Scan barcode
footnotesto's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.5
icameheretoread's review
4.0
More like 4 and a half. I read West of the Known a couple of months ago (on Fence, I think). I couldn't stop thinking about it. My library did not buy this collection, so I interlibrary loaned it. Benz's range is mindboggling. She jumps genres and in and out of magical realism like a sorceress. It is right that George Saunders blurbs this one. I would highly recommend this collection to his fans. My favorites were West of the Known, James III, Snake Doctors, The Mourners, Recognition, and Sheepefold (which has a longer title, but I'm too lazy to type it out).
tinyviolet's review
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
garseta's review
In general, the contemporary tales are more successful than the historical ones.
helenoflombard's review
5.0
This is a truly amazing collection of short stories. Each of these fictional stories focuses on a pivotal moment in someone’s life. The remarkable part is that the stories vary so widely in subject and tone that they read as if different authors wrote them all. These snapshots of characters’ lives are so descriptive and so totally immersive that each one felt like a whole novel.
The settings are mostly in the USA, but some in Great Britain. The time periods range from the year 1555 to the near future. Some stories are told in first-person and some in third-person, but in every story, the narrator adopt the voice of the character.
The first story in the book, “West of the Known”, is the most dramatic example using the character’s point of view. It is a fragmented point-of view of a half-white/half-Native American girl in the American old west, whose outlaw brother comes to collect her from an abusive home. I took me a a few pages to get into the rhythm of the ways she talks, but by then I was hooked on the story. The rest of the stories are easier to read, but “West of the Known” seems to be placed first so the reader can sink or swim right away. (The story that relates to the title “The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead” is one of the last stories in the book.)
The settings are mostly in the USA, but some in Great Britain. The time periods range from the year 1555 to the near future. Some stories are told in first-person and some in third-person, but in every story, the narrator adopt the voice of the character.
The first story in the book, “West of the Known”, is the most dramatic example using the character’s point of view. It is a fragmented point-of view of a half-white/half-Native American girl in the American old west, whose outlaw brother comes to collect her from an abusive home. I took me a a few pages to get into the rhythm of the ways she talks, but by then I was hooked on the story. The rest of the stories are easier to read, but “West of the Known” seems to be placed first so the reader can sink or swim right away. (The story that relates to the title “The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead” is one of the last stories in the book.)
rachelelizabeth's review
3.0
*I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*
Want more book reviews? Check out Rachel Reading for more like this.
I’m not really sure where to start on this book. I’ll confess that I felt like it really went over my head. This wasn’t a bad thing, but I found myself wishing that I had one of my favorite High School English teachers around to explain it to me. Especially the story “Adela”. However, I also feel like this just shows how masterful Benz is at her craft. I feel like these stories have so many layers, that made it difficult to read as a commute read, and that they deserved more respect and time and depth than I could give them.
I found myself wanting to know what was happening in the story and once I sort of figured it out the story was over. I admired how differently each story was written, I really felt like it was a new writer for each story, which was really cool. I’m not sure if most short story anthologies are like this, as I believe this is actually my first short story anthology.
In short, Benz is an extremely talented writer, and I wish I could have appreciated it more than I was able to. I hope at some point I can read a critical analysis of this work and then go back and read it because that’s how full of good stuff it was, and I just wasn’t able to catch it all.
Want more book reviews? Check out Rachel Reading for more like this.
I’m not really sure where to start on this book. I’ll confess that I felt like it really went over my head. This wasn’t a bad thing, but I found myself wishing that I had one of my favorite High School English teachers around to explain it to me. Especially the story “Adela”. However, I also feel like this just shows how masterful Benz is at her craft. I feel like these stories have so many layers, that made it difficult to read as a commute read, and that they deserved more respect and time and depth than I could give them.
I found myself wanting to know what was happening in the story and once I sort of figured it out the story was over. I admired how differently each story was written, I really felt like it was a new writer for each story, which was really cool. I’m not sure if most short story anthologies are like this, as I believe this is actually my first short story anthology.
