My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro

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My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro

by Jeffrey Eugenides (Editor)

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 1,735 ratings · 289 reviews

Hardcover, 587 pages

Published January 8th 2008 by Harper (first published January 1st 2008)

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Sep 01, 2009 Books Ring Mah Bell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-shorts-n-essays

Let's revisit the definition of love story, shall we?

While I have to admit most of these are excellent stories, I'm not sure I'd peg them as "love" stories. Maybe my idea of love is just completely different than the authors of these short stories.

In all, this book deserves 5 stars, as most of the writing in here was truly amazing. (and this is high praise coming from a girl who is not big into short stories) I had to knock it down a few stars as the stories simply did not conform to what I want...more

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Jun 29, 2008 selena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: shortstories

i have a hard time rating this book as a whole. some of the stories made me cry. others made me want to skip to the next one. some i had already encountered in another life.

i couldn't stop reading this book. i couldn't stop re-reading the stories. reading them aloud to my boyfriend. watching the look on his face to see if they resonated as strongly with him. it was beautiful. and it was heart-breaking. and it hurt. i felt so dreadful after reading some of them, like it was me this was happening...more

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Aug 05, 2008 Yulia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Hmm, this is supposedly a great anthology, but is it safe to trust the tastes of an author I don't care for? I'll have to find out. Perhaps he's a better reader than he is a writer, which is too often the case.

It would seem not. Two stars for two happy introductions to writers I hadn't considered before: Miranda July ("Something That Needs Nothing") and David Bezmozgis ("Natasha").

As for the rest:

Erg, the obviousness of some of these choices irritates me (Joyce's "The Dead," Chekhov's "Lady wi...more

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Mar 28, 2009 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I loved the variety of stories in this collection--and was happy to be introduced to some "classic" contemporary writers whose work I'd never actually read before.

Okay, I'll admit it. I hadn't read Harold Brodsky before, and for my money, "First Love and Other Sorrows" was worth the whole book. (However, I didn't like the other Brodsky story in the book.) The glacial movement through time and emotion in that story was deceptive; next thing you know, time has passed and all has changed.

I also lov...more

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May 13, 2008 Sarah Jo rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's ridiculously difficult for me to rate this book because there is such a vast difference between the stories that I relished and the ones that I had to trudge through. I adore Eugenides as an author, but his editing skills in regards to a collection of "great" love stories leaves something to be desired. There are certainly stories that, to me, expressed the epitome of love, such as Munro's "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," in which a husband begins to lose his wife of several decades to bo...more

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Jun 08, 2009 miaaa rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lamya

Shelves: ophelia-s-library, fictions-others

Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.
- Jeffrey Eugenides

My late grandmother was quite ill the last time I met her. She confused me with her stories as she mixed up my late grandfather with one of my uncle. I did not have a chance to know either of my grandfathers as they died when I was few months old. So the only way to know them was through my grandmother's stories about my grandfather or my father's about his father. I don't know if she had loved her husband, my grand...more Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.
- Jeffrey Eugenides

My late grandmother was quite ill the last time I met her. She confused me with her stories as she mixed up my late grandfather with one of my uncle. I did not have a chance to know either of my grandfathers as they died when I was few months old. So the only way to know them was through my grandmother's stories about my grandfather or my father's about his father. I don't know if she had loved her husband, my grandfather, because my mother once told me she's quite young when she married my grandfather who lost his first wife. Or maybe it was love because she raised his two sons from his first wife as if they're her own sons.

During her few last years, she began to forget where she put her stuff, and as I said before, mixing people from the past with the present. I remember once I spent my school's holiday in my auntie's house and several cousins joined me. One morning, my grandmother had all of us jumped from whatever we're doing that time because she said she lost her money. So we're all busy looking for the money, we removed things and the house was a bit in chaos then. Suddenly one of my cousin asked, "Grandma how much did you lose?" and she indignantly said, "Three thousand rupiah!" And we're all burst out hysterical laughing.

