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zoefruitcake's review against another edition
4.0
I read this as part of the Read Harder Challenger 2017 (read a collection of stories by a woman). I really enjoyed the stories but a male minion of mine read it too and seemed to have entirely missed the point of most of them, which leads me to believe that this might be best enjoyed by women readers. I'm also pretty sure that if you are Jewish you'll get even more from it than I did.
carrieliza's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh.
I maybe would have liked this, had I read it in middle or high school. I'm pretty sure I WROTE some of these stories in middle or high school. But you know what? I grew up and realized they were stupid. Apparently I'm much more comfortable with my Judaism than Elisa Albert. The only story I sort of liked was "The Living", just for the fact that I relate to how Shayna feels on large group trips. But even that story felt unfinished, missing something.
Otherwise? I don't need long descriptions of some woman's painful yeast infection, and I don't think a yeast infection is a brilliant metaphor for anything Passover-related.
And the last story? Albert's rambling love letter to Philip Roth? Could totally do without that. For one thing--she writes that, in the process of her own writing, she is "out for Safran Foer blood", striving to attain something near his genius. Don't flatter yourself.
Oh..wow. I didn't think I had that much to say about this. Maybe this has something to do with my mood today, I don't know. I hate to bash a debut from a young writer, as I am an aspiring one myself, but man. Hated this.
I maybe would have liked this, had I read it in middle or high school. I'm pretty sure I WROTE some of these stories in middle or high school. But you know what? I grew up and realized they were stupid. Apparently I'm much more comfortable with my Judaism than Elisa Albert. The only story I sort of liked was "The Living", just for the fact that I relate to how Shayna feels on large group trips. But even that story felt unfinished, missing something.
Otherwise? I don't need long descriptions of some woman's painful yeast infection, and I don't think a yeast infection is a brilliant metaphor for anything Passover-related.
And the last story? Albert's rambling love letter to Philip Roth? Could totally do without that. For one thing--she writes that, in the process of her own writing, she is "out for Safran Foer blood", striving to attain something near his genius. Don't flatter yourself.
Oh..wow. I didn't think I had that much to say about this. Maybe this has something to do with my mood today, I don't know. I hate to bash a debut from a young writer, as I am an aspiring one myself, but man. Hated this.
maedo's review against another edition
4.0
This collection of short stories may even be better than The Book of Dahlia, which is incredible because I loved The Book of Dahlia. Both emotionally satisfied and filled with envy, I want to write Elisa Albert a creepy love letter -- not unlike the one to Philip Roth that concludes this book.
ammonite's review
4.0
Albert knows how to turn a phrase in the precise way that hits my humor buttons.
arnie's review
3.0
These stories are all quite outlandish and very funny at times: at 31 visiting her parents for Passover with a urinary tract infection and her non-Jewish boyfriend; a young mother locking herself and her infant son in the bedroom to avoid the baby's bris; the mother at her son's Bar Mitzvah, unable to remember her own Torah portion and flirting with a 14 year old boy. I enjoyed some of these stories but felt others were forced, especially the last one in which the protagonist writes a letter to Philip Roth offering to have his baby. After Birth, published nearly a decade later, is a more mature and, I think, successful book.
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