Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The View from the Seventh Layer

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 462 ratings · 115 reviews

Peering into the often unnoticed corners of life, Kevin Brockmeier has been consistently praised for the originality of his vision, the boundlessness of his imagination and the command of his craft. Once again, in this new collection of fiction, Brockmeier shows us a fantastical world that is intimately familiar but somehow distant and beautiful. From the touching title st...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published March 4th 2008 by Pantheon

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders

Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money by Rebecca Curtis

Contemporary Short Story Collections

94th out of 128 books — 5 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,170)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 05, 2008 Carolee Wheeler rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who've grown out of Francesca Lia Block

As often happens, I began this book completely enchanted. Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead was one of my three books of the year, last year, and I figured this collection of short stories would please me similarly.

The first and title story, about a housecleaner named Olivia, is written in a style that I cannot really describe but absolutely love--where every word comes to you gently, rhythmically, in an almost fairy-tale way. It's almost as though the writer is deliberately reeling you...more As often happens, I began this book completely enchanted. Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead was one of my three books of the year, last year, and I figured this collection of short stories would please me similarly.

The first and title story, about a housecleaner named Olivia, is written in a style that I cannot really describe but absolutely love--where every word comes to you gently, rhythmically, in an almost fairy-tale way. It's almost as though the writer is deliberately reeling you in, a little deeper into the story with each sentence.

Olivia's housecleaning job allows her to examine the bookshelves of her clients, which she likens to examining their consciences: The heart of every house was the kitchen, the soul of every house was the bedroom, and the mind of every house was displayed with hooks and thumbtacks on the walls. But the conscience of every house--she believed--the conscience of every house was the bookshelves. She was demoralized by the number of houses whose shelves held only clocks and geodes and a few back issues of TV Guide. She imagined the consciences of the people who lived there hardening into a thousand immovable facets as they sat in their armchairs and watched the minutes roll by.
She then goes on to analyze the consciences of those who read Maeve Binchy, Charles Bukowski, and D.H. Lawrence. The latter "suspect that the forbidden is not necessarily without its virtue, and so are easily persuaded that the forbidden and the virtuous are one and the same."

All of the stories are similar combinations of fact and gently floating unreality, as in the story of the woodworker who, beset by sudden fame, takes a temporary teaching post at a far-flung university. In the house he sublets during his stay, he is observed, wistfully, by photographs of the family's college-age son. This inside-out perspective--that even the seemingly inanimate portions of our lives are observing us--is something I would characterize as part of Brockmeier's sentient-universe view. In Brockmeier's stories, nothing is without meaning.

A Fable With Slips of White Paper, is about a man who finds God's Overcoat at a thrift store. The pockets continually fill with the unuttered prayers of those the man passes every day. The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device is a clever choose-your-own-adventure-story (how I have trouble with these! I want to know all of the possible permutations!) where all paths lead to the same sad, beautiful conclusion; the story of the grown-up girl featured on the cover of National Geographic; the short piece about the producer of a [once] popular Funny Home Videos television show--all start with the familiar and twist it up with oddity, but so deftly that the reader's imagination isn't aware of any effort to suspend disbelief.

Though I didn't love every story in this collection, reading Brockmeier is like taking a vacation, for me, into a world where actions actually matter and where the universe has a benevolent plan for all of its entities, even if the entities don't understand what's happening. I suppose it says something about me that I don't feel this way in everyday life.
(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 17, 2012 Jason added it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2010

This is not a perfect collection of stories. For instance, "The Air is Full of Little Holes," a story about the finding of "The Afghan Girl," reads like a story about a thing. Nothing feels much added. Likewise, "The Lady with the Pet Tribble," a rewriting of "The Lady with the Pet Dog," by Anton Chekov from the point of view of Captain Kirk is cute and amusing, but after ten pages of the twenty something page story, the novelty has worn off and you are reading a cute imitation of a better story...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 20, 2008 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars

There's something magical in each of these stories. Definitely the best thing I've read since Joe Hill.

"If only she had known when she was growing up how hard the rest of her life was going to be, how diminished, she would have been so much more joyful, so much more daring. She would have done all the things she had failed to do."

"She had the same responsibility as everybody else did: to live as softly as she could in the world."

Warning: Side effects may include dry mouth, drowsiness, and an ina...more There's something magical in each of these stories. Definitely the best thing I've read since Joe Hill.