Now that she's gone I've always miss her. We still have a good laugh any time we talked about her, about how she had had eaten ice creams in the middle of the nights and had never let us touched any of her ice creams. She's still a beauty even in her old years. Such a grandmother who had always taking care of us -me and my siblings- and talked to us gently not to chop down her plants for our cooking games.

And so I love her and it's for real.

Reading this collections of love stories reminds me that there are dozens, hundreds, even millions kind of love. You have to believe that love matters as the more it can hurt you the more you realise that you're alive.

***

Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.
- Jeffrey Eugenides

Beragam kisah cinta ada di sini, tidak selalu berakhir bahagia walau biasanya kebanyakan orang berharap demikian. Satu hal yang pasti kita membutuhkan cinta dan menyadari cinta itu penting. Terkadang cinta bisa begitu menyakitkan tapi bukankah dengan demikian kita juga sadar bahwa kita masih hidup?

Bersulang untuk cinta ... cheers(less)

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Feb 07, 2008 Brian Solem rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is, overall, a well-curated collection of love-related stories, or as Jeffrey Eugenides dubs it (to paraphrase), "stories about when the sparrow is alive, and stories about when the sparrow is dead." While most of the pieces address dead sparrows, I had to skip a few on account of general (as well as birthday) (oh, as well as pre-V-day) malaise. I'm glad I was reminded of authors like Raymond Carver, whose unsettling "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" addresses moribund domestic l...more

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Apr 17, 2008 MK is currently reading it

How could this book not be good? I saw it in the bookstore and thought the design was so kick-ass- no book sleeve! We all hate those anyways. The design is ON the hard back. Good decision #1.

#2- Jeffrey Eugenides edited it. I never finished Middlesex because I left it on a plane to Italy. But I was super enthralled during the first 80 pages. I also love the Virgin Suicides. Josh Hartnett, and Sophia Coppola.

#3. The stories, so far, are incredible. And they're not all Dave Egger's-ish in approach...more

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Mar 01, 2008 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

What an unusual collection of "love" stories! A few were along the lines of what is expected upon hearing the term "love story", but many of the contributions defied tradition in some respect. I especially enjoyed the entries by Chekhov, Moore, Dybek, de Maupassant, and Saunders. I was never a big fan of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, but The Lady With the Little Dog piqued my interest in reading more of his short stories. Dybek's We Didn't, though frustrating for the narrator, is thoroughly enjo...more

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May 28, 2011 Evanston Public Library added it

Shelves: fiction

Edited by Jeffrey Eugenides, this unforgettable collection captures love in all its thorny, dizzying, and satisfying forms. Here you’ll find stories that seethe with irrepressible desire, thrum with quiet longing, follow passionate consummatio, render painful betrayal, and show us pictures of fleeting young love and life-long commitment, all by masterful writers of the form (the subtitle is, "Great love stories from Chekhov to Munro"). The stories are set in all corners of the globe from suburba...more

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Sep 19, 2009 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I purchased this some time ago, and it's been waiting patiently on my bookshelves before being tossed into my suitcase as a last minute back-up holiday read. Upon starting it, I cursed myself for ignoring it for so long, because right from the opener (Harold Brodkey's "First Love and Other Sorrows") this collection is short-story writing at its best. As Jeffrey Eugenides explains in his introduction, he has not selected stories where the lovers are instantly fulfilled and live happily ever after...more

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Aug 23, 2009 Banafsheh Serov rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The moment I love best about any book, is the moment I start the first sentence. That sense of anticipation when starting something new. It's the moment when I open myself to a whole new discovery of characters, plot and settings. It's also an intimate conversation with the author, a small personal confession perhaps or an admission of values whispered through dialogue between characters.

I don't tend to read anthologies of short stories. I only bought 'My mistress's sparrow is dead' because I ac...more The moment I love best about any book, is the moment I start the first sentence. That sense of anticipation when starting something new. It's the moment when I open myself to a whole new discovery of characters, plot and settings. It's also an intimate conversation with the author, a small personal confession perhaps or an admission of values whispered through dialogue between characters.

