Jennifer
Rating:
Review
This collection of short stories left me uninspired, and frankly, irritated and confused at times. In my opinion, this author's writing style seems unnecessarily wordy and hard to follow. In addition, each story has a male main character, and several of the stories have a theme of abuse or some sort of perversion. In "Echo", Jon is disconnected and somewhat disjointed with relationships in his adulthood. His life revolves around reminiscing about a girl from his childhood that he can't even remember the name of. Ultimately, his friendship and marriage ends because of his selfishness and narcissism. I'm sure that there are people that will "get" these short stories and enjoy them. We all have differences of opinion and relate to the written word differently. I typically enjoy a well-written, dark themed story, but these all missed the mark for me.
Best Line:
"Young Man", "Perhaps what could be said of him was that he was aware of an inner discrepancy – a lack of congruency – and choked daily on its bone."
Kim
Rating:
Review
There are 15 short stories in this trim book, which is about 14 stories too long. Most of the characters were either pathetic or one-dimensional, making this a tough read for me. In the title story, poor Adam is a little too neurotic to be likeable, seemingly even for himself, and in "I'll Make It. I Think", the unnamed narrator lays bare his inner and outer foibles, interestingly enough by naming his defective body parts while taking pride in others (David…). He's rather conflicted about his disabilities and puberty as well. In "Herbie", a young boy with a tumultuous relationship with his father that may be due to his coming of age, but his desire to earn a few bucks shining shoes causes all kinds of conflict. "Alabaster" concerns a fast connection between an old woman and a young boy, and her history, while "Juan Peron's Hands" is about a man that steals the dead Argentine leader's hands from his corpse and then wonders what exactly he might do with them. The most likeable story for me was "Billy's Mirrored Wall", an interesting tale of the have's and the have-not's in a particular boy's life. While I appreciate things about all the stories, I was turned off largely by the recurring verbiage referring to wet dreams/masturbation/peeping. I am aware that male humans have penises. I don't need to be reminded of that fact at every turn though, thanks.
Best Line:
"Similarly related to this was his fear of growing hair on his finger joints."
