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emserif's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
miagengr's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kiramke's review
4.0
Update 3/12
Spare and bleak, but filled with intelligence and agency. I found these characters difficult, to understand, to like or to empathize with. But I think that's a good thing, and I rather suspect the author of being incisively brilliant.
Orig. Note
Gift, on its way to me sometime this month. Looks interesting.
Spare and bleak, but filled with intelligence and agency. I found these characters difficult, to understand, to like or to empathize with. But I think that's a good thing, and I rather suspect the author of being incisively brilliant.
Orig. Note
Gift, on its way to me sometime this month. Looks interesting.
reviewsbylola's review
emotional
mysterious
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? N/A
4.25
ktrusty416's review
4.0
There is much to admire in this collection of short stories - seven out of ten of them I'd like to re-read and at least three of these contain whole passages I'd like to commit to memory (if I had the inclination and ability to do such a thing). The other three I really disliked - where the other three seemed effortless, these three seemed like they were trying too hard to be very different and they didn't work. I should probably say something more about them but I hate writing reviews. These blurbs are nothing more than reminders to myself.
wentingthings's review
4.0
the title was impossible to resist & the first story won my attention completely. i kept announcing to people:i am reading this book and it is wonderful. i tried to parcel out the stories, which ran out quickly. wasn't impressed by the final 2 stories (the author diversified their offerings, but possibly to their detriment) - the rest was an excellent selection of small, subtle feelings stretched and pulled apart, presented to their banal, devastating conclusions. characters who cannot resist their human foibles and do not necessarily want to - hallways full of mirrors.
---
'we keep savaging our own hearts when we look back and wonder what has happened to us, why we all have to suffer the hardship of losing who we once were, even as we know we're lucky to be around to grow older. we watch our faces and bodies change into something we knew was coming but still are ashamed. i love who i once was, i do not know if i will ever love who i am becoming' ("by the way").
'now, however, she knows herself to be a woman afraid of engagement, of exposure, of experience, of change, of strangers, of obsolescence and loneliness. she does know how much she has lived, or what in face living really means, other than the attempt to do things that inspire admiration and envy in others' (alex rice inc.).
'she had seen much worse, and had been part of a very small scandal herself, the one with her husband kris and the divorce no one in their families had understood the need for. there had been no other man, no abuse, nothing truly wrong except that to her mind it had ended - like a pretty good movie, one she hadn't regretted seeing, as she told kris, who hadn't liked this analogy' ("for once in your life").
---
'we keep savaging our own hearts when we look back and wonder what has happened to us, why we all have to suffer the hardship of losing who we once were, even as we know we're lucky to be around to grow older. we watch our faces and bodies change into something we knew was coming but still are ashamed. i love who i once was, i do not know if i will ever love who i am becoming' ("by the way").
'now, however, she knows herself to be a woman afraid of engagement, of exposure, of experience, of change, of strangers, of obsolescence and loneliness. she does know how much she has lived, or what in face living really means, other than the attempt to do things that inspire admiration and envy in others' (alex rice inc.).
'she had seen much worse, and had been part of a very small scandal herself, the one with her husband kris and the divorce no one in their families had understood the need for. there had been no other man, no abuse, nothing truly wrong except that to her mind it had ended - like a pretty good movie, one she hadn't regretted seeing, as she told kris, who hadn't liked this analogy' ("for once in your life").
suddenflamingword's review against another edition
2.0
(More 2.5 than pure 2)
Outside of three stories ("Quality of Life," "For Once In Your Life," "Walled City") - and even these three when considered in the wider context outside the collection - there doesn't feel like much to take away from this. There's an almost syndicated-programming quality to the structure:
1. Woman encounters man. Typically one is moving from an urban to a suburban space.
2. Man is massively appealing. Either he's truly sexy ("Interview with the Second Wife"), has wealth ("Quality of Life"), is famous ("Alex Rice Inc"), or some other variant of 'power.'
3. This imbalance somehow represents the gendered hierarchies built into society that these women either adhere to unconsciously ("A Million Dollars"), struggle and fail against ("Quality of Life"), or succeeds bittersweetly ("By The Way")
It's not copy+paste, but it's noticeably repetitive. When the stories do escape this structure, they don't build convincing portraits (of the made crying or the criers) as much as a strange universe where physical desire is the pivot of all narrative and this desire is always PG-13. Both neutered and too much. The gossipy soccer mom-types in"For Once In Your Life" summarize this book almost perfectly.
Outside of three stories ("Quality of Life," "For Once In Your Life," "Walled City") - and even these three when considered in the wider context outside the collection - there doesn't feel like much to take away from this. There's an almost syndicated-programming quality to the structure:
1. Woman encounters man. Typically one is moving from an urban to a suburban space.
2. Man is massively appealing. Either he's truly sexy ("Interview with the Second Wife"), has wealth ("Quality of Life"), is famous ("Alex Rice Inc"), or some other variant of 'power.'
3. This imbalance somehow represents the gendered hierarchies built into society that these women either adhere to unconsciously ("A Million Dollars"), struggle and fail against ("Quality of Life"), or succeeds bittersweetly ("By The Way")
It's not copy+paste, but it's noticeably repetitive. When the stories do escape this structure, they don't build convincing portraits (of the made crying or the criers) as much as a strange universe where physical desire is the pivot of all narrative and this desire is always PG-13. Both neutered and too much. The gossipy soccer mom-types in"For Once In Your Life" summarize this book almost perfectly.
djrmelvin's review against another edition
4.0
A very good set of short stories with a terribly incorrect description here on Goodreads. The idea of "romantic love" enters into a couple of the stories, but for the most part these stories are about attachments and attractions and the holes that people try to fill with other people's lives. There's a single line in the story "You're So Different Now" that pretty much sums up the subject of all the stories: ".....knowing there are countless ways to be a part of someone else's life...", and with relationships based on lust ("Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry", a need to escape ("Portraits Fully Developed"), and adventure gone sadly wrong "Quality of Life"), this book covers a lot more than romantic love. A few of the stories lack intensity ("Alex Cross, Inc." especially), but the character development is so strong in all of them that you'll be left wondering what happened next, and what's a short story without that sense of hit-and-run?
crystly's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25