In short, Benz is an extremely talented writer, and I wish I could have appreciated it more than I was able to. I hope at some point I can read a critical analysis of this work and then go back and read it because that’s how full of good stuff it was, and I just wasn’t able to catch it all.
canadianbookworm's review
4.0
http://cdnbookworm.blogspot.ca/2017/08/the-man-who-shot-out-my-eye-is-dead.html
tonstantweader's review
4.0
The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead is a wonderful title for this collection of short stories. It calls to mind those old westerns that glorified toxic masculinity as an aspirational ideal. Crossing the centuries from the sixteenth century dissolution of the monasteries to a post-environmental collapse archaeological dig excavating a community of today, the stories connect by exploring violence through the voices of people on the downside of power–women, slaves, people of color, and dissolution-era monks.
The collection opens with a strong, breath-taking story called “West of the Known” that flips the usual outlaw western by telling the story from the viewpoint of a woman, a reluctant outlaw, whose brother saved her from the frying pan into the fire.
The story “Snake Doctors” from which the title quote is taken has rich and beautiful language such as this description of how grief silences your world. “Instead a road of airless wool had unfurled wide in her head, winding monotonous through the astonishment of her loss.” Reading this, there is a recognition, a knowing that this writer understands grief, that it is not just keening pain, but it in muffle the world into silence.
The final story is a bit awkward at first, the beginning steeped so deeply in the language of the sixteenth century it takes work to follow, but forsooth, it gets better. More than one story is puzzling at the beginning before its true shape is revealed. It’s a good way to draw us in, though it adds a sameness in architecture to these stories who varied so widely in time, place, and person.
The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead is an excellent collection of short stories. I found I enjoyed it more if I read one story, read something else, and then came back and read another story. When I read several in a row, the framework of the stories became more obvious, taking away some of the art and mystery. Benz writes with rich economy. Her language is beautiful and textured. She adopts the sounds of time and place. It is beautiful. Yet in the space of a short story, she shares as much story as many novels. Each of her short stories could have been a novel, fleshed out, of course, but the bones are already there.
The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead will be released by Harper Collins on January 17th. I received an electronic galley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/the-man-who-shot-out-my-eye-is-dead-by-chanelle-benz/
The collection opens with a strong, breath-taking story called “West of the Known” that flips the usual outlaw western by telling the story from the viewpoint of a woman, a reluctant outlaw, whose brother saved her from the frying pan into the fire.
The story “Snake Doctors” from which the title quote is taken has rich and beautiful language such as this description of how grief silences your world. “Instead a road of airless wool had unfurled wide in her head, winding monotonous through the astonishment of her loss.” Reading this, there is a recognition, a knowing that this writer understands grief, that it is not just keening pain, but it in muffle the world into silence.
The final story is a bit awkward at first, the beginning steeped so deeply in the language of the sixteenth century it takes work to follow, but forsooth, it gets better. More than one story is puzzling at the beginning before its true shape is revealed. It’s a good way to draw us in, though it adds a sameness in architecture to these stories who varied so widely in time, place, and person.
The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead is an excellent collection of short stories. I found I enjoyed it more if I read one story, read something else, and then came back and read another story. When I read several in a row, the framework of the stories became more obvious, taking away some of the art and mystery. Benz writes with rich economy. Her language is beautiful and textured. She adopts the sounds of time and place. It is beautiful. Yet in the space of a short story, she shares as much story as many novels. Each of her short stories could have been a novel, fleshed out, of course, but the bones are already there.
The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead will be released by Harper Collins on January 17th. I received an electronic galley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/the-man-who-shot-out-my-eye-is-dead-by-chanelle-benz/
emmagetz's review
4.0
A beautiful exploration of genre, time, and style. Some of the stories were very abstract and some were incredibly real. Some were in the modern times and some were in Medieval times. The collection breaks essentially every rule of short fiction and I love it. Overall I had a really fun time reading this collection.