"If only she had known when she was growing up how hard the rest of her life was going to be, how diminished, she would have been so much more joyful, so much more daring. She would have done all the things she had failed to do."

"She had the same responsibility as everybody else did: to live as softly as she could in the world."

Warning: Side effects may include dry mouth, drowsiness, and an inability to tolerate the basic conditions of life on the planet.

"The heart of every house was the kitchen, the soul of every house was the bedroom, and the mind of every house was displayed with hooks and thumbtacks on the walls. But the conscience of every house--she believed--the conscience of every house was the bookshelves. ... She came to rash conclusions about the people whose collections she perused. ... People who read Thomas Pynchon are smart but disdainful. ... People who read Tolstoy find it difficult to be alive because they are reasonable, while people who read Dostoyevsky find it difficult to be alive because they are not. ... She did not believe she would ever be capable of understanding people who read James Patterson."

"... you knew that you couldn't help them, so you decided to love them instead."

"There is a certain look she wears when she is too brittle or hopeless or beaten down by the demands of the world to sustain her disappointment in him any longer ..."

"There was no one alive who did not contribute his share of mystery to the world."

"Who was it who said that every virtue contains its corresponding vice? C.S. Lewis? Virginia Woolf? You forget. But it has always worried you that what the virtue of wit contained was the vice of scorn."

"Everything, given the possibility, would choose to be a song."

"I forget who it was--it wasn't me--who said that the three pillars of comedy are monkeys, robots, and midgets, the reasoning being that monkeys, robots, and midgets are not quite normal human beings, but they all aspire to be, which is a condition that lends itself to comedy."

"For years it had seemed her parents were playing a game of make-believe, a game that had only one rule: they would turn away from each other bit by bit while pretending everything was the same."(less)

1 like · like · see review

Dec 28, 2008 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kate by: Iorek Byrnison

Shelves: storiesgraphicpoetryplays, usa_canada, borrowed

I really enjoy Kevin Brockmeier's writing. He depicts sensory elements incredibly well, and the conceits for his more imaginative stories don't come off precious, as you'd expect.

But I have to admit, I didn't enjoy this as much as I did Things that Fall from the Sky . A couple of the stories in that collection knocked me over a bit, whereas none of the Seventh Layer stories really did. But "The Lady with the Pet Tribble" made me laugh, and "The Air Is Full of Little Holes" was surprisingly movin...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 28, 2008 El rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-centurylit

The problem I have with good short stories is that I always walk away feeling like I've just found my new favorite author ever. Kevin Brockmeier's The View From the Seventh Layer is a collection of really good short stories.

I have only read Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead which I had also really liked, though I remember sort of waffling because I have this serious brain-block when it comes to new writers that is a throw-back to unresolved issues I have with Dave Eggers, but that's hardl...more The problem I have with good short stories is that I always walk away feeling like I've just found my new favorite author ever. Kevin Brockmeier's The View From the Seventh Layer is a collection of really good short stories.

I have only read Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead which I had also really liked, though I remember sort of waffling because I have this serious brain-block when it comes to new writers that is a throw-back to unresolved issues I have with Dave Eggers, but that's hardly here nor there.

These short stories are awesome, for lack of a better word. I found myself really enjoying the stories, wanting to be a part of them, getting caught up in Brockmeier's exquisite language and mannerisms and whole new worlds that he imagines so well. He's sort of a Ray Bradbury or Jonathan Carroll of short stories, like the sort of stories that could be considered science fiction, but they are so commonplace that I find it difficult to consider placing this book on a science fiction shelf. Some of these stories pack an incredible punch. No matter where or when the stories take place there is an overall theme of happiness, or hope, the processes in which people grow and mature. Some of straight up fables, there is an actual Choose-Your-Own-Adventure portion of the book, some shout-outs to items and music of the eighties (I personally had forgotten about the hedgehog/porcupine pencil holders even though I had one when I was younger - mine was pink).

I find it hard to pick favorites, though a couple did not stand out as much as the others (Father John Melby and the Ghost of Amy Elizabeth for one). Andrea Is Changing Her Name is one I found myself relating to the most. The Air Is Full of Little Holes seems to be a story about Sharbat Gula, the Afghan woman photographed for National Geographic in 1985 - you know, the beautiful woman with the intense green eyes - and then again in 2002.