I don't tend to read anthologies of short stories. I only bought 'My mistress's sparrow is dead' because I accidently spilled coffee over it and felt compelled to purchase it. But what a great find it turned out to be! In this anthology of love stories, Eugenides has brought together an eclectic collection of both well known as well as some lesser known authors.

I cannot think why I had not gravitated towards anthologies before. They are like a beautiful jewelry box that presents you with a new treasure every time you open it. Each story repeated for me the trill of a new begining, a cast of new characters and a whole new backdrop waiting to be discovered. It was like a ten course meal, presented with humility and muted fanfare.

Although I enjoyed most of the stories, some did bore me which is another thing I found wonderful about such anthologies. If the story failed to grab me in the first couple of paragraphs, I just skipped to the next one and started the journey of discovery all over again.

The only disadvantage I can think of with such anthologies is, how can one review a book with 27 stories, each written by a different author? Although Anton Chekhov's story was by far my favourite in both prose and plot, I did enjoy most of the others in the collection as well. My mistress's sparrow is dead, is a great collection to keep by your bedside and open at anytime and at any story. Most are short enough to be finished in around 30 minutes, so you can pick it up in between books or when you are looking for something to read over a cup of coffee. And if the story does not match your mood, then you can let your fingers and eyes roam like a pair of talismen, till they lead you to one that does. (less)

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Aug 08, 2010 Jenny Shipp rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am pretty sure this is the worst title of a book I have ever seen! I bought it to take with me to Italy. I wanted something I wouldn't finish in 2 days or even 2 weeks. I have been listening to a series of lectures on tape about Reading. He referenced Chekov's short story, The Lady With the Little Dog. I thought, OK, I'll get it and at least read THAT story. Well, It is probably a great story but I didn't love it like I loved Alice Munro's story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain, Harold Brodkey...more

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Jul 16, 2010 Nancy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Opinions on the quality of the writing aside, the apparent definition of love by the compiler and the authors tells me more about them than I wish to know. Apart from a fraction of the stories, the stories have nothing to do with love and more to do with infatuation (if the reader is lucky), lust, narcissism, unadulterated selfishness, and a complete lack of awareness of the other person in their "relationship". Immaturity as a characteristic is a relief in these essentially unrelenting depressi...more

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Mar 19, 2008 Meri rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

This eclectic mix of love stories was well selected. They range from sad to tragic, as most great love stories do, but they are all well written and insightful. Some are by authors, like Nabokov and Munro, that every literature major will recognize. Others by lesser known authors, like "Another, better Otto" by Deborah Eisenberg, held their own among such august company. Overall a very satisfying read.

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Sep 30, 2012 Adair rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jeffrey Eugenides, the editor of this collection of short stories begins by saying: “I offer this book as a cure for lovesickness and an antidote to adultery. Read these love stories not to confirm the brutal realities of love, but to experience its many variegated, compensatory pleasures.”

He takes the title from the poetry of Catullus, who writes of his mistress’s pet sparrow as a rival for her attention. When the sparrow dies and fortune seems to be going his way, he is really no better off; h...more

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Dec 01, 2009 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like so many of the other reviewers, I have such mixed feelings about rating this book. Some of the short stories sparkle. However, there were a few that left me a little disappointed, though not so much because of the quality of writing, rather because I felt that I didn't belong in this book.

My main problem with the collection isn't so much a criticism -- I felt like the whole time I was reading it, I was expecting something so very different than what was there. I suppose that's more my issu...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Zhiqing rated it 5 of 5 stars

How could you not love this stellar collection of short stories. I was pleased to find Eileen Chang's "White Rose, Red Rose" included here. James Joyce's "The Dead" I have read a few times before and it just moved me every time I read it. This collection proves love stories could be very depressing sometimes!!! Great selection.

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Apr 20, 2008 Peg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thoroughly enjoyable collection of Love Stories. Have decided to buy a copy to be read at leisure. Not a book that I wanted to sit and read from cover to cover because it was due at the library. Want to be able to read a short story or two at a time and savor each one.

