Sixty-one stories which—notwithstanding Cheever's four novels from The Wapshot Chronicle to Falconer—are the rock formation upon which his reputation truly rests. From the brief, self-deprecating preface: "These stories date from my Honorable Discharge from the Army at the end of World War II. Their order is, to the best of my memory, chronological and the most embarrassingly immature pieces have been dropped." Thus, the collection consists principally of the contents of five previous volumes: The Enormous Radio; The Housebreaker of Shady Hill; Some People, Places, And Things That Will Not Appear In My Next Novel; The Brigadier and The Golf Widow; and The Worm of Apples. Included, of course, are such famed tales as "The Swimmer," and the full, limited range of Cheever's preoccupations—marriage, suburbia, Manhattan, the middle class, the technological society, Italy, decency—is on constant display: the well-known "rut" that he broke out of with Falconer. Even when slightly dated or rarified, the stories remain sinfully readable, with those legendarily seductive opening lines—e.g. "The first time I robbed Tiffany's it was raining." True, the all-in-one format may not be terribly flattering to a single-note style. (First line of "The Swimmer": "It was one of those midsummer Sundays. . ." First line of "The Geometry of Love": "It was one of those rainy late afternoons. . .") And Cheever's latest, more freewheeling stories—like "The President of the Argentine"—are not included. But, if those earlier collections are not within reach, this mamoth grouping of small, polished pleasures is a luxurious necessity.
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1978
ISBN: 0375724427
Page Count: 971
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1978
It's being called a novel, but it is more a hybrid: short-stories/essays/confessions about the Vietnam War—the subject that O'Brien reasonably comes back to with every book. Some of these stories/memoirs are very good in their starkness and factualness: the title piece, about what a foot soldier actually has on him (weights included) at any given time, lends a palpability that makes the emotional freight (fear, horror, guilt) correspond superbly. Maybe the most moving piece here is "On The Rainy River," about a draftee's ambivalence about going, and how he decided to go: "I would go to war—I would kill and maybe die—because I was embarrassed not to." But so much else is so structurally coy that real effects are muted and disadvantaged: O'Brien is writing a book more about earnestness than about war, and the peekaboos of this isn't really me but of course it truly is serve no true purpose. They make this an annoyingly arty book, hiding more than not behind Hemingwayesque time-signatures and puerile repetitions about war (and memory and everything else, for that matter) being hell and heaven both. A disappointment.
Pub Date: March 28, 1990
ISBN: 0618706410
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990
SEEN & HEARD
IN THE NEWS
SEEN & HEARD
Visionary speculative stories that will change the way readers see themselves and the world around them: This book delivers...
Exploring humankind's place in the universe and the nature of humanity, many of the stories in this stellar collection focus on how technological advances can impact humanity’s evolutionary journey.
Chiang's (Stories of Your Life and Others, 2002) second collection begins with an instant classic, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” which won Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novelette in 2008. A time-travel fantasy set largely in ancient Baghdad, the story follows fabric merchant Fuwaad ibn Abbas after he meets an alchemist who has crafted what is essentially a time portal. After hearing life-changing stories about others who have used the portal, he decides to go back in time to try to right a terrible wrong—and realizes, too late, that nothing can erase the past. Other standout selections include “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” a story about a software tester who, over the course of a decade, struggles to keep a sentient digital entity alive; “The Great Silence,” which brilliantly questions the theory that humankind is the only intelligent race in the universe; and “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny,” which chronicles the consequences of machines raising human children. But arguably the most profound story is "Exhalation" (which won the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Short Story), a heart-rending message and warning from a scientist of a highly advanced, but now extinct, race of mechanical beings from another universe. Although the being theorizes that all life will die when the universes reach “equilibrium,” its parting advice will resonate with everyone: “Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so.”
Visionary speculative stories that will change the way readers see themselves and the world around them: This book delivers in a big way.Pub Date: May 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-94788-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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