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A review by drifterontherun
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Stories by Etgar Keret
2.0
Short story collections are tricky. Rarely is there a collection where all the stories included are good. At least, not outside of Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and the best of Alice Munro. And I'm sorry to say that most of the stories in "The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God" aren't very good at all, just very boring.
Etgar Keret has been getting a lot of attention in light of his recently released collection, [b:Fly Already: Stories|43212798|Fly Already Stories|Etgar Keret|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556360289l/43212798._SY75_.jpg|62138246]. Since I didn't want to plunk down the $27 retail price on the new collection, I decided better to pick up a used copy of this well regarded collection from 2001.
Now, perhaps it's not fair of me to write off a short story writer for a collection compiled almost 20 years ago, but there's so little here that inspires further reading that it's hard for me to think about giving Keret another chance. Keret's stories have got a strange vibe to them, and I do like that. The problem is that they end almost as strangely, which is to say, without much of an ending at all.
The title story is by far the best and from there the stories seem to decrease in value until finally we come to an overly long multi-part story towards the end which, after a few pages, I couldn't help but skim.
What a sad thing shattered hopes are ...
Etgar Keret has been getting a lot of attention in light of his recently released collection, [b:Fly Already: Stories|43212798|Fly Already Stories|Etgar Keret|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556360289l/43212798._SY75_.jpg|62138246]. Since I didn't want to plunk down the $27 retail price on the new collection, I decided better to pick up a used copy of this well regarded collection from 2001.
Now, perhaps it's not fair of me to write off a short story writer for a collection compiled almost 20 years ago, but there's so little here that inspires further reading that it's hard for me to think about giving Keret another chance. Keret's stories have got a strange vibe to them, and I do like that. The problem is that they end almost as strangely, which is to say, without much of an ending at all.
The title story is by far the best and from there the stories seem to decrease in value until finally we come to an overly long multi-part story towards the end which, after a few pages, I couldn't help but skim.
What a sad thing shattered hopes are ...