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A review by briandice
Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel
5.0
Fellow Amy Hempel crushing fanboy [a:Chuck Palahniuk|2546|Chuck Palahniuk|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1264506988p2/2546.jpg] writes in his essay "Not Chasing Amy", "I once gave [b:At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom: Stories|33303|At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom Stories|Amy Hempel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1208130539s/33303.jpg|3203] to a friend and said, 'If you don't love this, we have nothing in common.'" Hempel has that effect on her readers: you don't come away from her stories having read them - you walk away a snarling, gauntlet throwing, lit-beast.
Hempel's minimalist style feels anything but; her sentences are so packed with meaning and nuance. It isn't uncommon for additional insight to reveal itself long after the story is finished. You get the feeling that words aren't chosen, they're hewn, chiseled and polished from the essence of language. Quoting from a story doesn't do the writing justice - it would be like showing a picture of Teddy Roosevelt's stone nose and trying to explain Mount Rushmore. Hempel needs to be ingested, whole-hog.
I still remember, years ago, when a fellow Hempel fan alerted me to the publishing of her complete works in one volume: [b:The Collected Stories|33299|The Collected Stories|Amy Hempel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328039577s/33299.jpg|33384]. This is an amazing book - and highly recommended for any lover of the written word.
Hempel's minimalist style feels anything but; her sentences are so packed with meaning and nuance. It isn't uncommon for additional insight to reveal itself long after the story is finished. You get the feeling that words aren't chosen, they're hewn, chiseled and polished from the essence of language. Quoting from a story doesn't do the writing justice - it would be like showing a picture of Teddy Roosevelt's stone nose and trying to explain Mount Rushmore. Hempel needs to be ingested, whole-hog.
I still remember, years ago, when a fellow Hempel fan alerted me to the publishing of her complete works in one volume: [b:The Collected Stories|33299|The Collected Stories|Amy Hempel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328039577s/33299.jpg|33384]. This is an amazing book - and highly recommended for any lover of the written word.