When the Messenger is Hot: Stories
by Elizabeth Crane (Goodreads author!)
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Read in November, 2006
Elizabeth Crane's prose is smart yet straightforward, funny yet meaningful. In When the Messenger Is Hot, she experiments with form and point of view while creating memorable characters and scenarios.
There are lots of stories in this book, so I'll just highlight a couple of my favorites. The opener, "The Archetypes Girlfriend," is more of an extended description than a traditional story. Is there such thing as a stereotypical idiosyncrasy? Yes: Crane manages to display tons of them...more
There are lots of stories in this book, so I'll just highlight a couple of my favorites. The opener, "The Archetypes Girlfriend," is more of an extended description than a traditional story. Is there such thing as a stereotypical idiosyncrasy? Yes: Crane manages to display tons of them...more
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Read in November, 2007
I really liked Crane's second collection of stories, All This Heavenly Glory, but these stories were neither differentiated enough nor linked enough to be as satisfying as her second book. Most of the stories here deal with, at least in passing, a dead/dying mother and rehab and all feature the same kind of breathless narration and quirky interpolation of odd details and supernatural elements. It was a little too much of the same for me (I had a similar reaction when reading all of John Irving...more
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Read in July, 2007
Disappointingly not good. I had been meaning to read this for a long time and when reviews of this book called it something along the lines of one-dimensional, I rolled my eyes thinking that in today's literary world, a short story is called simplistic if it actually follows a plot and doesn't spent ten pages describing jacaranda blossoms floating in a pool. But then I read it and for the most part it was pretty one-dimensional, with a lot of the stories being more concepts outlined rather than ...more
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recommends it for:
girls
My best friend gave me this book for Christmas in 2005, and while I love her very much, I don't think she read this book all the way through - because within this collection of short stories there are at least three stories of "my mother is dying/died of cancer" - and wouldn't you know it, my OWN mother was dying of cancer at the very same time. Not exactly fun reading. But, taken separately from that, the stories are fun and fluffy but not brilliantly written. This one is just OK.
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Read in January, 2006
Elizabeth Crane is my favorite short story writer. She has an amazing voice that comes off the page so clearly; reading her stories is like talking with a close friend. I think I legitimately laughed out loud at least one time per story, and I read it in Starbucks, so that was embarrassing.
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Read in December, 2006
any story that can start out with a line like: "so get this: they're going to make movie of my life."(from the story Something Shiny)has me hooked.
life is given a new, more honest portrayal, in all of Elizabeth Crane's work. READ THIS.
life is given a new, more honest portrayal, in all of Elizabeth Crane's work. READ THIS.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
women who love edgy romantic literary short stories
I loved that this was very literary chick lit.
Also,just saw one of the stories performed on the stage by the Steppenwolfe company.
Crane has this incredible manic, clipped voice that is totally addictive. Read all the stories in one sitting.
Also,just saw one of the stories performed on the stage by the Steppenwolfe company.
Crane has this incredible manic, clipped voice that is totally addictive. Read all the stories in one sitting.
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Read in January, 2004
Have you ever experienced love, lust, burning passion, dating apathy, or romantic disillusionment? Of course you have. And so has Elizabeth Crane. There's a story or two for all of us in this sweet, sarcastic, bitter, funny, hopeful collection.
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recommends it for:
Once and future girlfriends
Son-of-a-gun. It turns out that finding a book that is written in a voice that is just like that of all of your favorite ex-girlfriends at their most clever, funny, and sophisticated is oddly enjoyable.
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Read in July, 2005
I'd like to echo all the positive reviews on this book and add that its shiny red cover makes it an excellent platonic Valentine's day gift for your friends. Especially your bookish-yet-sexy-yet-single ones.
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Read in July, 2007
I'm a newly converted fan of short stories. I enjoyed many of the stories in this collection although some were just too bizarre to even read.
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These are great stories and I expect Ms. Crane to emerge as a verb very soon. You know, like, did you read that story, she totally Crane'd it.
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Read in November, 2005
A good read, although there were some stories I could tell early on I just wanted to be done with, there were others well worth finding.
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Read in June, 2007
I plowed through this book of short stories. Told in a unique casual voice, almost like reading a blog. A nice, breezy collection.
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Read in September, 2006
however real a story is, there is always room for it to enter a space that is more real. and by that i mean seemingly impossible.
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Read in January, 2001
I LOVE these stories. I wish more people read Elizabeth Crane because if they did, they would be much happier.
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i learned that elizabeth crane lives in my neighborhood and tutored macaulay culkin on the set of richie rich.
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Read in June, 2005
Wrote a full length review here: http://www.jargonchicago.com/c...
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Read in November, 2007
An interesting collection of short stories. Some are clever, some are a little bleak.
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I've seen this book on so many people's booklist. I think I must need to read it.
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