Kevin Brockmeier seems to be one of those new authors I wouldn't mind sitting down with and having a little chat.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Dec 29, 2008 Trin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-lit, shortstories

Short stories. For the most part, amazing short stories. Brockmeier is an astounding writer; his prose is full of complex, gorgeous images, but with enough playfulness, too, to keep it from being unbearably pretentious. These are stories you can get lost in—literally: I don’t know how long I spent exploring the pathways of “The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Story,” but it was a long time.

Some of it, however, I have to admit flew whoosh, right past my head. Som...more

like · see review

Feb 19, 2012 Alexander Cordova rated it 5 of 5 stars

I haven't gotten around to reviewing any of the books I've read for a while, mainly because I've been doing so at a breackneck pace due to the book challenge (which is a fantastic incentive) but it's been a while since I've encountered any collection of short stories that packs as many heavy hitters as Brockmeier has managed to compile in this book.

If you haven't read anything by the author before this is a great introduction, the stories are short and deal with a wide range of believable chara...more

like · see review

Jul 18, 2008 Darlene rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an amazing collection of short stories from Little Rock's own Kevin Brockmeier. These are stories that cause you to visit places in your inner thoughts that you might never have gone before. Unique and provoking with threads of loss and what ifs, I couldn't put it down and am planning on reading his two novels. One of our bookclub members thought that he may well be the "Virginia Wolf or Wm. Faulkner" of his generation!

1 like · like · see review

Dec 06, 2011 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: collections, met-the-author

Kevin Brockmeier came to my school this past fall and did a reading (Which is where I got this book, and can I just brag for a minute? It's signed. Cue squeals from the lit nerd girl writing this review), and as such I heard the entire text narrated in his voice. Not that I minded. He's very soft-spoken, and that worked well with his writing style, I thought.
The interesting thing about his style is that even though every story is about something different, they all feel the same. His writing rem...more

like · see review

Jul 30, 2012 Andrew Bernstein rated it 5 of 5 stars

Micro-review: Kevin Brockmeier feels like the (propery medicated to remove just a touch of the warped) love child of Aimee Bender and Etgar Keret.

While not a perfect collection of stories, the greatness of the great stories outweighs the negatives of the ones that were just "good"....

All in all, despite the few stories that did not quite grab me, or went on a little too long (Star Trek fan-fiction Tribble story is one of those) the collection is outstanding.

Brockmeier is an amazing author. He ha...more

like · see review

Dec 15, 2009 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard for me not to love Kevin Brockmeier. I think he has one of the most human approaches to supernatural materials of anyone out there. Whether he's writing a ghost story, a sci-fi love story, or a fable, it's all ultimately about the complexities of the human heart. The highs were really high for me in this collection. There were a couple that didn't hit, but overall, the stories felt so different from what I usually read, it was hard not to be enticed and drawn in by them. A sexy ghost!...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 16, 2009 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

"And because they loved what they sang, no matter how painful or melancholy, a note of indomitable happiness ran through their voices like a fine silver thread (1)."

"There were times when the silence was close to perfect ... We came to know ourselves better than we had before, or if not better, then at least in greater stillness (69)."

"The city where no one looked anyone else in the eye produced its fair share of human happiness, but it was a cautious sort of happiness, never spilling too far p...more

like · see review

Dec 14, 2012 Andrew rated it 2 of 5 stars

The View from the Seventh Layer is best described as a collection of fictional stories that revolve around fantastical elements. These elements are mostly all related to spirituality, while consistently questioning humanity and the meaning of life.

Written by Kevin Brockmeier, The View from the Seventh Layer feels more like a collection of random thoughts that arguably all failed to invoke any real impacting emotion or even provoke any critical thinking from the reader. Rather, the book was fille...more

like · see review

Mar 09, 2009 Ebony Haight rated it 3 of 5 stars

You know how you've always wished that someone would write a grown-up version of the choose your own adventure stories? Well, Kevin Brockmeier has gone ahead and done this for you and it appears mid-way through this collection. The story itself is pretty good, or at least quite fun to read (and re-read). The rest of the stories range from great to just okay. The book is certainly worth checking out, especially if you like his subject matter. There is no question that he is a talented writer. His...more

like · see review

Jun 12, 2012 Eli rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thesis-reading, short-stories

