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Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories
by
Joan Silber
Intense in subject yet restrained in tone, these stories are about longings often held for years and the ways in which sex and religion can become parallel forms of dedication and comfort. Though the stories stand alone, a minor element in one becomes major in the next. In "My Shape," a woman is taunted by her dance coach, who later suffers his own heartache. A V...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
May 1st 2005
by W. W. Norton & Company
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Ideas of Heaven by Joan Silber is subtitled "A Ring of Stories" because the stories are connected one to the next, and they come full circle in the end – someone mentioned in passing in one story reappears as the protagonist/narrator in the next until the last story is tied back to the first.
The stories are also linked by a running theme: Silber explores the ways in which sex, love and religion are "always fighting over the same ground – with their sweeping claims, the...more
The stories are also linked by a running theme: Silber explores the ways in which sex, love and religion are "always fighting over the same ground – with their sweeping claims, the...more
"What is Love doing to me? I thought. That question itself comforted me. So I was ruled by Love, his follower. Chosen to serve. I was like a priest being sent to a different parish."
With traveling "even when you can't wait to get out of some hellhole you've chosen to visit, later you're never sorry you were there."
"And when I came back from Yosemite, after not speaking to another person for a week, tired and unbathed and rank-smelling, I w...more
I picked this up b/c Anthony Doerr compared it to A Visit from the Goon Squad in the Morning News Tournament of Books.
POST-READ
This book is interesting in the way that minor and major characters spill from one story to the next in a casual, unintentional fashion. In the last story, you re-meet some characters from the first story, which completes the "ring" of stories. This strategy appealed to me in the same way that I liked A Visit From The Goon Squad, but I didn...more
POST-READ
This book is interesting in the way that minor and major characters spill from one story to the next in a casual, unintentional fashion. In the last story, you re-meet some characters from the first story, which completes the "ring" of stories. This strategy appealed to me in the same way that I liked A Visit From The Goon Squad, but I didn...more
What I liked about the stories: I liked the pacing, the ability to plausibly fit biographies and hard life-adaptations into 20 or 30 pages of story. It's very different from the short time-frames I usually read in short stories.
I wasn't crazy about the style. Too simply conversational, too parsed and easy to digest. And really, people across time periods from different cultures think so alike? They just use different vocabularies? This was my main beef with the book -- the style of discour...more
I wasn't crazy about the style. Too simply conversational, too parsed and easy to digest. And really, people across time periods from different cultures think so alike? They just use different vocabularies? This was my main beef with the book -- the style of discour...more
Well. I gave this a shot despite it not being my thing- the author taught at the Sarah lawrence program (and teaches there regularly) and I liked what she read there. In truth, it was well written, but the style was a bit hard to take - she basically talks to you the entire time, and the 'ring of stories' (I m not a fan of the long short stories, personally) didn't seem to connect, to me, other than people having really unhealthy attitudes toward love. Despite all that, I finished it in a few h...more
For years this has been my favorite book of short stories or inter-connecting novellas depending on where you put the word count for short stories vs. novellas. I would count these as novellas but I love the novellas and write them...from writing them, I've gotten the impression that readers or publishers or agents very much dislike novellas--which I can't understand. Personally, I'd much prefer a full and beautifully written 120 page story than a sprawling, heavy-weight 500 one.
In this co...more
In this co...more
I'd not heard of this book when a friend loaned it to me, though it was a National Book Award Finalist about five years ago. It's a series of interconnected short stories, contemporary and historical, all centering around the longing for love and for spiritual fulfillment. The narrators are female and male, gay and straight, contemporary and historical; the stories are spare but revealing, often very moving, and much more so cumulatively. This is a book that didn't take me very long to read, ...more
I liked this book deeply - it's a book that pulled me into that deep, still place that you can sometimes find when you're absorbed in finding out what happens next, rather than being aware of the fact that you're reading, and your tea is cooling, and it's raining outside (or hot, and the laundry needs switching, and there are errands to run).
The book is a sequence of short stories, and while Alice Munro is mentioned in the inside flap, I liked this book much better than Runaway. For...more
The book is a sequence of short stories, and while Alice Munro is mentioned in the inside flap, I liked this book much better than Runaway. For...more
Ideas Of Heaven: A Ring Of Stories by Joan Silber was so delightful and easy for me to polish off, it took some time to register just when and where her characters began to haunt me. All six stories are written in first person narrative. Each voice has its own rhythm, tone and charm — their narration has a deceptive ease which makes their uniqueness all the more remarkable. As I read I began to feel like the bartender in whom complete strangers are only too happy to confide their most troubling ...more
Six linked stories the link very tenuous in some. Each piece follows the life of one person -- from childhood or early adulthood through to death or near to death. The life span of each story becomes a tiny bit too predictable, but the ground covered is satisfying, from Renaissance Italy, through the Boxer Rebellion in China, to modern America and France. The way the beginning story wraps around the end one is intriguing.
