town while their fathers are off in the military. They're lost, both as kids and as soon-to-be adults. The title comes from how they constantly refresh their email to check if their dads have written to them.
tdstorm's review against another edition
4.0
Percy is really good at examining the complexities of male emotional lives. Many of these stories border on horror, but his in-depth examinations of character make this collection decidedly literary. The title story is getting the most attention, but I thought Caves of Oregon and When the Bear Came were the most impressive.
seanmcfinn's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. I wish I could be more articulate, but I can't right now. Wow.
spygrl1's review against another edition
2.0
There is a lot of blood in this book--hunting, fighting, accidents, murders.
My favorite stories were: The Killing, Meltdown, and Refresh, Refresh.
The protagonist of The Killing is exceptionally well etched: a Vietnam vet who keeps his amputated foot in a bucket of formaldehyde in his taxidermy studio in the woods. His grandson is staying with him while his daughter gets pounded on by her latest swaggering boyfriend.
Meltdown dovetails with my apocalypse obsession (thanks for that, Adam Johnson). A terrorism drill leads to a meltdown at an Oregon nuclear power plant. Darren Townsend's parents were killed (his father was the plant manager) and Darren was called back from National Guard duty in Afghanistan to help with the clean-up. Now he's left his post and left the safe zone, riding his tricked out Harley through the hot zone, sleeping in his family's back yard bomb shelter.
The title story also takes place in Oregon and also touches on the impact of our "War on Terror." The boys of Tumalo, Oregon, are on their own, their National Guardsmen fathers unexpectedly called to serve in Iraq. Left to their own devices, they waver between boyhood and adulthood, inventing their own rituals of masculinity (the narrator and his friend create a boxing ring from a coiled garden hose and punch one another until they bleed and their gloves are shredded).
My favorite stories were: The Killing, Meltdown, and Refresh, Refresh.
The protagonist of The Killing is exceptionally well etched: a Vietnam vet who keeps his amputated foot in a bucket of formaldehyde in his taxidermy studio in the woods. His grandson is staying with him while his daughter gets pounded on by her latest swaggering boyfriend.
Meltdown dovetails with my apocalypse obsession (thanks for that, Adam Johnson). A terrorism drill leads to a meltdown at an Oregon nuclear power plant. Darren Townsend's parents were killed (his father was the plant manager) and Darren was called back from National Guard duty in Afghanistan to help with the clean-up. Now he's left his post and left the safe zone, riding his tricked out Harley through the hot zone, sleeping in his family's back yard bomb shelter.
The title story also takes place in Oregon and also touches on the impact of our "War on Terror." The boys of Tumalo, Oregon, are on their own, their National Guardsmen fathers unexpectedly called to serve in Iraq. Left to their own devices, they waver between boyhood and adulthood, inventing their own rituals of masculinity (the narrator and his friend create a boxing ring from a coiled garden hose and punch one another until they bleed and their gloves are shredded).
kawai's review against another edition
4.0
One of the greatest characteristics of short story collections is the ability to read them in pieces. It's also what makes them easy to come back to: no long commitment, a choice to skip stories you've read before and didn't like, or an even deeper reading of those you have.
Percy's REFRESH,REFRESH benefited greatly from multiple readings. While the first time through I enjoyed the fast pace, and terse, declarative, muscular language, subsequent reads focused on the well-designed structure of the stories and the attention to detail given not only to the characters, but to their environments as well.
The stories range in specific focus and style, but all share an overall backdrop of rural Oregon, whether that's the violent life of a small-town Marine's son, or the struggling marriage of a couple that lives above a bat-infested cave. Some stories have elements of classic genre writing (horror/thrillers, in particular), while others tend more towards the classic 'literary' style.
Still, I loved many of the stories and will return to them more in the future, I suspect.
Percy's REFRESH,REFRESH benefited greatly from multiple readings. While the first time through I enjoyed the fast pace, and terse, declarative, muscular language, subsequent reads focused on the well-designed structure of the stories and the attention to detail given not only to the characters, but to their environments as well.
The stories range in specific focus and style, but all share an overall backdrop of rural Oregon, whether that's the violent life of a small-town Marine's son, or the struggling marriage of a couple that lives above a bat-infested cave. Some stories have elements of classic genre writing (horror/thrillers, in particular), while others tend more towards the classic 'literary' style.
Still, I loved many of the stories and will return to them more in the future, I suspect.
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