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A review by maa_pix
Apparition & Late Fictions by Thomas Lynch
3.0
To expand on the sub-title, specifically four short-stories and a novella.
Overall, Lynch is a masterful writer. His prose is beautifully constructed. I found the first three short stories most engaging. That they focused on men from Michigan in mid-life probably had something to do with it. That's pretty much where I'm at in life as well. The fourth story I found to be a seed of a good idea, but literally left the heroine up a tree. The novella I found somewhat pointless. It was a story of a pastor who left the clergy after his wife left him and he serendipitously became a best-selling author. The story is told for the most part in first person flashback, after the narrator has achieved a great deal of worldly success as an author. I found parts of the novella to be promising: details of how the man deals with the literary life, the realities of being a small-town pastor, dealing with his wife's departure, his friendship with the local catholic priest. But the parts weren't stitched together that well.
So three pretty good short stories, one not-so-good short story and one not-so-good novella. Hence, three stars.
Overall, Lynch is a masterful writer. His prose is beautifully constructed. I found the first three short stories most engaging. That they focused on men from Michigan in mid-life probably had something to do with it. That's pretty much where I'm at in life as well. The fourth story I found to be a seed of a good idea, but literally left the heroine up a tree. The novella I found somewhat pointless. It was a story of a pastor who left the clergy after his wife left him and he serendipitously became a best-selling author. The story is told for the most part in first person flashback, after the narrator has achieved a great deal of worldly success as an author. I found parts of the novella to be promising: details of how the man deals with the literary life, the realities of being a small-town pastor, dealing with his wife's departure, his friendship with the local catholic priest. But the parts weren't stitched together that well.
So three pretty good short stories, one not-so-good short story and one not-so-good novella. Hence, three stars.