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dee9401's review
3.0
I was very interested by an anthology of short stories as well as the clever frame of choosing stories from across Europe. I've found some of my favorite writers by dabbling in a novel here or a short story there, so I picked up this volume with high expectations. I was disappointed.
The editor started by talking about the decline in quality of American writers and the lowbrowing of the American audience, I found that many of the stories in this volume offered little in the way of actual story telling and more in the surface level fluff that seems too clever by half. However, having said that, I did find several stories fascinating and worth mentioning. I'll even look into more by these authors or from other authors in these countries.
I loved the detail that Steinar Bragi (Iceland) brought to the breakup of a relationship in his story "The Sky over Thingvellir." Julian Gough (Ireland writing in English) reaffirmed my love of the comedic/tragic gift of Irish storytellers with "The Orphan and the Mob." Polish writer Michal Witkowski has a great story that explores the life of a street hustler in "Didi." Josep M. fonalleras (Spain writing in Catalan) tells a neat story that's almost like a light strobes on at precise moments to give you a small hint. A thread ties the pieces together but it's the structure that shines. His piece was titled "Noir in Five Parts and an Epilogue." Peter Stamm (Switzerland) told an interesting story that ends where it starts, sort of. "Ice Moon" explores what happens as we age and as we try to get close to one another. Finally, the last story of the collection is "INdigo's Mermaid" by Penny Simpson (United Kingdom: Wales). This is an emotional piece of a father coming to terms with his son's achievements and early death. It's a story that one feels rather than reads. She did a stellar job.
The editor started by talking about the decline in quality of American writers and the lowbrowing of the American audience, I found that many of the stories in this volume offered little in the way of actual story telling and more in the surface level fluff that seems too clever by half. However, having said that, I did find several stories fascinating and worth mentioning. I'll even look into more by these authors or from other authors in these countries.
I loved the detail that Steinar Bragi (Iceland) brought to the breakup of a relationship in his story "The Sky over Thingvellir." Julian Gough (Ireland writing in English) reaffirmed my love of the comedic/tragic gift of Irish storytellers with "The Orphan and the Mob." Polish writer Michal Witkowski has a great story that explores the life of a street hustler in "Didi." Josep M. fonalleras (Spain writing in Catalan) tells a neat story that's almost like a light strobes on at precise moments to give you a small hint. A thread ties the pieces together but it's the structure that shines. His piece was titled "Noir in Five Parts and an Epilogue." Peter Stamm (Switzerland) told an interesting story that ends where it starts, sort of. "Ice Moon" explores what happens as we age and as we try to get close to one another. Finally, the last story of the collection is "INdigo's Mermaid" by Penny Simpson (United Kingdom: Wales). This is an emotional piece of a father coming to terms with his son's achievements and early death. It's a story that one feels rather than reads. She did a stellar job.
ktoumajian's review
3.0
This was a challenging read in many ways, but I was glad of the experiece. Since it was a fiction collection rather than a short story collection, some of the pieces left me confused and unsatisfied without understanding of the point or "ending", but there were a few pieces that struck me & I believe will stay with me such as "Resistance", about a chess teacher's effect on a group of schoolboys over a few weeks, and "The Orphan and the Mob" which was incredibly funny... especially the strange demise of each priest in the story. I was also drawn to some of the futuristic pieces, like "The Murderer" & "Full Moon"...I enjoyed most of the pieces though a lot of them left me wanting more. I'm not sure if I'm just not reading them correctly with my Western sense of story but many of the pieces were underwhelming. Overall, the collection was profoundly sad, leaving me with a sense of what the psyche of the Eastern European must have had to cope with over the last 20-25 years which I deeply appreciated.
jwmcoaching's review
4.0
A solid collection of stories that range from the postmodern to traditional, and everything in between. The entries come from all over Europe and several countries are represented more than once. Standouts include "The Orphan and the Mob", "Friedmann Space", and "Revelations on the Boulevard of Crime".
laureng's review
3.0
I thought this would be all short stories, but I was wrong. It only says fiction so that was my mistake. It is mostly excerpts and short stories with a couple sections that are several tiny stories and there is also one poem. The back has info about the authors and I wish they'd been before each author's section. The stories were a pretty even mix of good, OK, and not so great.
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