A well-written"ring" of stories that made me keep flipping back and forth to find out the connections among characters, etc. I discovered her due to an interview she did in the Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers, and her book lived up to the meticulous writing that I expected. Some of the stories were "jst" good, but many were great or amazing.
I really liked this book - a group of linked short stories, all very different, and all somehow related. the writing was interesting and lyrical, and remained believable over a wide range of experience and perspective. kind of cerebral, moved with a light touch. very absorbing.
I don't usually like short stories, because they often leave me feeling unsatisfied. But these each covered many years of a person's life, and that and the connections among them gave much more of a sense of completion.
Yet another one of those "I don't like this kind of thing, but I like this instance of it" books.
Yet another one of those "I don't like this kind of thing, but I like this instance of it" books.
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This book is a collection of short stories, and they were loosely tied together in theme or context. I'm not a big fan of stories; not sure why - I find that it's difficult to get really drawn into a short story. I would imagine also that it's much more difficult for a writer to fully develop characters and a plot in a short story rather than having the luxury of many pages to develop them. Although the stories were well written, the only one that I felt really affected by was the story of ...more
I liked how the stories were strung together, but I didn't love it. I wanted the connections to be more profound.
The author does a good job of writing in different voices and points of views, time periods etc.
I read it and liked it okay, but didn't enjoy it.
The author does a good job of writing in different voices and points of views, time periods etc.
I read it and liked it okay, but didn't enjoy it.
This collection of linked stories covers a wide range of voices, places and time
periods, but the pieces are connected through their reappearing characters and their twin preoccupations of sex and religion. Silber’s stories read like novellas, capturing whole lives in thirty pages, the sections of narrative monologue punctuated by precisely rendered scenes. Her characters are artists and seekers, so they are theatrical and introspective, able to see themselves with detachment and humor, as...more
periods, but the pieces are connected through their reappearing characters and their twin preoccupations of sex and religion. Silber’s stories read like novellas, capturing whole lives in thirty pages, the sections of narrative monologue punctuated by precisely rendered scenes. Her characters are artists and seekers, so they are theatrical and introspective, able to see themselves with detachment and humor, as...more
Joan Silber's collection of short stories relevant to each other is interesting to say the least. The idea of being broken and shattered, which she smartly draws from poetry from Rilke and Gaspara Stampa. I'm no scholar yet this one had me interested and went down easy.
I really enjoyed this book. I liked how the stories entertwined, and a character from one would pop up in another, and I would get a completely different take on the character's behavior or motives. Sometimes it was just a glimpse, but it would explain something said by another character in another story. The stories were well written, and I liked how they weren't all contemporary. I don't think her writing style was as effective for the stories in Italy and China, but still quite enjoyable. The...more
Megan
added it
I loved this book. I loved subtle weaving of stories, enough to make it a ring. I thought the voices of the story were authentic and true. A beautiful book.
I'm rereading this book and liking it even more the second time around. So beautifully constructed and beautifully told.
I like trying to figure out which part of the previous story is going to spark or play a part in the next story.
What an incredibly blah book!! It astounded me to learn it was a finalist for the National Book Award. Of the six stories, only one or two were even worth reading. The best story is Ashes of Love and it earned one and a half of these two stars. The last story was okay, nothing great. Ideas of Heaven was not an enjoyable book. Many times I felt myself reading for the sake of reading and coaxing my way through the stories.
Although I just finished this book moments ago, I'm certain I'll b...more
Although I just finished this book moments ago, I'm certain I'll b...more
A collection of linked stories that ranges widely in time and place. Beautiful, compassionate storytelling.
Overall, less satisfying than Size of the World, but "My Shape" and "The High Road" are solid stories.
Only the short story that bears the book's title is worth reading. The rest are whiny and annoying.
Eh...it was OK. The writing at times was great, but other stories I slogged through.
I enjoyed this book quite a lot, but not nearly as much as "The Size of the World." It almost seemed like this was an experiment which the author then perfected in her later work. Worth reading, but if you're only going to read one Joan Silber book, stick with "The Size of the World."
My advisor recommended this quiet but fierce collection of short stories. All told in 1st person, Silber encapsulates entire life stories into thirty pages. She intersperses moments of deep trauma/scarring incidence with meditative descriptions of life's beauty.
I bought this book in an airport while waiting for my flight home to MI. It's an absolutely beautifully written book that weaves several seemingly unrelated stories into one magnificent lesson in how precious life is. Highly recommended reading!
A couple of the short stories were good, thought provoking at least. I really didn't see much of a link between the stories though. Maybe I missed it? I guess they had similiar themes: love and loss. Nothing to write home about.
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