Most of the stories in this collections are enjoyable reads, and all are well-written. The only ones I did not care for were "The Lives of the Philosophers," which I felt introduced elements of John Cheever's "The Swimmer" unnecessarily and "The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Story," which I did not feel like flipping through for all of the possible iterations like I used to do with the books after which it is named. Especially fun to read was "The Lady with th...more

like · see review

Apr 11, 2010 Lauren Albert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

An astoundingly diverse collection of stories but all with a gentle kindness behind them. Some are realistic looks at life—a man looks back at his relationship with a girl he loved, a man struggles with his dissertation and his inability to accept his coming, unplanned fatherhood; some touch on the supernatural or add Borgesian twists—A city is periodically struck by silence as if by lightening, a man buys God’s overcoat in a second-hand shop. Only his “do-it-yourself” story “The Human Soul as a...more

like · see review

Aug 16, 2009 Peter Darbyshire rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a book for writers, with language so careful and beautiful it's as if the book was transcribed by monks — fitting given Brockmeier has an angel's powers of observation. As for the subject matter of the stories, well, think Chris Adrian having coffee with Kelly Link in Italo Calvino's cafe, and you'll have an idea. Just a few examples:

- A man finds God's overcoat and discovers people's prayers written on notes in the pockets.
- Strange silences descend upon a city, and the inhabitants real...more

like · see review

Nov 13, 2009 Wyndie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-it

It is nearly impossible for me to give a collection of short stories 5 stars. Out of the thirteen stories, I would give them a range of 3 to 5+ stars.

The first two stories "A Fable Ending in the Sound of Thousand Parakeets" and "The View from the Seventh Layer" were deliciously written. It was like being at a museum or art gallery where you are walking by each piece when suddenly something so inspiring forces you to sit down for a moment and soak it in. If crafting a short story is an art; Kevi...more

like · see review

May 31, 2009 lnb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-2k9, short-stories

75% of this book is kind of perfect, of course. the titular story was really hard for me to get through and don't really know why; maybe i'd like to think i am a reader undaunted by paragraphs that take up more than a whole page of text, but it bothered me. my favorite stories came all in a row, towards the very end of the book -- "home videos," "the air is full of little holes" and "andrea changes her name."

there isn't really that much else to say about kevin brockmeier, except that he is one o...more

like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 John Pappas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I began this book I thought that the author's blend of speculative fiction, fabulism and quasi-historical re-imagining was too derivitave of Steven Millhauser and Jim Shepard, respectively. The later stories in this collection are more original and strike harder at an authentic emotional core. His story which takes the form of an existential Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story is especially appealing as is his imagining of the story of the Afghani girl whose picture was on the cover of the June...more

like · see review

Mar 17, 2009 Therese rated it 3 of 5 stars

The words he fits together, seriously, they're like magic. The strangest feelings a person can have, Brockmeier can find the right words for them. So if you're reading to enjoy perfect beauty in language, this is your book.

Also, his concepts are unique. No regular old, coming-to-terms-with-abusive-parents/cheating wife/middle-aged-angst here. This guy is using a chunk of his brain most of us just don't.

But...they just aren't very compelling plots. It's just, a bunch of lovely and strange stuff t...more

like · see review

May 22, 2012 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: THose interested in the art of short story fiction

If you're looking for a great short story writer, Kevin Brockmeier is your man. However, if you are looking for his very best work as far as short stories go, I would recommend Things That Fall From the Sky over this one. Still, the first half of this collection is quite flawless. Brockmeier takes us on a journey of a town obsessed with sound and the man who was mute but raised parakeets ("A Fable Ending in the Sound of a Thousand Parakeets") to the story of a world which craves the ending of al...more

like · see review

Jan 30, 2011 Kristen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-fiction

I wanted to give this 4 stars, but ultimately the collection was too uneven.

Loved (a lot):

- A Fable Ending in the Sound of a Thousand Parakeets
- The View from the Seventh Layer
- The Year of Silence
- Father John Melby and the Ghost of Amy Elizabeth
- The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device: A Choose-Your-Own Adventure Story

Didn't so much love:

Everything else

Brockmeier, at his best, writes stories that feel like music. They're mysterious on the surface, but deep down you always know where they're...more

like · see review

Jan 01, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-my-library

I read Kevin Brockmeier's novel The Brief History of the Dead earlier and felt the whole time I was reading this "this is a short story writer doing a novel". He has two short story collections that are well regarded; I decided that The View from the Seventh Layer was an excellent place to start.

