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spygrl1's review
3.0
I borrowed Bryan's promo copy of Perlman's first collection of short stories (originally published before Seven Types of Ambiguity and brought to America after that novel's success). The collection, though not without promise, lacks energy. There's something wan and lackluster about many of these stories.
The best are In the Time of the Dinosaur and Manslaughter. In Dinosaur a young boy tells the story of his parents' divorce, although he's mostly preoccupied with his report on dinosaurs. Manslaughter hints at Ambiguity with its use of multiple voices to tell a jig-saw story and with its ... well, ambiguity. One man kills another. Testimony is heard in court. The jurors visit the scene of the crime. But do we really know what happened? And what influence has someone far from the action brought to bear?
I also liked I Was Only in a Childish Way Connected to the Established Order, a slightly melodramatic tale of an ineffectual man who efficiently sacrifices himself to save his son.
A Tale in Two Cities skews noirish elements (a detective looking for a dame's missing brother) with humor (the inexperienced, unlicensed PI is just winging it) and history (the dame is a Russian immigrant, her PI swain has a recovering crack addict brother and a father who survived the Holocaust).
Quotable
You were trying to tell me something and I was trying to tell you something else. We didn't trust each other and that was reason enough to make each of us right.
The best are In the Time of the Dinosaur and Manslaughter. In Dinosaur a young boy tells the story of his parents' divorce, although he's mostly preoccupied with his report on dinosaurs. Manslaughter hints at Ambiguity with its use of multiple voices to tell a jig-saw story and with its ... well, ambiguity. One man kills another. Testimony is heard in court. The jurors visit the scene of the crime. But do we really know what happened? And what influence has someone far from the action brought to bear?
I also liked I Was Only in a Childish Way Connected to the Established Order, a slightly melodramatic tale of an ineffectual man who efficiently sacrifices himself to save his son.
A Tale in Two Cities skews noirish elements (a detective looking for a dame's missing brother) with humor (the inexperienced, unlicensed PI is just winging it) and history (the dame is a Russian immigrant, her PI swain has a recovering crack addict brother and a father who survived the Holocaust).
Quotable
You were trying to tell me something and I was trying to tell you something else. We didn't trust each other and that was reason enough to make each of us right.
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