Following his renowned The Coast of Chicago and Childhood, story writer Stuart Dybek returns with eleven masterful and masterfully linked s...
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reviews
Aug 22, 2011
Alison
rated it: 
I have to agree with what is printed on the back of this book, courtesy of the LA Times: "Dybek's gift - a considerable one - is a sorcerer's ability to comix the commonplace and the grotesque..." Dybek can very much do that. He takes a simple day, and mixes into it the mystical, imaginary, fantastical... the grotesque. Everything. And he still makes it tangible, real, accessible. Maybe even more so. His description is spot on, in the way that things so specific are.
My onl More...
My onl More...
Aug 26, 2011
David
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Dybek writes love stories about southside Chicago. He tells stories like snapping tons of quick photographs, rushing depictions images of Polish families shopping during Sunday mass, saxophone bleating uncles, war veterans drinking while bartending, and intense moments of fleeting love. These are beautiful stories, filled with sensual experiences, even when characters are riding in old cars or listening to El pass them by in tiny apartments. Or maybe even more sensual because of those sounds an
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Jan 25, 2012
James
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Sometimes you tear through a book in one day; other times, it takes years. Either way, it could end up as one of your favorites. I read the first four stories in I Sailed With Magellan several years ago. I got sidetracked, most likely by college, and never finished it--although I enjoyed it. At the time, I probably would've rated it like 3.5. More importantly, though, I just forgot about it; and when I saw it on my shelf, I didn't feel the slightest urge to pick it up and read it.
Then, More...
Then, More...
May 29, 2008
Felicity
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I wonder if the dominance of bildungsroman narratives in the shnovels (linked books of short stories) I've surveyed indicates a modern realization about the nature of growing up. It isn't linear or clean, a smooth line of story unspooling over years, and the collage approach of books like Local Girls and this one seems a better fit for our current understanding of memory and childhood.
At any rate, a bildungs-shnovel is more or less what this is; along the way, a portrait of place and More...
At any rate, a bildungs-shnovel is more or less what this is; along the way, a portrait of place and More...
Sep 22, 2007
Garth
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"Like the Joyce of Dubliners, Stuart Dybek writes with an exquisite sense of place and an amazing sensitivity to the dreams and dislocations one encounters in the borderland between childhood and adulthood. His last work of fiction, The Coast of Chicago, is one of my favorite books, and I approached I Sailed With Magellan with high expectations. If The Coast of Chicago, with its unified setting, its young-to-old chronology, and its careful patterning (alternating short stories with lyrical
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Jul 11, 2011
Manda
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with expectations so high after Coast of Chicago-I couldn't believe that Magellan surpassed it. I truly enjoed Perry's threading through the narrative. It was like listening to stories of extended families and communities where I have to pause to remember the relationship of my Mother's cousin's husband's best pal that ended up falling into a dumpster after golfing all day and drinking through the night-only to stumble off the path back to the Chrystler into the dumpster. I am incrediby biase
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Nov 16, 2011
Gerry
rated it:
Stu Dybek is one of the best writers in America today--he's a writer's writer, but he's also a reader's writer. he writes with the cadence, phrasing and eye of a poet. But his characters are real, their dramas unique and poignant, the plots engaging and interesting, and the prose is all together lovely.
Sep 18, 2011
April
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Some of the stories interested me and others did not and felt excessively prolonged. My favorite was "A Minor Mood" as it perfectly described the nuances I remember when I was once a member of the marching band surrounded by the scents, sights, and sounds of the university band room. Some of the stories read a little crass, but that is due to the perspective of the character telling the story and only reflects the author's ability to spin a story well. While I do appreciate the auth
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Mar 30, 2008
kasia
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While there was no single story in this collection that I loved as much as my favorites from Coast of Chicago, I think that overall, this is probably the better book. The echoes between the stories, for some reason, really distracted me, although they probably would be more appropriately seen as a masterful interweaving of stories. I read the book over the course of several months, which I think was wise, because when I read the last 100 pages in one big push, I found myself rolling my eyes a bi
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Dec 12, 2011
Steve
rated it:
Chicago's literary tradition is honorably upheld. This is some of the best fiction I read all year. (Honestly, not a lot; but still...)
Any of my friends or neighbors who might wish to borrow my copy are welcome to it.
Any of my friends or neighbors who might wish to borrow my copy are welcome to it.
Jan 22, 2009
Amber
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I couldn't get into this book. I tried twice and then took a trip to the bookstore to buy a different book to read. It shall sit on my shelf and possibly get read one rainy afternoon when I am dead bored and there is nothing else to do.
Oct 26, 2010
Lucio
rated it:
My friend Brian turned me on to Dybek with story "PET Milk." It stuck with me, as do the stories in this collection.
Dybek has a gentleness, a backdoor entrance to the rapture room. Man, I'm flamin' away here...
Dybek has a gentleness, a backdoor entrance to the rapture room. Man, I'm flamin' away here...
Jan 16, 2009
Jessica
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Approaches Steinbeck's "A&P" or King's "The Body," or something like a book version of Woody Allen's "Radio Days." Except about a Polish family on the South Side of Chicago. Excellent.
