The Coast of Chicago
by Stuart Dybek
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Read in May, 2007
Most of these stories have a narrator looking back to the time of the story from an undisclosed or unimportant future vantage point. The way the character looks back indicates the story is vital memory(to the character's existence even). Dybek's vivid flashes of past come in layer upon layer, rendering the story into not just memory, but perhaps the most important time of these characters' lives. The sense of nostalgia is thick and alive--it's hypnotic at times, but slows the read a bit, too....more
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Read in February, 2008
A good collection, maybe even great, but ultimately not quite as good as his more recent I Sailed with Magellan. "Pet Milk," "Hot Ice," and "Blight" are all terrific stories, especially "Pet Milk," which is so fucking achingly beautiful that I can hardly stand it. I had some trouble with the interminable "Nighthawks," a story that seemed gimmicky, something Dybek's stories rarely are. I have to confess that I don't really like stories w...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2005
One of several anthologies of short fiction by this author that I have read. Dybek blurs the line between fantasy and fact in his quasi-memoirs about growing up in Chicago in the Pilsen / Little Village area of the South Side in the 1960s. This time period was when white flight and deindustrialization were beginning to afflict Chicago and this part of town was in the middle of its transition from a predominantly Polish Catholic neighborhood to a predominantly Mexican Catholic neighborhood.
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I read this a few years ago, and now don't remember most of the stories. "Pet Milk," though, is in my top five of favorite short stories of all time. I should reread the rest of this, and more of his other stuff, sometime.... Dybeck was partly responsible for the time I came close to moving away from New York to go to school in Chicago, and he is is not at all responsible for the fact that I finally didn't.
If you've never read "Pet Milk," you should. I can see how maybe n...more
If you've never read "Pet Milk," you should. I can see how maybe n...more
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is dirty magic realism a genre? this is awesome in the old Chicago realist style -- Bellow, Algren -- but what I love is when things get strange, rightfielders die in some mysterious nether-baseball-game, frozen angels save the lives of drunks, etc... The middle story in parts, Nighthawks, strikes me now as one of the most beautiful things I've ever read.
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Chicago-ites, short story readers, people who love great prose and poetry
I'll admit that Bijou isn't my favourite, nor is Nighthawks in some places. But I truly love most of this collection, especially Chopin in Winter and Pet Milk. And the short-shorts are great. I read more novels than short stories, but this is a great book for remembering just how wonderful short stories can be, especially if you're familiar with Chicago.
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Read in May, 2007
I've started this review three times, trying to explain how these stories move, and why that shouldn't work, and why it does. Screw it. Stuart Dybek is brilliant. That's all you need to know. If you tried to do what he's doing here, you couldn't. It would be a mess. But he knows what he's doing. Does he ever.
Personal favorites: "Blight," "Pet Milk"
Personal favorites: "Blight," "Pet Milk"
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Read in June, 2006
A must-read for anyone who has ever lived in one of Chicago's neighborhoods. Dybek's writing brings the ethnic and geographical differences in Chicago's neighborhoods to vivid life. If nothing else, read the story entitled "Pet Milk." Possibly my favorite short story of all time; I cry every time I read it.
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Read in November, 2007
Dybek lives in my town, Kalamazoo, and is on faculty at our local university, WMU. I sort of wonder why? Anyway, this is a lovely book of short stories. Most reviews incorrectly describe these as stories "about" Chicago. The stories are quite diverse in subject and style. My favorite is Chopin in Winter.
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Read in May, 2007
I really couldn't put this book down. Hot Ice and Nighthawks were the highlights for me. He's got a very fluid style, ducking in and out of stories and characters and POV's with a lot of grace. If "I Sailed with Magellan" really is better than this I might explode. A fantastic collection.
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Of the two of Dybek's I've read, I dig the poetical influence on these stories as much as I dig the breathlessness of sentences in "Magellan". Have to reads: Blight, Pet Milk, Nighthawks. Check out Lights if you want to be amazed by how much can be done in such a short amount of prose.
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Read in February, 2007
These stories are powerful, surreal, funny, tragic, and everything else you'd want in a story. He describes people and sorrows and images in ways that are viscerally familiar. This is one of those books where I frequently found myself pausing at the end of a paragraph and saying "wow."
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Emily by:
Kate Langley
Dybek paints a vivid portrait of late childhood/early adulthood in several of these stories. I really enjoyed reading his interpretation of the characters within Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. It's always nice to read Chicago stories and picture where the action is taking place.
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Read in January, 2006
A collection of eloquent short stories about living on the coast of Chicago. My favorite short story ever, "Pet Milk", is featured in this collection. Dybek has an amazing way of capturing feelings, relationships, revelations in such plain language.
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Read in January, 2002
I am so very happy that this book is back in print. "Pet Milk"is one of the single best short stories I've ever read (along with another Dybek piece, "We Didn't"). I don't know how he does it. It's magic, this writing. Also part of the Libby cannon.
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These stories are beautiful and engaging and just truly what a short story should be...encapsulated moments that you can not just envision but feel. "Pet Milk" is one of my favorite stories of all time.
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Read in January, 2007
This wonderful book was filled with stories that sound exactly like the ones that my parents tell about growing up in Pilsen. Dybeck is such a wonderful storyteller.
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Read in October, 1999
"Blight" is one of those short story's that rips one's heart out yet one loves because it is so beautiful, honest, and pure. An amazing collection of short stories.
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Read in January, 2006
Very keen and alley-backed concentration on character curves and community swerves. Great for winter-worried poses on unkempt recliners.
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Read in October, 2004
recommends it for:
short story lovers
Dybek's stories are simply told, with a raw urban beauty that acurately captures moments of transcendance in otherwise ordinary lives
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