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lola425's review against another edition
2.0
Not my cup of tea. Read two stories and then opted out.
beasilva's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
Having read only “Mothercare”, by Tillman, I really had no idea what to expect from this collection of stories. The rhythm varies, the language is often obscure, the structures are unpredictable - I had no idea where she was taking me, I only knew I really wanted to go.
esselleayy's review against another edition
3.0
"More Sex" made me LOL, but as with almost any story collection there are a few misses.
jennyshank's review against another edition
3.0
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/books/20110520-book-review-someday-this-will-be-funny-by.ece
“Someday This Will Be Funny,” by Lynne Tillman, is being published by an imprint that plans to produce books simultaneously in paperback, as digital downloads and as “a limited edition artisanal object direct from the publisher.” Appropriately, the author here offers multiple definitions of what a “story” is.v
By JENNY SHANK
Special Contributor
The Dallas Morning News
SHORT STORIES
Someday This Will Be Funny
Lynne Tillman
(Red Lemonade, $14.95)
Books have existed for several hundred years as a printed delivery system for stories and ideas but are currently available in many paperless formats: Kindle eBooks and Nook Books and Apple iBooks, to name a few. Someday This Will Be Funny by Lynne Tillman is the first book published by a new independent imprint, Red Lemonade, which according to a press release will produce its books simultaneously “in trade paperback, as digital downloads in all formats and channels, and as a limited edition artisanal object direct from the publisher.”
Tillman's stories in her 11th book seem well suited these free-wheeling times in book delivery, because just as publishers now offer multiple ways to experience books, Tillman offers the reader multiple ways to experience what a “story” is.
Some of the stories in this smart, often funny, mostly Manhattan-focused collection read like interesting anecdotes just as a friend would tell them, such as “That's How Wrong My Love Is,” in which the narrator describes the unusual behavior of a pair of mourning doves nesting in a window planter in a city building, or “A Simple Idea,” about a woman who chronically collects parking tickets until she bribes someone to let her park in a secured lot, or “A Greek Story,” about a small triumph over a badgering customs official.
Other stories follow the drifting logic of a daydream or the patter of internal thoughts. Tillman has a knack for capturing the way one's private thoughts unfold, as in “The Unconscious is Also Ridiculous,” which describes a young woman of great athletic ability who becomes “a tennis player, a great champion in her prime,” due to her parents' diligence in seeking coaches for her and organizing their lives to revolve around her tennis. Then you turn the page and learn this is a “fantasy” — the woman is still fond of tennis, but never progressed in the sport. “She maintains the belief that, if her parents had recognized her gift and gotten her a great coach, she could have won the Open, and maybe a Grand Slam.”
In another story in this vein, “More Sex,” Tillman ruminates about sex in a frank and funny way. The protagonist worries her fantasies are inadequate because she lacks imagination, and tries to force herself to think about sex every seven minutes, as she's read that men do. “Every seven minutes was hard, she didn't know how men did it, because she didn't have that kind of imagination, and also she didn't know for how long men thought about sex every seven minutes. And what did they think up?”
Tillman's stories can take the form of letters (“Dear Ollie,”) or be composed of a scrapbook of philosophical musings on one subject, such as the moon (“Lunacies”), or a color (“Chartreuse”). One of the most successful of the latter type is “Love Sentence,” a compilation of sentences that have to do with love — quotes from Kafka, Shakespeare, and Edith Wharton, interspersed with the thoughts of a character named Paige, who is in love, and some of her letters to her “Dearest.” along with bits of historical information. Although it follows an unusual format for a love story, “Love Sentence” is a moving evocation of the intense, flitting feelings that infatuation brings.
Over the past three decades, Lynne Tillman has earned a reputation for experimentation in fiction over the past three decades, and in “Someday This Will Be Funny” she creates a new form to follow the function of each of her stories.
Jenny Shank's first novel, “The Ringer,” was published this spring. She is the Books & Writers Editor of NewWest.Net/Books.