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Mar 22, 2008 Tamara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: gen-fic, 2008, short-story-essay-novella

As with all short-story collections, there were some totally amazing stories and some complete duds, but overall they were good picks. My favorites were Anton Chekov and William Faulkner. I don't remember the authors of the ones I mostly skipped over.

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Sep 05, 2010 Enci rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

"When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it. But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full possession. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name. It is perhaps only in reading a love story (or in writing one) that we can simultaneously partake of the ecstasy and agony of being in...more "When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it. But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full possession. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name. It is perhaps only in reading a love story (or in writing one) that we can simultaneously partake of the ecstasy and agony of being in love without paying a crippling emotional price. I offer this book, then, as a cure for lovesickness and an antidote to adultery. Read these love stories in the safety of your single bed. Let everybody else suffer." Jeffrey Eugenides, from the introduction to My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead

Saya meminjam buku ini dari perpustakaan sebenarnya karena saya ingin baca buku yang 'ringan'. Di rumah, secara tidak sengaja, buku yang tertinggal belum dibaca adalah buku Social Complexity (buku yang saya beli dengan saran dari raja kompleksitas Hokky :p) dan buku Umberto Eco yang bukan novel, dan saya sedang tidak mood membaca buku yang bikin kening berkerut. Saya ambil buku itu karena ada tulisannya, 'love story'. Saya tidak tahu siapa Jeffrey Eugenides. Dan saya juga belum pernah membaca tulisan Chekhov ataupun Munro.

Ternyata Jeffrey Eugenides adalah penulis yang pernah memenangkan Pulitzer lewat bukunya Virgin Suicides (oh, itu dia rupanya :p). Dia mengumpulkan cerita-cerita di dalam buku ini dengan benang merah seekor burung, sparrow, yang menjadi salah satu inspirasi seorang penyair Latin, Catullus, seorang penyair yang bisa dibilang memulai genre 'kisah cinta'.

Jadilah buku ini berjudul My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead. Cerita-cerita pendek di dalam buku ini ditulis oleh berbagai macam pengarang dengan beragam latar belakang, dan sebagai warning, ini bukan kisah cinta biasa. Mulai dari kisah cinta ala Anton Chekhov yang 'menggantung' (tapi juga membuka ruang seluas-luasnya untuk imajinasi), Lalu Harold Brodkey yang membawa saya pada kisah cinta tahun 50-an di Amerika (di cerita pendeknya yang lain, Innocence, yang juga masuk ke antologi ini, Brodkey bercerita tentang upaya keras seorang kekasih untuk memberikan kepuasan secara seksual pada pasangannya yang membuat saya ikut kelelahan dengan detil dan 'kerja kerasnya'). Lalu ada juga cerita cinta dari Vladimir Nabokov yang harus saya akui, tidak saya mengerti. Mungkin karena seperti kata Eugenides, tidak ada yang mengalahkan Nabokov dalam hal bercerita. Cerita yang saya sukai betul adalah cerita tentang seorang middle age gay yang berkutat dengan keluarganya oleh Deborah Eisenberg dalam Some Other, Better Otto yang pada akhir cerita meninggalkan pertanyaan eksistensialis tentang hidup. Juga ada tulisan dari Milan Kundera, salah satu pengarang favorit saya yang menampilkan 'Hitchhiking Games' yang seperti biasa, selalu berkutat mengenai mikrokosmos manusia. Favorit saya yang lain adalah tulisan dari Raymond Carver,'What We Talked About When We Talked About Love' (Raymond Carver ini adalah pahlawan dari penulis favorit saya yang lain, Haruki Murakami, dan ini adalah tulisan pertama Carver yang saya baca, dan saya suka sekali). Dan tentu saja, cerita ditutup dengan tulisan yang menurut pendapat saya, memang pantas dijadikan penutup cerita, The Bear Came Over The Mountain' dari Alice Munro.

