A review by goomz
Gates of Eden by Ethan Coen

3.0

If you're not sure what the Coen Bros. voice sounds like, it's all laid out in text—it's amazing how Coen-sy these stories are. And I guess that makes sense. It's not like these read like rejected movie ideas, these are bona fide short stories and pull off things only short stories can. A majority of them start with a shocking case of violence, and spend the rest of the story explaining them. I have absolutely nothing against violence in stories, but here there's a bit of a case of diminishing returns going on—the most extraneous case being in I Killed Phil Shapiro (a mostly personal story about going to a Jewish summer camp and other childhood memories) and probably Red Wing (a great story about a life-draining marriage that bookends with a silly murder. There are other ways to show people's breaking points when you've already done a husband-murder two stories back). But just because there's some repetition doesn't make it bad—it's more like Ethan Coen does something he's great at multiple times in a row. It's the small personal stories and moments (and wonderfully dark humor) throughout this collection make this well worth anyone's time.