Reviews

önce storytel'de dinlemeye başladım. benim dinleme zevkime göre çokça teatral kaçan bir seslendirmesi olduğu için yalnızca iki öykü dinleyebildim. sonra ingilizcesini kindle'dan okumaya devam ettim. yapı-dil gereği konsantrasyonumu çok zor topladım bu esnada. sonra bir noktada çevirisinin çıktığını görünce kalanlara da türkçe olarak devam ettim.

hal böyleyken ne kadar doğru bir değerlendirme yapabilirim bilmiyorum ama öyküleri akılda kalıcı bulmamam, aslında birbirine benzer olduklarını düşünmem sadece bu karmaşık okuma süreciyle alakalı değil gibi. duygusunu çok sevdiğim ama yapısını sevmediğim öyküler diyebilirim.

başka bir kitabına daha kesinlikle şans vereceğim ama onda da aynı sorunları yaşarsam belki de yıldızımız barışmayacak çok istesem de.

sneezypenguin's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

sujuv's review against another edition

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4.0

What a great book! Short stories - primarily about women - that take you right into their minds and hearts. She has so much fun with language, in an occasionally dopey way that I like a lot. One story, about a baby with cancer, was heartbreaking, and they were all moving as well as funny. I feel like I've gotten to Lorrie Moore rather late, but I'm glad I found her.

larryerick's review against another edition

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4.0

I can't recall the last time, if ever, I read a book and told myself I really liked the author. Not the author's writing. The author. There was something that came through the writing that told me I would really like this person. Early on in this collection of stories I thought this person doesn't like men much, but that rather quickly was dispelled. She's just quick to assess "bad character". There's a particular level and style of humor throughout nearly all the stories (even though I would not call these humorous stories.) For instance, in a story about a woman and her mother on a trip, she has the woman recall a childhood event with her father. "On one of the family road trips thirty years ago, when she and Theda had had to go to the bathroom, their father had stopped the car and told them to 'go to the bathroom in the woods.' They had wandered through the woods for twenty minutes, looking for the bathroom, before they came back out to tell him they hadn't been able to find it." In another story, she offhandedly points out, "Every third Monday, he conducted the monthly departmental meeting -- aptly named, Agnes liked to joke, since she did indeed depart mental." Yet, later in a story of a woman whose cat died, "She had already -- carefully, obediently -- stepped through all the stages of bereavement: anger, denial, bargaining, Häagen-Dazs, rage." This is just a sprinkling, and it doesn't even touch the occasional humorous banter between characters. There's always a certain level of serious truth to her humor. And yet, this author is capable of a story about a child with cancer that seems only possible coming from someone that has lived every single painful moment of it. Despite my emphasis on the humor, there is a great deal of human insight and emotional depth and breadth to these stories. If I have any complaint, it is only that on rare occasion, her characters' own confusion bleeds over to the writing.

katebloniarz's review against another edition

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5.0

There is a line in this book that moved into my brain and is still there.

Like a lizard with a little hat on.

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