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Dec 13, 2007

Juliet rated it:

Oh, jeez, Silver Water. one of the best short stories ever written. such amazing charecter. unforgettable. the big fat schizophrenic sister who makes everyone in the family insane with her, the even fatter phycotherapist, the only one that can not only help them, but peg them for who they really are. it follows my favorite equation for a good story:
1. be as brutal as possible
2. leave no stone uninsulted, especially your own!
4. make people wonder why they are reading this
More...

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Nov 15, 2008

Eli rated it:

Ugh. Sleepwalking in particular is one of the worst short stories I have ever read. Considering that Amy Bloom is a psychotherapist you would think that she'd have more insight into the way that people actually live their lives rather than just writing out her own fantasies. No believable dialogue. Irritating. Cheap. Just awful.

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Jan 26, 2009

Heather rated it:

This is an insightful, lyrical collection of short stories by a psychotherapist.

Having read her other books, Love Invents Us, and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, I think "Come To Me," is Amy Bloom's finest by far.

Each story broaches delicate issues of life and death, love and loss, and definition of family with humor and humility. Nothing is taken for granted, including the way she carefully chooses each word, each turn in the story.

Enter t More...

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Aug 09, 2011

Melissa rated it:

You would think that I would have gotten my hands on an Amy Bloom book by now. I mean, when I think of "great modern-day short story writers," her name is one of the first that comes to mind.

I've read a handful of Amy Bloom's stories before - in the various Best Of and O.Henry collections, one or two in A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (one of the best book titles ever), as well as her work in O Magazine (I think it was O) - but never sat down with one of her books More...

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Nov 10, 2010

Brandon rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 21, 2010

Tony rated it:

I really love the way Amy Bloom writes: spare, straightforward, to the point. She focuses on the right details, but doesn't allow you to linger too long on them. At first I felt that the stories in this, her first collection, were fairly dark. And while there is some tragedy here, she's not afraid to look beyond the tragedy and show us that life carries on. The darkness is accompanied by light. The heartache balanced by hope. But the intensity of both darkness and light is real. What people More...

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Dec 17, 2009

K M rated it:

I found this collection of short stories to be very engaging. I was tempted to read the book straight through in one sitting, but forced myself to slow down to savor them a bit. I actually liked all of the stories, but my absolute favorites were "Silver Water", "When the Year Grows Old", and "Psychoanalysis Changed My Life". I'll be on the lookout for more from this author.

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Mar 19, 2008

Nancy rated it:

She is an excellent author. Each story vividly brought to life the characters, their emotions, etc. The story lines for the most part did not shed the best light on relationships..some yes, most no.
I do want to read Even a Blind Man Can See I Love You, because you recommended Kit and also because I do think she is an excellent writer.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 23, 2012

Emily rated it:

Really really good collection of short stories. I'd say 4.5 stars -- I'm only rounding down because of up for my own tracking purposes.

I think Amy Bloom is a really excellent writer. The arc of her stories was always spot on for me. And even if I didn't always identify with the characters,I could feel them . The two things I enjoyed most about this collection were:

1. Recurring characters -- never the same main characters, but for example, the kids from one story would sh More...

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Dec 18, 2009

Suzanne rated it:

Pretty sure I had/read a first cover hard copy of this back in 94. Lent it out. Wish I had it, 'cause this little book of stories is haunting. Dirty laundry not quite aired. Interlocking lives and stories. Complications. I couldn't have told you before I reread this what the stories were about, but I've always remembered the book, the cover, the (w)holes it left. You can't say that about every book you never got back. And after rereading each little world, I remembered the lives, the un More...

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Dec 01, 2008

Tess rated it:

Amy Bloom is not just a fiction writer--she's a practicing psychologist. There are two gems in this collection-Silver Waters and Love is Not a Pie. Silver Waters is about a sister's memories of Rose both before and after she became psychotic: "she opened her mouth unnaturally wide and her voice came out, so crystalline and bright that all the departing opera goers stood frozen by their cars, and then they cheered like hell. That is what I like to remember. I wanted them to know her , t More...

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Dec 17, 2009

Alarra rated it:

I love the way she writes, and that she writes about the little things in life - the normal relationships and grind and hurts and joys - and makes them readable, and makes me feel them.

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Dec 16, 2009

Sarah rated it:

I really like what she can make you feel. You don't want her to, but she'll do it, and you thank her later. She will make you get stuff that you can not comprehend before you read her. SOOK

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Aug 10, 2011

Ann rated it:

People have been known to trade their immortal souls for all kinds of things. Assuming I have an immortal soul, if I were offered the chance to trade it for Amy Bloom's gift of writing, I'd have to think hard.

Come To Me is an astonishing collection of stories about love: for husbands, wives, lovers, children, parents, mentors, forbidden objects of desire. Some of the stories are linked into mini-novellas. Some stand alone.

I didn't actually love all the stories, some of whose More...

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Jun 22, 2009

Nina rated it:

I read this collection years ago and liked it and decided to pick it up again (or check it out again)after a conversation with my friend Angel about "Silver Water," a commonly assigned story in writing workshops.
Even though I'd read it before, these stories were fresh and startling. In my constant search for love and understanding in life, these stories presented different versions of love, often larger than anything I'm used to encountering. And they're just so well-written! I hi More...

