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lkthomas07's review against another edition
4.0
I'm a big fan of short stories and Jeffrey Eugenides is one of my favorites. These were great pieces. There was a couple I didn't love as much, but by the end, they all redeemed themselves :-)
abbywdan's review against another edition
5.0
Listen, am I ever going to give a Eugenides book fewer than five stars? No. [Looks back, realizes she gave Middlesex FOUR STARS and corrects that problem, since she has been thinking about Middlesex since reading Middlesex and has leant her paperback copy out at least three times and DOES expect it back every time, like an actual monster, which is really saying something since she only ever reads on Kindle now, almost. Realizes she also gave The Marriage Plot four stars, which was frankly a little generous, but she went to a reading and got a signed copy, so SHRUG.]
Somehow, like by barely reading books in my current life stage and never really reading magazines/journals, except for certain lengthly phases of keeping up with the New Yorker, to the detriment of all other consumption of the written word, I had managed to not read any of these stories in their previously-printed locations. The fact that they contain the seeds of some of the novels that I so love does not phase me. In fact, it makes me want to go back and re-read them, but I don't think that will actually happen.
Men are trash, Jeff knows it, these stories are great. I wish the title story had been a novel. That is all!
Somehow, like by barely reading books in my current life stage and never really reading magazines/journals, except for certain lengthly phases of keeping up with the New Yorker, to the detriment of all other consumption of the written word, I had managed to not read any of these stories in their previously-printed locations. The fact that they contain the seeds of some of the novels that I so love does not phase me. In fact, it makes me want to go back and re-read them, but I don't think that will actually happen.
Men are trash, Jeff knows it, these stories are great. I wish the title story had been a novel. That is all!
erinkayata's review against another edition
2.0
So disappointing. I found the last story to be just insulting. I expected better.
keysersuze's review against another edition
4.0
This is a good collection of short stories, where the narrators are unreliable, immoral and usually unlikeable.
I recommend for Eugenides completists, but I have to say that I enjoy his novels a bit more.
I recommend for Eugenides completists, but I have to say that I enjoy his novels a bit more.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
Pretty underwhelming. This is a collection of stories written over nearly 30 years and it shows. The best story in the collection is “Air Mail”, the worst is probably “Fresh Complaint”. In between, just a batch stories about aging, ego and sexual customs, middle aged guys trying to make it, and a chlavicordist trying to outrun the debt collectors. I didn’t particularly care for any of the characters or plots. Eugenidies’s novels are better.
irreverentreader's review against another edition
2.0
As someone who went out of their way to rave about their re-read Middlesex, I made it a point to work through Eugenides other works this year. I was so-so on the Marriage Plot; it had it's redeeming moments, but I had a hard time getting past the misogyny and straight up yuck-factor of the book's two male characters. Well, it turns out that those kind of characters are Eugenides bread and butter.
*Begin Rant*
The stories for me fell into one of two categories: blah and WTF.
Complainers, Timeshare, and Great Experiment did very little for me. They offered little in the way of interesting plot or characters, and I struggle to find the point of them. Same goes with Air Mail but honestly I just checked out on that one because I never wanted to be in Mitchell's head again after The Marriage Plot. (Side note: it drives me mad that Eugenides doesn't use introductory clause commas.)
Early Music and Fresh Complaint were probably the two best short stories for me in terms of being interesting, but they were also Problematic with capital P. Marital and family lives in his writing are always taken to the extreme. The men and women featured in them are often caricature, and I have to suspend disbelief to understand why people would ever subject themselves to such a situation. Find the Bad Guy and Capricious Gardens were also disturbing but without any glimmer of interest. Both of the main characters were basically emotionless sociopaths who only like women for sex. Why does this type of male character appeal to him?? Why does every single one of them have to be a creepy POS??
That leaves Baster and The Oracular Vulva in the absolutely WTF category. The first portrays women in stereotypical air-headed fashion. Of course only thing we could ever possibly want are babies!!! Also, what in the hell is a "European Penis" and a "Semen Aura"? Good god. The ending is messed up as well and basically rape, yet it feels like Eugenides wrote it in a very non-serious way. Therefore, by the time I got to TOV, I was no longer surprised by the tone or content of his stories: of course he would choose to write about a tribe that hates women, of course he would write about the magic powers of semen, of course Dr. Luce does what he does in the end. SMH.
Jesus, if women praised their bodily fluids as much as Eugenides does, we'd all be locked up in a psych ward.
So yeah, turns out Fresh Complaint was an accurate title for this one.
*Begin Rant*
The stories for me fell into one of two categories: blah and WTF.
Complainers, Timeshare, and Great Experiment did very little for me. They offered little in the way of interesting plot or characters, and I struggle to find the point of them. Same goes with Air Mail but honestly I just checked out on that one because I never wanted to be in Mitchell's head again after The Marriage Plot. (Side note: it drives me mad that Eugenides doesn't use introductory clause commas.)
Early Music and Fresh Complaint were probably the two best short stories for me in terms of being interesting, but they were also Problematic with capital P. Marital and family lives in his writing are always taken to the extreme. The men and women featured in them are often caricature, and I have to suspend disbelief to understand why people would ever subject themselves to such a situation. Find the Bad Guy and Capricious Gardens were also disturbing but without any glimmer of interest. Both of the main characters were basically emotionless sociopaths who only like women for sex. Why does this type of male character appeal to him?? Why does every single one of them have to be a creepy POS??
That leaves Baster and The Oracular Vulva in the absolutely WTF category. The first portrays women in stereotypical air-headed fashion. Of course only thing we could ever possibly want are babies!!! Also, what in the hell is a "European Penis" and a "Semen Aura"? Good god. The ending is messed up as well and basically rape, yet it feels like Eugenides wrote it in a very non-serious way. Therefore, by the time I got to TOV, I was no longer surprised by the tone or content of his stories: of course he would choose to write about a tribe that hates women, of course he would write about the magic powers of semen, of course Dr. Luce does what he does in the end. SMH.
Jesus, if women praised their bodily fluids as much as Eugenides does, we'd all be locked up in a psych ward.
So yeah, turns out Fresh Complaint was an accurate title for this one.
adinaficano's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Well written, short stories. Great for before bed reading. Somber, reflective stories.
hillsax's review against another edition
3.0
You almost had me. Great few stories, but lost major points with the last story.
lindseysparks's review against another edition
3.0
Short story collections are hard to review. I tend to like short stories when I'm reading them, but they rarely stick with me. That's the case here. These were good, but not memorable. The one exception is the collection's namesake story. It was infuriating. It was also timely, as it is about how sometimes there is a reason for a girl to lie about being sexually assaulted, and about how hard it is to know what really happened. That why it frustrates me when people seem to want someone to be punished or to be cleared when they don't know what actually happened. Shouldn't we just hope that justice will prevail? I'm not saying we should never have an opinion, by it drives me crazy when people act like they know if someone is guilty or not.