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kweekwegg's review against another edition
4.0
love! imagination! jumping onto a narrator's train of thought without knowing at all where it's going!
I heard a reading of the eponymous story on The New Yorker podcast and fell into amours with Dybek's style. I was not disappointed upon reading the full collection and have really appreciated seeing his style played out in different ways and across different stories.
I heard a reading of the eponymous story on The New Yorker podcast and fell into amours with Dybek's style. I was not disappointed upon reading the full collection and have really appreciated seeing his style played out in different ways and across different stories.
ajpellis1's review against another edition
4.0
Easily the most fascinating aspect of this story is the way that it is structured: deceiving your original ideas about where the story is going, as well as delighting your imagination.
selfwinding's review against another edition
5.0
Such beautiful language, such stunning images and repetition of those images. By far the best book I've read in the last few months.
jbdunn's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting collection of stories about different types of love. Sometimes the stories feel connected, with similar characters running through them.There's a lot of flashbacks where the main character in the story flashes back after being reminded by an object or an event in current life.
brucefarrar's review
3.0
Nine short stories previously published in magazines between 1995 and 2012. Although subtitled love stories they might more accurately be described as fictional nostalgic reminisces of erotic encounters that didn’t work out so well for the participants. Most are set in Chicago.
Dybek’s style is littered with allusions to other works of literature, painting, opera, cinema, and popular culture. This in not to say that it’s not skillful or literary; it very much abounds in these techniques. However, for me, this occasionally, got in the way of the story, especially in the stories, “Tosca” and “Oceanic.”
Dybek’s style is littered with allusions to other works of literature, painting, opera, cinema, and popular culture. This in not to say that it’s not skillful or literary; it very much abounds in these techniques. However, for me, this occasionally, got in the way of the story, especially in the stories, “Tosca” and “Oceanic.”
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