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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
I sometimes worry that I allow strongly positive reviews from publications I admire to color my own views of books and authors. Clearly my reaction to this book removes that concern, because even though this author received critical acclaim from various prestigious outlets, it did not impress or engage me.
I took months to finish this 243 page book of 11 short stories while polishing off many other books of greater length in much less time. The best story in the book starts on p. 93, titled "The Breeze". When I finished it, I thought that perhaps I would put the other first 92 pages behind me because that story was so good, but appreciation did not again surface until the p. 173 start of the story "The Stepchild".
My suggestion is to save yourself the time and money for this book and just read one of those short stories at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/30/the-breeze and then Google "The Stepchild" to read discussion of it (as I could not find the story otherwise online).
I took months to finish this 243 page book of 11 short stories while polishing off many other books of greater length in much less time. The best story in the book starts on p. 93, titled "The Breeze". When I finished it, I thought that perhaps I would put the other first 92 pages behind me because that story was so good, but appreciation did not again surface until the p. 173 start of the story "The Stepchild".
My suggestion is to save yourself the time and money for this book and just read one of those short stories at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/30/the-breeze and then Google "The Stepchild" to read discussion of it (as I could not find the story otherwise online).
Excellent short stories quickly transport you into another world and another person's life.
I am really not sure what to make of this. I want to say the best way to describe it is Newton's Third Law ; "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects."
I interpreted the collection of stories to be a parallel to life's relationships with others and how we can muck them up if we over analyze/fantasize the other's motives for more than what they are. As in real life, most of our responses to others are based upon our past experiences. It is when these characters overly indulge in assumptions and misinterpret actions it gives the reader a " what the heck?" moment... or two.
The short stories occur in different settings and slices of life, but the characters have similar flaws. Each story is based in the present, but the main characters have some type of affair, or flashback to a better time ( in their mind) relieving their past by over-thinking and over- imagining what others think of them, they lose sight of reality. All of the characters in each story act upon their perceptions.
Some stories were more appealing to me than others. None really have "happy endings." I am not a Pollyanna reader that thinks all stories have to have happy forever- after- endings to be strong, well written books. Gone Girl is excellently written, but lacks a "happily ever after" ending. Some of the stories in The Dinner Party seem as if Ferris either became tired of writing about the character and ended the story or wasn't sure where to take the storyline.
This is my first Ferris book, so maybe that is his style?
I interpreted the collection of stories to be a parallel to life's relationships with others and how we can muck them up if we over analyze/fantasize the other's motives for more than what they are. As in real life, most of our responses to others are based upon our past experiences. It is when these characters overly indulge in assumptions and misinterpret actions it gives the reader a " what the heck?" moment... or two.
The short stories occur in different settings and slices of life, but the characters have similar flaws. Each story is based in the present, but the main characters have some type of affair, or flashback to a better time ( in their mind) relieving their past by over-thinking and over- imagining what others think of them, they lose sight of reality. All of the characters in each story act upon their perceptions.
Some stories were more appealing to me than others. None really have "happy endings." I am not a Pollyanna reader that thinks all stories have to have happy forever- after- endings to be strong, well written books. Gone Girl is excellently written, but lacks a "happily ever after" ending. Some of the stories in The Dinner Party seem as if Ferris either became tired of writing about the character and ended the story or wasn't sure where to take the storyline.
This is my first Ferris book, so maybe that is his style?
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A really funny and sad examination of contemporary relationships, frailties and insecurities.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Dinner Party and Other Stories by Joshua Ferris is a unique and interesting collection. While I wouldn’t say that it is decisively diverse in theme or character, the settings and decisions each character faces warrants the similar characters each gracing their own story. Each story left questions, thoughts, and moments for further discovery long after the page turned.
This book...
Each story hit me in a different way. The Pilot being my favorite out of them all.
This was not a quick read for me. I read a story, I paused and said "what the..." and then re read the story, sometimes rereading it more then once.
I did lose interest in a couple of the stories that I had a harder time connecting to. I am not usually a fan of short stories since I feel like I am always wanting something more out of them so I was taken by surprise when I loved this book so much. I rented it from the library but I might just need to go and buy myself a copy.
Each story hit me in a different way. The Pilot being my favorite out of them all.
This was not a quick read for me. I read a story, I paused and said "what the..." and then re read the story, sometimes rereading it more then once.
I did lose interest in a couple of the stories that I had a harder time connecting to. I am not usually a fan of short stories since I feel like I am always wanting something more out of them so I was taken by surprise when I loved this book so much. I rented it from the library but I might just need to go and buy myself a copy.
Found these stories somewhat amateur with the characters wearing their desperation so obviously that if you missed it there's always an intruding narrator or some contrived observer-character lurking a line away to restate the bleeding obvious. Richard Yates has covered this ground so slickly- the quiet tragedy and violence lurking underneath the mannered civility of urban yuppies, the "trapped" married-too-soon couples and families drifting in indifferent sprawling American metropolises who wake up one day to find themselves employment they don't want, kids they can't believe they've had, homes they can't believe they have to pay for, the thwarted American Dream if you will- that Ferris' admirable but failing attempts to retread it seven decades on made me yearn for Yates suicidal prose which had characters that spoke in ways I could imagine real despairing people whole and the all-too-obvious anxieties and desperations bled through without the author calling my attention to it again and again. Sadly for Ferris, a master has cast the same knowing eye over this landscape.