Cerita-cerita di dalam buku ini bukan kisah cinta biasa. Kebanyakan tidak berakhir dengan 'happily ever after' ala kisah Disney. Sebagian bahkan hanya bercerita mengenai fragmen dari sebuah kisah cinta. Cerita-cerita ini bercerita mengenai pergumulan manusia dengan cinta, dan hidup secara garis besar, dan bukan hanya cinta pada pasangan, tapi -seperti pada cerita Some Other, Better Otto- juga bercerita mengenai kompleksitas relasi sebuah keluarga. Sebagian dari cerita membuat saya bertanya-tanya, dan penutup cerita, Alice Munro, membuat saya menangis(less)

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Mar 08, 2009 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

For the most part, anthologies blow. I only picked this one up because of the diversity of the authors. They put Faulkner, De Maupassant, and Chekhov on the same bill as Saunders, Munro, and Miranda July. Sounds like one of Dave Barry’s loony debacles to unite the literary world. And I’m not so far off. Eugenides in his introduction attributes his focus on love stories to “the Bono of Lit,” himself. But despite my petty contrivances, this is a damn good collection.

There are some stories that I h...more For the most part, anthologies blow. I only picked this one up because of the diversity of the authors. They put Faulkner, De Maupassant, and Chekhov on the same bill as Saunders, Munro, and Miranda July. Sounds like one of Dave Barry’s loony debacles to unite the literary world. And I’m not so far off. Eugenides in his introduction attributes his focus on love stories to “the Bono of Lit,” himself. But despite my petty contrivances, this is a damn good collection.

There are some stories that I have read before and forgotten, like “A Rose for Emily” and “The Necklace.” But isolating them, away from the author’s original anthologies gave a fresh approach. These are love stories. And he puts stories in new perspectives, like James Joyce’ “The Dead” and Denis Johnson’s “Dirty Wedding.” These are love stories too. This is a compilation of love stories, and you never even knew some of them were love stories!

I was surprised by writers I never heard of, David Bezmozgis and Robert Musil; because in “Tonka” and “Natasha” there is a Eastern-European female fragility they handle so well. It takes the role of slut as the indigent ragdoll, like Lars raping “the real girl.” But it shows also the pathetic atrophy of the Western male’s role as aggressor when his pride and his romance and his social roles conflict. It’s the emotional stoicism of mail-order brides versus Ken dolls:

Tonka lay there, with eyes shut and her face turned to the wall, for an endless age, in terrible lonely fear. When at last she felt him beside her, her eyes were wet with warm tears. Then came a new wave of fear, dismay at her ingratitude, a senseless word uttered as though in search of help, as though stumbling out some infinitely long, lonely corridor, to transform itself into his name—and then she was his.

I like the cutesy introspective experiments in Miranda July’s work, like when a girl, throws herself down on the bed and asked us if we were girlfriends or what? An appalling emptiness filled the room. I stared out the window and repeated the word “window” in my head, I was ready to window window window indefinitely, but suddenly, Pip answered.

Yeah.

I also respect the choice of Miranda July’s story, as it is the only homosexual story in the book—and this as an effective tool to shape the question of Love is great. Though I think her story “Birthmark” or "How to Tell Stories to Children" are better love stories. But this adds the distinct flare, the gay one, to the collection. It shall pass.

There’s also the inventive faux-authoritative approach of Lorrie Moore’s “How to be an Other Woman,” her how-to style has built in emotional invective, so to pull that off objectively, she just has to talk about action and reaction. It strangles the phrases.

And I have to say that “The Hitchhiking Game” by Milan Kundera is probably the best short story I’ve ever read. It’s so taut with emotional friction and careful, unintimidating analysis that it makes you feel like a CSI detective exploring the crime scene as it happens. It’s terrifying and pulsating, not as throaty as Brodkey’s “Innocence” which is one of the most vibrant, and laymenly scientific sexual explorations I’ve ever gone through or Saunder’s “Jon,” a love-story so paralyzed by the eugenics of consumer polarization it makes Brave New World look like Walden; but it’s good, they’re all good.

What this is, is good stories. Check it out. It won’t bite ya!

(less)

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Apr 05, 2013 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

I've already reviewed a couple of the stories in this collection, so I'll go ahead and offer up an opinion of the collection as a whole (which is more difficult).

