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pattydsf's review against another edition
3.0
Interconnected stories about Chicago. sometimes I didn't totally understand how the stories connected. All in one neighborhood or one family in the neighborhood - I guess.
I think I heard Dybek speak at a ALA program in Chicago which would have been appropriate and also would explain why one story seemed very familiar.
My favorite story was "We Didn't" which may be the one that was read to us.
Worth reading if you like short stories - much of it was serious, but there were definitely some funny bits. And the two brothers were great characters.
I think I heard Dybek speak at a ALA program in Chicago which would have been appropriate and also would explain why one story seemed very familiar.
My favorite story was "We Didn't" which may be the one that was read to us.
Worth reading if you like short stories - much of it was serious, but there were definitely some funny bits. And the two brothers were great characters.
sapphicaffair's review against another edition
1.0
Read this one for class, it's so hard for me to rate anything lower than 2 stars but I genuinely disliked this one. The stories didn't connect, I couldn't see a point, and the only reason I got through it was because it was mandatory. The stories were so slow, too many unnecessary words and it took forever for it to make it's point. The chapters were too long and that only works if you REALLY want more of that story, which I don't. I was 75% into this book and by then I should've already been captured by this story and by then the reader should WANT to learn more, but I just really dreaded picking this one up. My favorite chapter is Live From Dreamsville, that chapter was beautiful and I deeply enjoyed it so much; However, I don't think your favorite chapter is supposed to be 2 chapters in because then the rest of the book can't and doesn't live up to that. Overall, I didn't really enjoy this one.
jade_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
k_dellabitta's review against another edition
5.0
After reading of Dybek's collection of novel-in-stories, I Sailed with Magellan, it is hard to resist the sense that contested dreams, memories and what remains unspoken between us are what most deepen the love we have for others and for ourselves. These dreams, memories, and secret thoughts and feelings may fuel our greatest creations; may turn us into endearing fools; or bring us luck; may make possible living on for another day; or grant us a long circuitous lifetime. Even if these memories and dreams and hidden lives drive us mad; even if they kill us: even if they lead us on to countless other forms of destruction, Dybek shows us how they can still deepen our love for one other and for the beauty of our minuscule existence as it is lived in narrow alleyways, unclean waters, and a vast cosmos.
Dybek's stories are full of digressions that are as perfectly shaped as the finest cut pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Each digression, its own right, is a tale worth savoring. Together, they contribute to the richly symphonic whole collection of stories. Thus, while rendering an extraordinarily particular (sometimes humorous, sometimes brutal) portrait of life in the Polish immigrant community in the 1950s and 1960s Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods of Chicago, Dybek gives the reader so much more than a warm and nuanced reminiscence of time and place: he gives us access to dreams, story structures, and histories that draw us beyond that place, time, and particular community, toward what can make us fully human.
Dybek's stories are full of digressions that are as perfectly shaped as the finest cut pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Each digression, its own right, is a tale worth savoring. Together, they contribute to the richly symphonic whole collection of stories. Thus, while rendering an extraordinarily particular (sometimes humorous, sometimes brutal) portrait of life in the Polish immigrant community in the 1950s and 1960s Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods of Chicago, Dybek gives the reader so much more than a warm and nuanced reminiscence of time and place: he gives us access to dreams, story structures, and histories that draw us beyond that place, time, and particular community, toward what can make us fully human.
aneides's review against another edition
4.0
Several stories about life in Chicago's South Side, varying degrees of connection between the stories. The stories seemed to feel more universal as time progressed. Maybe that was just me finding the later stories more relatable because they seem to take place in the 1970s... a decade much more familiar to me than the 1950s of Dybek's youth. I did, however, like the stories of the protagonist's childhood better than those of adolescence and beyond... so there's that.
This time I did not consume a collection of stories in a couple of marathon sessions. It was a much better experience as a result.
This time I did not consume a collection of stories in a couple of marathon sessions. It was a much better experience as a result.
bncrain's review against another edition
5.0
Some of the best prose I've read in a long time. Chicago at its literary finest.
chriswolak's review
4.0
Took me back to scenes from my own childhood in a predominantly Polish neighborhood that was full of taverns and changing fast with the times (born in Chicago, grew up in Cicero). I enjoyed the honesty of scenes such as the one where "alkies" fighting is good for kids because change invariably flies from their pockets, or how a son, an 8th grader at the time, is alarmed by his father's "general obliviousness to gang etiquette in the neighborhood." Such vivid detail creates a strong sense of time and place, one that isn't exactly nostalgic, but is also not full of rage at the past (but there is some of both). Wonderful relationship depictions, too--friends, family, young lovers. Good male coming of age stuff here. I plan on reading more from Dybek.
pattydsf's review
3.0
Interconnected stories about Chicago. sometimes I didn't totally understand how the stories connected. All in one neighborhood or one family in the neighborhood - I guess.
I think I heard Dybek speak at a ALA program in Chicago which would have been appropriate and also would explain why one story seemed very familiar.
My favorite story was "We Didn't" which may be the one that was read to us.
Worth reading if you like short stories - much of it was serious, but there were definitely some funny bits. And the two brothers were great characters.
I think I heard Dybek speak at a ALA program in Chicago which would have been appropriate and also would explain why one story seemed very familiar.
My favorite story was "We Didn't" which may be the one that was read to us.
Worth reading if you like short stories - much of it was serious, but there were definitely some funny bits. And the two brothers were great characters.
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