Contents:
Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews.
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I have read this book several times. Loved it the first time and loved it even more on every other read. It's funny, sad, surprising, and welcoming to strangers. It makes me remember what feeling awkward feels like, what being lonely is, how everyone feels that way, and how to move on.
All the stories are great, but "Free Ham" is my favorite, with a dinosaur fire, a dog named Strudel, a ham that may or may not have luggage, and a father just out of reach. Bertino sees the world a bit sideways and offers her readers generous descriptions of the everyday made special and new. And sometimes she makes the special seem everyday, like bringing Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner. This collection of stories, which, in truth, are all my favorites, will make your life better. It's not that this book is just well written it is, extraordinarily , walks a tight line between comedy and tragedy it does to a beautiful and profound extent , or has an consistently fresh bent on reality the rules of which are, in fact, very much bent in this collection , but this book is magical.
It is a rare, rare book that has this sort of magic, though its effect is simple. It makes you want to read more.
It makes you want to read the stories in this book again, it makes you want to read stories that haven't been written yet, and all the books that you have ever wanted to read. It's a genuine excitement that allows for the blurring of priorities and particulars and reengages a true interest in the imagination and its emotional landscape. You feel like a kid again. As striking a book of short stories, let alone a debut, that I've ever read. One person found this helpful.
Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. This is the product of a writer who has yet to hit her stride, but for a debut collection it approaches dazzling. Bertino is quirky and likable if not always original, and her forays into magical realism open every story in the book to that possibility. I was never sure what she would do next, which heightened my enjoyment. If you don't read this one, read the next. She's a writer to watch. I read and really enjoyed 2 a.
I love the variety of tales she tells, and how interesting her characters are, even magical sometimes. I look forward to reading more of her work! Bertino shares Lorrie Moore's ability to have you laughing through an entire story, only to discover on reaching the last line that you've been utterly devastated.
Whether discussing the bonds of family, friendship or ex-lovers, Ms.
Bertino's stories are consistently compelling and a delight to read. When we were safe on the lawn, we watched the house delete itself. Later that night, in clothes we borrowed from the neighbors, we showed up to the rehearsal dinner, late and reeking of smoke. Smoke smells sweet, not unlike syrup.
That was one of the many things I learned about house fires. Another was that they move so fast you barely have time to get out. You know the popular question — if you were in a fire and could save only one possession, what would you grab? In the weeks that followed, our lost possessions revealed themselves to me in visceral, brutal dreams that are apparently common for fire victims. It is 8 years later, and my mother and I will still pause in the middle of a story at the mention of an object from our past.
I had never read a story about the fallout of a house fire that contained all of these unusual details. So I wanted to write one. He has a frog rain slicker and a bowl haircut that went out in, what, ? In these eight stories, Bertino manages an absurd tension and strange impossibilities, writing as tight as a spring. In one story, her narrator is supposedly an alien with a mundane office job, reporting home on what happens in the lives of earthlings.
In another, she writes a narrator who brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner, attempting to appease a brother who refuses just about everything. These stories are sharp, cutthroat and even slightly confusing, writing out multiple worlds in the short space of a single collection, each tale as short and compact as the story requires. The opening of the story reads: Growing up, I have dreams that my father sets our house on fire. When our house actually does catch fire, my first thought is, Get the dog out.
We answer as a family. The firefighter makes like he is going to run back in. The firefighter is losing his patience. Posted by rob mclennan at 9: Newer Post Older Post Home.
I wipe my eyes with the again of my hand. It is a rare, rare book that has this sort of magic, though its effect is simple. It is a picture of my birth. In and out of the rooms of these gritty, whimsical stories roam troubled, funny people struggling to reconcile their circumstances to some kind of American Ideal and failing, over and over. Ontario May At the Desk: Jim Tomlinson Goodreads Author. Traps by Sondra Spatt Olsen liked it 3.
The Factory Reading Series: December 28, Ottawa ON ; rob's ongoing editing service: