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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Jess Walter is a master. I'm typically not a huge fan of short stories, but this is a great collection.
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was OK. I vacillated between two and three stars. The Ronnie Tower guy was a great character. I would’ve loved to have seen and heard more on and from him.
I'm not usually a huge fan of short story collections, but this one came highly recommended so I knew I had to read it. This is a great short story collection for those who don't always like short stories. Each story was a good read, and I enjoyed the mix of longer and shorter stories. Town and Country might have been my favorite, and I hope to end up somewhere similar one day :).
4.5
Magnificent! Even though this is truly a collection - these stories were all published elsewhere and then collected in this book - they hang together thematically amazingly well. They're stories about authenticity, self-awareness, our current fraught moment of disregarding facts, and past trauma affecting current relationships.
My favorites are the two longest stories, "The Angel of Rome" and "The Way the World Ends" are my favorites, but overall favorite is the story "Town & Country" about a gay man in Idaho trying to figure out what to do about his asshole father who has dementia. Funny, heartfelt, and as Jess Walter-esque as you can get.
If you're a Jess Walter fan, you'll love this too.
Magnificent! Even though this is truly a collection - these stories were all published elsewhere and then collected in this book - they hang together thematically amazingly well. They're stories about authenticity, self-awareness, our current fraught moment of disregarding facts, and past trauma affecting current relationships.
My favorites are the two longest stories, "The Angel of Rome" and "The Way the World Ends" are my favorites, but overall favorite is the story "Town & Country" about a gay man in Idaho trying to figure out what to do about his asshole father who has dementia. Funny, heartfelt, and as Jess Walter-esque as you can get.
If you're a Jess Walter fan, you'll love this too.
Very good collection of short stories. I really loved many of them, especially the title story, which made me laugh out loud and had deep tenderness. Not groundbreaking or life changing, but really good.