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Jul 04, 2011

Ganesh rated it:

2007 Notes:

Amy Bloom is the literary equivalent of Norah Jones. Her stories are soulful, sexy, and bittersweet.

* * * * *

2011 Notes: From reading and rereading this book, I slowly felt more loved and learned how to better accept and love others. In one story, a mother remarks how beautiful her teenage daughter is; her words healed the part of my heart that broke when my mom made me feel ugly. And reading about intelligent, kind characters who fall in lo More...

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Aug 13, 2010

Milo rated it:

Unusual stories of both ordinary and unusual characters, many damaged in some way, most not without their charm...Bloom, a psychotherapist by profession, plumbs the psychological depths of these folks in touching a revealing ways. These stories are emotionally compelling, sometimes horrifyingly painful, but never so foreign that one cannot relate to the fears and desires of the lives Bloom depicts so artfully.

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May 17, 2010

Christy rated it:

With each work by Amy Bloom, I fall more and more in love with her story-telling abilities. Come To Me is a fabulous collection of short stories. Once again, some of the stories are interconnected, which I find to be a fascinating literary device wherein stories can be told over many years, and through multiple perspectives. Song of Solomon is the love story of a single mother, and the man who delivers her baby. Hyacinths is about a young boy involved in the accidental shooting of another bo More...

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Jul 01, 2010

Steve rated it:

Should a short story collection be graded on its best stories or should it be critiqued as a whole? I ask this question because there are maybe one or two stories in here that are superb, but the rest are good but not great. Silver Water's definitely in that first category. It differs from the other stories in that it's more poetic in its character descriptions and its narrative. Therefore, causing it to flow so well.

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Dec 08, 2009

Chris rated it:

If it is true that a writer writes about what they know and that their first work is often semi-biographical, then Amy Bloom's life is a soap opera. He's sleeping with her who is sleeping with him, but he doesn't know that she is also sleeping with her who is sleeping with him, her, and her...

Despite the constant theme of "Relationships Gone Wild", Bloom's stories are lyrical and engaging. I breezed through this collection in a couple of days. Several of the stories are More...

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Nov 29, 2007

Nicole marked it as to-read

I haven't read this book yet, but Melissa Lion who is the author of Swollen and Upstream has a great review of this book and *A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You* by Bloom.

"Amy Bloom's Come to Me and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You. These two collections capture longing and loving and sex so beautifully. Many of her stories center around lovers, people in unhappy or simply fulfilling marriages who seek another's touch. In our culture, where breaking from a monogamous More...

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Sep 26, 2010

Jessica rated it:

This is Bloom's first collection and the stories are beautiful and polished, though I didn't have that "gem after gem" reaction that I did with her most recent book. "Love is Not a Pie" is the first story in the book and my favorite: a woman reflects on the relationship between her father and her mother's lover.

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Mar 09, 2011

Mary rated it:

You can tell this author is a (former) psychotherapist because many of these stories have a significant psychological aspect and with many characters with mental health problems. It was a enjoyable read. However I find short stories less than fully satisfying compared with longer works because there is not as much room for character development.

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Sep 11, 2010

Julie rated it:

Amy Bloom is such a lovely, wonderful writer. Even when writing stories about people going through sad and trying times, she manages to provide such insight into their grief, thinking processes, and overall "makeup" that you don't find yourself sad after reading, but hopeful. Big thumbs up.

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Jul 24, 2009

Adrienne rated it:

"...their only consolation being recollections of earlier bliss, often sensual: "It was like nothing else in my life, that river of love that I could dip into and leave and return to once more and find it still flowing." For them, memories of past happiness makes present sorrow bearable."

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Jun 01, 2011

Mayanka rated it:

I floated through these stories, but the first one, "Love is not a pie", was the best. The overriding theme amongst the stories is unusual love, from alternate lifestyle to somewhat immoral to downright perverse. But they ring true.

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Jan 30, 2010

Jess rated it:

The thing that stuck with me about Bloom's collection of stories is the variety of perspectives, complicated—yet realistically human—plots (so much was conveyed in such short stories!), and the depth of emotion. I really liked this collection, and would certainly recommend it.

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Sep 20, 2009

Mikki rated it:

A collection of intimate short stories. The highlight of the book was "Silver Water" which told about a family trying to cope with the nervous breakdown of a daughter. That one story alone makes it worth the couple or so misses.

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Sep 16, 2009

Momoftwnz rated it:

What a good read. I feel like I can pick this book up 6 mo from now and reread each story again with the same interest and joy as my first read. Why has it taken so long for me to find Amy Bloom? It was certainly worth the wait.

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Nov 13, 2008

martha rated it:

Fantastic short stories, excellent, enjoyable writing. These focus on the complex, sometimes transgressive relationships between people, especially families. She does that incredibly difficult thing, conveying depths of emotion without ever coming out and saying what characters are feeling. She basically rocks the show-don't-tell rule.

And she does it with such a light touch it seems easy. These characters are icebergs, and she makes you feel the hidden mass of what they're feelin More...

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