I abandoned this a few months ago after reading the title story, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, but decided to give it another go. I enjoyed but wasn't wowed by any of the stories until Free Fruit for Young Widows, which was absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking.
To write a review about a book full of short stories is always more difficult for me, as it is to write one for a novel. There is the shortness that you get, to get used to the characters and the plot, there is also the problem that it contains a lot of stories, and it is rarely that one is as good ...
So as much as I dislike short stories. I really felt like this looong (415 page) book should have been a short story. I found the topic interesting (coping mechanisms of family during a political coup and resulting "disappearances"); I also respected Englander's attempt at literary appeal with all...
I feel like I should give this more stars and that I should have liked it more but, honestly, it just wasn't for me. There was nothing wrong with it, just not to my tastes.
I only read two of the stories, but with reach i felt empty. I felt a huge disconnect between the writers intent and the finished product. I did not, as i usually feel while reading short stories, and emptiness stirred by a desire for more. I did not feel the demand for more.... More dammit. as a wh...
I haven't read Englander's collection of short stories, but the fact that most people rate them above this novel is surprising to me. I have a hard time imagining a short story collection I could love as much as this novel and its characters.
This is my first Englander and I am impressed. He demonstrates great range in these eight stories, from the blazing to the subtle, the good and the bad. Where he's best is hitting the solid middle gray stuff - where you don't know who to root for, whether the actor is in the right or the wrong, whet...
I waffled--4, or 5? One story was a misfire for me, but really just in comparison:"The Reader" had Englander's trademark hints of magic, bit the gloves were threadbare, the sleight of hand somewhat fumbling, the trick itself mostly expected, mawkish, obvious. Every other story was outstanding. Ev...
Surprise! Surprise! What life throws at you cannot be understood. There is no logic or reason to what happens. At best, all you can do is try to accommodate yourself to the cards dealt you. More specifically the book concerned one Jewish family and what happened to them during Argentina's Dirty Wars...
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