Dec 19, 2009
Anne
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Stuart Dybek is awesome. His surreal depiction of a childhood Chicago inhabited by ghosts and gypsies is conveyed in a gritty, unsentimental tone. Comparisons to Nelsen Algren abound.
Feb 24, 2011
RUSA
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This was one of the 2005 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/a...
Feb 05, 2010
Not only does this book show the close relationship between brothers, it shows the urban neighborhood as a small town that is both restrictive and protective.
Dec 17, 2009
Anna
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This is somewhere between a 3 and 4 star read.
Structurally, this is a really fascinating book. It's a novel in stories, which functions on two levels: each chapter is a short story and the stories work together to form a larger image--which I believe is tremendously hard to pull off. The downside is that there were stories or places within stories that lost my interest, which probably speaks more to taste than literary ability. Dybek is no doubt a gifted writer. The structure a More...
Structurally, this is a really fascinating book. It's a novel in stories, which functions on two levels: each chapter is a short story and the stories work together to form a larger image--which I believe is tremendously hard to pull off. The downside is that there were stories or places within stories that lost my interest, which probably speaks more to taste than literary ability. Dybek is no doubt a gifted writer. The structure a More...
Jul 27, 2009
Lisbeth
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Reminded me of Henry Roth's Call It Sleep with a little Sopranos thrown in. One jacket note characterizes Dybek's prose as "spare." I would not say so.
Sep 10, 2008
Patty
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Interconnected stories about Chicago. sometimes I didn't totally understand how the stories connected. All in one neighborhood or one family in the neighborhood - I guess.
I think I heard Dybek speak at a ALA program in Chicago which would have been appropriate and also would explain why one story seemed very familiar.
My favorite story was "We Didn't" which may be the one that was read to us.
Worth reading if you like short stories - much of it was s More...
I think I heard Dybek speak at a ALA program in Chicago which would have been appropriate and also would explain why one story seemed very familiar.
My favorite story was "We Didn't" which may be the one that was read to us.
Worth reading if you like short stories - much of it was s More...
Dec 11, 2007
Rebecca
rated it: 
I think Dybek is, sometimes, brilliant. There are few short story writers that I am interested in, and I'm always interested in his work. "If I Vanished," which was published in The New Yorker this past summer, was a gorgeous and haunting piece of fiction. Lovely and thoughtful and strange.
However, this collection is like a warm-up--it's not his real work, not his real triumph. It's valuable to see it, to witness him learning and making his way though stories. But I More...
However, this collection is like a warm-up--it's not his real work, not his real triumph. It's valuable to see it, to witness him learning and making his way though stories. But I More...
Oct 10, 2007
Therese
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I loved this book from the beginning. I identified with each passage of his youth having grown up in Chicago, with the exception that he was a male. He has the ability to clearly describe images and even smells that were indigenous to Chicago city neighborhoods in the 60's and 70's. From the well know "street people" to first loves. It was about "coming home", growth, hard-working middle class people and life in the big city. He quietly reminded us that Chicago is the "h
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Dec 16, 2009
lisa
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This is a wonderful, wonderful, book of short stories that somehow, inexplicably, add up to one of the most compelling and weirdly linear works I've ver cried my way through. Right. On that note, I've never wanted to repeat the experience of laughing and crying and laughing and crying (repeat) the way I did after finishing "I Sailed with Magellan." If you like Edward Falco, you'll love anything by Stuart Dybeck, but this is by far my favorite.
Dec 15, 2010
Kathy
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This is a collection of stories about growing up in Chicago in the early 60s. They were entertaining stories about growing up male.
Sep 18, 2010
Carl
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Dybeck is a skilled story writer. I had trouble caring about the very Chicago oriented characters and settings. This book came recommended by the literary mag editor, so I thought I should read it. Perhaps you should; I couldn't make it work for me.
Jul 24, 2009
Taylor
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I read this book shortly after moving to Chicago, and, at the risk of sounding corny, it really helped me foster a sense of connection to my new city. Now, having lived here for a little over a year and preparing to move again, my appreciation for these stories and their strong sense of place has only grown. It's definitely something I'll want to take with me when I leave. Plucks all kinds of heartstrings.
Dec 17, 2009
Justin
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Dybek is, without a doubt, one of the best living American authors. Blurring the lines between memory and imagination, Magellan is full of haunting, magical stories about growing up in Chicago.
Note: It gets a bit to graphic with some subject matter for my taste, but if you can wade through that kind of stuff, there's a lot to be learned from his writing.
Note: It gets a bit to graphic with some subject matter for my taste, but if you can wade through that kind of stuff, there's a lot to be learned from his writing.
May 25, 2008
Alissa
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These linked short stories, about Perry Katzek and his array of friends who grew up in Chicago's fabled South Side, shows Dybek's range for voice, tone and lyricism. Dybek chronicles urban America through specific detailing of the environment and characters. Gritty humor, irony and song play throughout each of these South Side tales.
Oct 29, 2007
E
rated it:
If you want to live vicariously as a precocious boy growing up in the city, this book can create an alter ego for you. So great! And it's good that Dybek is documenting all of the great Chicago institutions before they're all gone (Field's...Berghoff...etc.)--- ugh. Fun and imaginative stories. Quick read.