“Someday This Will Be Funny,” by Lynne Tillman, is being published by an imprint that plans to produce books simultaneously in paperback, as digital downloads and as “a limited edition artisanal object direct from the publisher.” Appropriately, the author here offers multiple definitions of what a “story” is.v
By JENNY SHANK
Special Contributor
The Dallas Morning News
SHORT STORIES
Someday This Will Be Funny
Lynne Tillman
(Red Lemonade, $14.95)
Books have existed for several hundred years as a printed delivery system for stories and ideas but are currently available in many paperless formats: Kindle eBooks and Nook Books and Apple iBooks, to name a few. Someday This Will Be Funny by Lynne Tillman is the first book published by a new independent imprint, Red Lemonade, which according to a press release will produce its books simultaneously “in trade paperback, as digital downloads in all formats and channels, and as a limited edition artisanal object direct from the publisher.”
Tillman's stories in her 11th book seem well suited these free-wheeling times in book delivery, because just as publishers now offer multiple ways to experience books, Tillman offers the reader multiple ways to experience what a “story” is.
Some of the stories in this smart, often funny, mostly Manhattan-focused collection read like interesting anecdotes just as a friend would tell them, such as “That's How Wrong My Love Is,” in which the narrator describes the unusual behavior of a pair of mourning doves nesting in a window planter in a city building, or “A Simple Idea,” about a woman who chronically collects parking tickets until she bribes someone to let her park in a secured lot, or “A Greek Story,” about a small triumph over a badgering customs official.
Other stories follow the drifting logic of a daydream or the patter of internal thoughts. Tillman has a knack for capturing the way one's private thoughts unfold, as in “The Unconscious is Also Ridiculous,” which describes a young woman of great athletic ability who becomes “a tennis player, a great champion in her prime,” due to her parents' diligence in seeking coaches for her and organizing their lives to revolve around her tennis. Then you turn the page and learn this is a “fantasy” — the woman is still fond of tennis, but never progressed in the sport. “She maintains the belief that, if her parents had recognized her gift and gotten her a great coach, she could have won the Open, and maybe a Grand Slam.”
In another story in this vein, “More Sex,” Tillman ruminates about sex in a frank and funny way. The protagonist worries her fantasies are inadequate because she lacks imagination, and tries to force herself to think about sex every seven minutes, as she's read that men do. “Every seven minutes was hard, she didn't know how men did it, because she didn't have that kind of imagination, and also she didn't know for how long men thought about sex every seven minutes. And what did they think up?”
Tillman's stories can take the form of letters (“Dear Ollie,”) or be composed of a scrapbook of philosophical musings on one subject, such as the moon (“Lunacies”), or a color (“Chartreuse”). One of the most successful of the latter type is “Love Sentence,” a compilation of sentences that have to do with love — quotes from Kafka, Shakespeare, and Edith Wharton, interspersed with the thoughts of a character named Paige, who is in love, and some of her letters to her “Dearest.” along with bits of historical information. Although it follows an unusual format for a love story, “Love Sentence” is a moving evocation of the intense, flitting feelings that infatuation brings.
Over the past three decades, Lynne Tillman has earned a reputation for experimentation in fiction over the past three decades, and in “Someday This Will Be Funny” she creates a new form to follow the function of each of her stories.
Jenny Shank's first novel, “The Ringer,” was published this spring. She is the Books & Writers Editor of NewWest.Net/Books.
magicschooltokoro's review against another edition
5.0
This is one one of those to own for repeated consultations, to savor the prose, the use of pauses, and for its quotables. Favorite vignettes probably are the first, 'That's How Wrong My Love Is' for its charm, 'But There's A Family Resemblance,' 'The Original Impulse,' 'The Recipe,' Love Sentence,' Madame Realism's Conscience,' and the last, 'Save Me From the Pious and the Vengeful.'
robs320's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
izabela's review
2.0
This is a collection of short stories from Lynn Tillman. Some were great, other were not so great. Actually, far more were less-than-stellar, hence the two-star rating. Unfortunately, none of them were moving enough -- there was not a single story that I loved! Some that I really like and just liked, but not one did I love. I think it's because, at times, it feels like the author is trying too hard to write these surreal and weird stories. They're too strange and too out there, and they end up not making much sense, or not evoking any kind of emotion or feeling. Who are these people in the stories? What are they going through? What's their struggle? How can I relate to them?
I guess that it's just not my cup of tea.
I guess that it's just not my cup of tea.
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