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beentsy's review
5.0
Wonderful collection of short stories. A few of them seem to be saying that the cats might just be the answer to everything that ails us. This seems like a pretty good idea to me.
dllh's review
3.0
It was fine. Some nice observations, occasionally a poignant moment. He often does the thing lots of writers do where they leave an ending sort of unraveled or ambiguous and make you put together what it means. Sometimes this can be neat, but more often than not, it just feels like the author's using a gimmick or didn't quite know how to tie the story up. With Barthelme (as in most cases), it tends to feel like the latter.
I got the book by accident, picking it up from the publisher's table at a conference after mistakingly thinking I was getting something by his brother Donald Barthelme. I liked it well enough but didn't generally find it inspiring and probably wouldn't seek this Barthelme out in particular in the future. I'll read him with interest if I run across him in a magazine, though.
I got the book by accident, picking it up from the publisher's table at a conference after mistakingly thinking I was getting something by his brother Donald Barthelme. I liked it well enough but didn't generally find it inspiring and probably wouldn't seek this Barthelme out in particular in the future. I'll read him with interest if I run across him in a magazine, though.
acinthedc's review
3.0
A collection of short stories mostly about people down on their luck, who haven't given up on life (yet). While most of the stories are humorous in one way or another and all are well-written, a few were hard to read (Hush Hush) and at a certain they started to feel repetitive.
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