Of course, I loved some stories and really didn't like others and was ambivalent about the rest. (Actually, Harold Brodkey was the only author with two stories in the book; they happened to be, respectively, one of my favorites and my absolute least favorite almost-didn't-get-through-it. What should I make of that?) Eugenides has done a...more

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Mar 25, 2008 brian tanabe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I've only read 3 stories here. I am putting this book down, indefinitely -- love is far too heavy of a topic. (Which is not to say that I was hoping for a collection of Harlequin-esque bodice-rippers.)

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May 20, 2013 Carly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

Because Jeffrey Eugenides takes his sweet time between writing incredible novels, when I heard there was a short story compilation edited by him it was purchased on my amazon account and being shipped to my house as fast as my fingers could go.

After reading the first few stories I began to get worried. I didn't bother to read what the theme of the compilation was when I purchased--his name was enough for me. But the first few stories (by some of the 'classics'--Faulkner, Joyce...) had me terrif...more

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May 18, 2010 Sarah Pi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies, fiction_non_genre

I was wavering toward a three star review until I read the last story, a gorgeous piece by Alice Munro in which a man deals with his wife's encroaching dementia.
The subtitle "great love stories" is deceiving, as might be expected in a McSweeney's anthology edited by Jeffrey Eugenides. There's love, but also lust and love lost and unrequited love. Not too many happy endings in the batch. There are a few classics, like Faulkner's "A Rose For Emily," alongside some future classics and some misfires...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Flora rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a terrific collection, and the stories are about love in many guises. There are so many wonderful stories here: Joyce's "The Dead," Munro's "The Bear Went Over the Mountain." But my favorite find in the collection is Stuart Dybek's "We Didn't."

"We didn't in the light; we didn't in the darkness. We didn't in the fresh-cut summer grass or in the mounds of autumn leaves or on the snow where moonlight threw down our shadows. We didn't in your room on the canopy bed you slept in, the bed you...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-these-books, short-stories, 2012

A pretty stellar collection of short stories about love. In the introduction Eugenides makes it clear what kind of love and from where the title is gleaned, which was interesting to philosophize about as I read each story. It was a good set-up.

The stories varied greatly--some I loved, some I hated, some I fell asleep during, and some I weeped during.

My favorites included:

"Natasha" by David Bezmozgis (intriguing & complete)
"Some Other, Better Otto" by Deborah Eisenberg (loved her sentences,...more

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Feb 06, 2012 YingYing rated it 4 of 5 stars

so I might as well mark this book read, although to be honest, i still have a couple stories that just look so incredibly boring that I couldn't bring myself to read them. However, overall, the selection of stories was well done, quite unconventional and challenging of your average conception of love. I thought the characterizations of women in White Rose, Red Rose quite interesting, the interplay between fiction and reality in The Hitchhiker fascinating, the ordinary love found in Some Other Be...more

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Aug 18, 2008 GraceAnne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Uneven - as it was bound to be in such a collection - but well chosen and worth the time.

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About Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer of Greek and Irish extraction.

Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan, of Greek and Irish descent. He attended Grosse Pointe's private University Liggett School. He took his undergraduate degree at Brown University, graduating in 1983. He later earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from Stanford University.

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Quotes from My Mistress's Sparrow ...

“A love story can never be about full possession. The happy marriage, the requited love, the desire that never dims--these are lucky eventualites but they aren't love stories. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.

We value love not because it's stronger than death but because it's weaker. Say what you want about love: death will finish it. You will not go on loving in the grave, not in any physical way that will at all resemble love as we know it on earth. The perishable nature of love is what gives love its importance in our lives. If it were endless, if it were on tap, love wouldn't hit us the way it does.

And we certainly wouldn't write about it.” — 204 people liked it

“When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it. But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full posession. The happy marriage, the requited love, the desire that never dims-- these are lucky eventualities but they aren't love stories. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name.” — 1 person liked it

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title link	preview: My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1247446.My_Mistress_s_Sparrow_is_Dead?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1255666765l/1247446.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1247446.My_Mistress_s_Sparrow_is_Dead?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro by Jeffrey Eugenides[/url]

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro

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