Author: Lorrie Moore

Title: Birds of America

Description: A short story collection.

Review source: It’s on EW’s list of best books of the last 25 years (well the 25 years previous to the list being published, which was before I started reading through it, which was many years ago).

Plot: Short stories aren’t really about plot anymore, are they?

Characters: They’re about characters, so there are characters in this book.

Writing style: These stories are very much like what I assume the typical MFA holds up as brilliant writing. Which is to say, they start in the middle of things, end in the middle of things, something might or might not happen, and it’s like looking into someone’s house for a bit, but it’s just someone just like me. Or not.

Audience: Literary fiction.

Wrap-up: I finished this book two or three weeks ago (yes, I put off writing reviews), and there’s only one story in it I can really remember, the last story, about a little boy who somehow has cancer. If this didn’t happen to Lorrie Moore, if this wasn’t the whole reason for the book being written, then I don’t get it. But it’s like she slipped this one true thing into the book of made up stories. 4/5*

Review: Modern Grimmoire

Title: Modern Grimmoire

Description: This is a collection of fairy tale-inspired stories, poems, and art.  

Review source: LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Writing style: This is an anthology, so each author has a little different approach, but for the most part the authors do capture that fairy tale style of everything being extreme and anything happening. The publisher is a non-profit, and the book is beautifully constructed (and the art was juried along with the stories).

Audience: It’s fantasy short stories. Those people who enjoy fairy tale retellings know who they are. (To clarify, some of these are new takes on old fairy tales, while others are totally new stories written in fairy tale style).

Wrap-up: I’m one of those people who does enjoy fairy tale retellings, so I was looking forward to this book. Those of you who read this blog know that I tend to not love collections, because I like a sustained voice/narrative. So there’s that. The contributors to this collection tend to be MFA students, some creative writing instructors, and so on. There are no really big names. And frankly, the big names are usually big for a reason. So I love fairy tales by Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, Robin McKinley, etc. These are a notch below that, but a good effort. 3/5*

Book Review: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Author: G.K. Chesterton

Title: The Man Who Knew too Much

Description: This is a collection of short detective stories.  It really reminded me of Sherlock Holmes—written around the same time, very much centered around deduction, etc. Not being much of a Holmes fan, I’m not sure why Holmes was so successful and Horne Fisher (Chesterton’s detective) not so much. Maybe Chesterton is too topical; the stories are very much late nineteenth century Britain.

Review source: As one of those hoary classics, this book was free on kindle.

Characters: Horne Fisher is the detective and he is the only character who is in all of the stories, although there is a Watson-type fellow who shows up now and again.

Writing style: Typical for the era… requires a bit of concentration, but rewarding if you stick with it.

Audience: Chesterton fans, Holmes fans, those who like detective short stories.

Wrap-up: I read ‘em one at a time on the treadmill and they kept me going pretty well. 4/5*

Book Review: Enchantment

Author: Thaisa Frank

Title: Enchantment

Description: Short stories. Depressing magic realism.

Review source: Publisher

Plot: There are dozens of stories in this book (50 or more?) so it is hard to identify an overarching theme. There are several stories, though, about being seen—people blending in to inanimate objects so they cannot be seen, or being forgotten as though they were never there. I would say that most of the stories are about broken connections between people.

Characters: Mostly from the women’s point of view. These stories are pretty short—many are just two or three pages—so not much time for character development, more like a snapshot.

Writing style: Dreamlike, detached… Many of the stories contain elements of the magical. I can’t remember that any of the stories had happy endings, so a sort of sadness pervades the book.

Audience: Literary fiction

Wrap-up: I read this book because I had read Frank’s earlier Heidegger’s Glasses. I’ll say upfront that I’m not much for short stories; I much prefer the extended narrative of the novel. Short stories become just dizzying to me, especially if I’m reading more than one at a sitting, as I did with this book. In addition, I just happen to be re-reading Olive Kitteridge now as well. So it was up against a Pulitzer winner. The difference between this book and Olive is that I get that feeling of sustained, connected narrative in Olive. There were some connected stories here, but the typography of the story titles made it difficult to figure out exactly how that worked. 2.5/5*

Book Review: Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Author: Melissa Bank

Title: The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Description: A collection of short stories centering around Jane Rosenal (except for one about her aunt’s neighbor).

Source: yup, Penguin.

Writing style: A little disorienting—some first person, (including when the neighbor narrates), some second person.

Audience: Definitely literary fiction; more women than men, I’d guess.

Major ideas: The stories are about love. Or at least dating relationships. Jane’s brother, Jane, Jane’s aunt’s neighbor’s son’s.

Wrap-up: It was an easy one-vacation-day read, but I’m not sure that it’ll stick with me for long. A lot of New York publishing scene type stuff. 4/5*

Book Review: Jesus' Son

Author: DenisJohnson

Title: Jesus’ Son: Stories

Description: A collection of short stories, mostly narrated in the first person, about men (or one man, can’t tell) who have taken so many drugs they no longer know what’s what.

Review source: It’s on the Entertainment Weekly list that I’m reading through.

Plot: No single plot, since it’s short stories.

Characters: They put one in mind of carnies.

Writing style: At least he’s succinct.

Audience: Literary fiction. Men.

Wrap-up: I made it through by limiting myself to one story at a time. 2/5*