The collection for the most part is excellent. His writing and prose is delicate and precise at once. The collection opens and leads you in and announces that ideas are going to revealed about you and...more

like · see review

May 18, 2008 Lawrence rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quirky stories that often lie between the real and the fantastic, skillfully mixing both. Generally, the technique does not get the best of the story, allowing the pain and joy of human emotion through. But, while the story "The Human Soul as a Rube Goldberg Device" initially intrigues, it ultimately irritates because the story's technique dominates here. Yeah, we get it, short or long it all ends up the same in the end. But it's kind of uneventful getting there in this one. It's very different...more

like · see review

May 04, 2009 Ned rated it 3 of 5 stars

A collection of short stories interspersed with short fables. I enjoyed some (including a lengthy existential Choose Your Own Adventure story) but others seemed a bit derivative (a Star Trek fanfic, a story based on America's Funniest Videos, another based on the Afghan National Geographic cover woman).

The two strongest stories ("The View from the Seventh Layer" and "The Lives of the Philosophers" are so good that they redeem the rest of the somewhat lackluster collection.

like · see review

May 09, 2008 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read Brockmeier's "breakout" book, Brief History of the Dead, which I really enjoyed, but found it kind of petered out at the end. The setup was original and the world well-conceived, but nothing seemed to really happen. This seems a theme with Brockmeier as Seventh Layer struggles with the same lack of conflict and tension. That being said, the man can flat out write prose. Often times, when writers try and "freestyle" in the same manner as written in these pages, what comes acrossed feels fo...more

like · see review

Jan 10, 2009 Jess rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't know why I took this out at the library because short stories and I just don't get along at all. Until I read this book. All I can say is, "Wow". Really amazing stories. He even wrote one in the form of those chose-your-own-adventure stories, which was a fun surprise. I can't believe I'm giving a book of short stories 5 stars, but I guess there's a first for everything.

like · see review

May 16, 2012 Marianne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Exquisite.

Truly this is what Thomas Moore means by "the re-enchantment of everyday life."

I was drawn to this book by the cover and title, assuming it was a novel. It is actually a collection of stories, each with its own soul, but all revealing a much deeper reality than the one many of us assume. I went back to explore alternate possibilities in the choose-your-own-adventure story - something I've never been compelled to do before. (My story line ended rather abruptly after a visit to the co...more

like · see review

Feb 28, 2011 Rae rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book after loving "A Brief History of the Dead". This book is a collection of shorter stories, varying from great to mediocre. Brockmeier always impresses me with the imaginative bases for his books and stories. He manages to conjure ideas that are entertaining, interesting and beyond the realm of my day-to-day daydreams. Several of the stories in this collection stand out from the others.

Brockmeier is easy to read and easy to finish.

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 38 39 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Morse code	1	10	Sep 05, 2010 02:02pm

combine
Other Editions (5)

More editions...

Genres

Short Stories

46 users

Fantasy

7 users

Science Fiction

2 users

Contemporary

2 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Kevin Brockmeier

Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Brockmeier received his MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1997. His stories have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeny's, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review. He is the recipient of an O. Henry Award, the Nelson Algren Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant.

More about Kevin Brockmeier...

Books by Kevin Brockmeier

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The View from the...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The View From the Seve...

“Sometimes you imagine that everything could have been different for you, that if only you had gone right one day when you chose to go left, you would be living a life you could never have anticipated. But at other times you think there was no other way forward--that you were always bound to end up exactly where you have.” — 94 people liked it

“How often, you wonder, has the direction of your life been shaped by such misunderstandings? How many opportunities have you been denied--or, for that matter, awarded--because someone failed to see you properly? How many friends have you lost, how many have you gained, because they glimpsed some element of your personality that shone through for only an instant, and in circumstances you could never reproduce? An illusion of water shimmering at the far bend of a highway.” — 89 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The View from the Seventh Layer
avg rating	preview: The View from the Seventh Layer Goodreads rating: 3.99 (462 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1443836.The_View_from_the_Seventh_Layer?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320494392l/1443836.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1443836.The_View_from_the_Seventh_Layer?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier[/url]

The View from the Seventh Layer

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website