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spiderfelt's review against another edition
5.0
Tickled, as if by an enormous fly walking across my frontal lobe, is the only way to describe how I felt reading yet another fantastic Chabon collection. I'm constantly amused, amazed and awed by the clever turns of phrase he uses to describe common observations. Chabon's writing is a fine ganache torte, something to be savored until every bead of sweetness dissolves.
randrenfrow's review against another edition
3.0
The wonderful Chabon writing is definitely present in this collection, albeit a tad bit less expansive than his current prose, more in the vein of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which honestly I like a little bit more, so you would think I'd give this 4 stars, and I certainly would have, save for the fact that every story is about the same darn thing! Every short story, except for maybe the first and the last, revolve around a crumbling marriage. In the afterword to Gentlemen of the Road, where he vouches for his turn towards genre fiction, he even remarks on this fact that back then he was sort of stuck in the trend of writing very typical American short stories, all about marriages falling apart. Each story, in and of themselves, is pretty fantastic, but string them all together and I have to agree with Chabon, it becomes a little repetitive and uninteresting.
mattstebbins's review against another edition
4.0
I like the way Chabon writes, but didn't care about most of his characters in this collection, which made it hard to read in places. I'll award bonus points for "Werewolves in Their Youth," "Spikes," (maybe "Son of the Wolfman" should be included here, too; I still can't decide how I feel about it), and definite highlights were "In the Black Mill," and Chabon's knack for the occasional perfect phrase, but I wished far too many characters would just die and be gone for such a short collection. Of course, my expectations for this collection might have been a bit unreasonably high, given that I read [b:The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay|3985|The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay|Michael Chabon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311986910s/3985.jpg|2693329] first. Oops.
[4 stars for the not-entirely infrequent hints at something better than it was and the way bits of it are going to stick with me.]
[4 stars for the not-entirely infrequent hints at something better than it was and the way bits of it are going to stick with me.]
modknight's review against another edition
2.0
My least favorite of his books so far. Maybe it was just being in training at the time that ruined it for me?
wanderswithmoonlight's review against another edition
4.0
I have never read Michael Chabon before, but this was a very good introduction. His style is one that manages to bridge the gap of being thorough and dense but still flowing with the same amount of ease as if he were using the most basic language possible. His prose has an excellent rhythm. What impressed me most was the last story, In the Black Mill, where he manages to accurately replicate the style of early Gothic fiction and strange fiction, like Robert W. Chambers, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe. It really shows what a versatile writer Chabon actually is, both in terms of being able to replicate the style and also spare the reader the incredibly dry and dense prose that Lovecraft had.
v_iaggio's review against another edition
2.0
I was looking for a different Chabon and got this since the others were checked out. I am not usually a huge fan of short stories, but there were a few in here that grabbed me. Most of them are pretty dark, but I enjoyed a change in genre and pace while I was working through Grapes of Wrath. I also liked that each story had a strong sense of place about it; Chabon is definitely connected to the city or location he is writing about and uses it as almost an extra character in these stories. Check it out if you are feeling misanthropic.
suburban_ennui's review against another edition
3.0
Generally good collection of short fiction from the reliable Chabon, although the fact that almost every story involves a failing marriage means the anthology is somewhat lacking in variety.
nerdinthelibrary's review against another edition
Only read the titular story for class.