Reviews

Brief Encounters with the Enemy: Fiction by Said Sayrafiezadeh

liberrydude's review against another edition

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2.0

Most of these stories take place on the home front and they describe the banality of life while others do the fighting and dying. It's about 20 or 30 something guys trying to make a buck and living their lives of quiet desperation and pondering the what if's on life's journey. Well written but the story set in the war zone(title story) doesn't ring true and lacks the authentic feel of other war fiction.

not_mike's review against another edition

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3.0

Hardcover.

Cartography, Paranoia, Appetite, and Associates are great stories.

teachmke's review against another edition

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5.0

Well written stories of middle class Americans during a war. Usually I crave more from short stories, but these were perfectly concluded and thought provoking.

madanburg's review

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4.0

http://dakimel.blogspot.com/2013/08/2013-summer-mel-reads-short-fiction.html

I reviewed new release Brief Encounters with the Enemy by Saïd Sayrafiezedah (The Dial Press, 2013) for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, so I don't want to repeat myself here. But I'm not steering you wrong when I tell you that this captures a very universal modern America via some every-men whose stories are told with captivating and forthright prose. I didn't cry, but I did laugh, and it did become a part of me. And I love this Edward Hopper-looking cover image (is that a Hopper?) - the outside looking in thing, quite perfect for this collection.

rhett's review

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dark tense fast-paced

3.0

zachkuhn's review

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4.0

Baba booey to you all.
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