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dialhforhgai's review against another edition
4.0
He looked like a man dangerously addicted to the correction of mistaken people.
lucidstyle's review against another edition
5.0
Each morsel is a tasty treat to savor and enjoy. Sensitive and delicious!
caitpoytress's review against another edition
3.0
I'm usually not a fan of short stories (with the exception of Flannery O'Connor's; she is AMAZING), but I did enjoy this book. The stories themselves were fine - the title story being my favorite - but it was Chabon's writing that really enamored me. I must bump Kavalier and Clay to the top of my TBR.
rbreade's review against another edition
This is a reread of one of my favorite collections by one of my favorite writers. Each story offers some array of pleasures--Chabon has always had a gift for arresting images and metaphors--but the title story is the one I love best for how it combines some of Chabon's many interests--specifically, in this case, science, science fiction, comics, friendship, and family--into a complex, absorbing story. From the moment the story opens in a playground ditch, where narrator Paul Kovel is creating an Imperial Formic Highway for his Empire of the Ants, while up on the playground blacktop his friend, Timothy Stokes, is terrorizing their fellow fifth-graders as an ersatz werewolf, Chabon exhibits pitch-perfect control over his narrative.
halschrieve's review against another edition
3.0
I love Michael Chabon, but this early collection, while it has its gems, is fairly painful for me to read when I compare it with his later more nuanced masterpieces. It is too masculine, too obsessed with fatherhood and death and grim conclusions, and absent almost entirely the engagement with sympathy and love that makes Chabon the least grating of exuberantly male fiction writers. The last story is overtly Lovecraftian and also racist--while it starts out as a folk tale about an industrial town being slowly eaten by the machines that it operates, it ends as a bizarre Indian Curse thing that just left me nauseous and somehow managed to be misogynist at the same time.
The title story is one of the best in the book ; there is also a funny one about a Brit that foreshadows Chabon's interest in the meaning of Jewish fatherhood and in sportsmanship. The main good things about this book involve seeing the evolution of Chabon as a writer. I give it three stars because I like the guy in general and think it's worth looking at if you like him, though I probably would check it out from a library .
The title story is one of the best in the book ; there is also a funny one about a Brit that foreshadows Chabon's interest in the meaning of Jewish fatherhood and in sportsmanship. The main good things about this book involve seeing the evolution of Chabon as a writer. I give it three stars because I like the guy in general and think it's worth looking at if you like him, though I probably would check it out from a library .
dlberglund's review against another edition
2.0
It wasn't really my cup of tea. It felt very male to me from start to finish, with broken people and relationships, soaked in alcohol and rain. There were occasional bright endings or moments, but only one or two stories I truly liked. I haven't read any of his other books, but this author might not be the one for me.
k_dellabitta's review against another edition
5.0
"On the beach at dusk, when he thought no one was looking, he practiced seagull impersonations, with some success." A gem from the story, "Spikes."
clarkness's review against another edition
2.0
Definitely an early set of stories from Chabon. There are many seeds of promise here, but these stories lack something that I can't put my finger on. I guess the characters don't seem nearly as compelling as some of his later characters.
sabrinasayshey's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75