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Nov 26, 2008

Raza rated it:

This uneven collection of A.M. Homes' short stories begins bangingly with the deadpan tale of a stagnant married couple who rekindle their spark by lighting up a crack pipe. A subsequent vignette about an abducted boy who induces a sort of buyer's remorse in his kidnapper is somewhat less effective but nevertheless intriguing. The rest of the stories are frequently too similar in their quietly desperate neurasthenia, eventually blurring together in a single high-pitched whine that's all posturin More...

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Jun 13, 2007

Jeanie added it

I recently discovered Homes. She's an excellent storyteller - a whimsical and vivid voice.

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Mar 05, 2009

Shannon rated it:

I love AM Homes' work, and this book of short stories is no different. A quick read, the first and the last stories are absolutely staggering. She manages to take the usual and show how there really is no such thing.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

Janet rated it:

I have really started to enjoy more and more short fiction. I heard about this book on NPR and think that parts of it were turned into a movie, but I could be wrong. I just loved the openeness of the characters. It is very depressing, so don't read it when you are down. Read it when you think your life and family is crazy. It should perk you right up, hopefully. Because if your family is this weird, you are in trouble or maybe you should write your own book and make more money, which would More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Raffaella rated it:

“Chi è questa lei che sembra avere una così tormentata propensione, una così strana inclinazione per la carne più fresca, da mettersi a raccontare una storia che indurrà qualcuno di voi a sorridere e ridere ma che farà bruciare altri dalla voglia di porre fine a questo incubo, a questo orrore? Chi è? Ciò che più vi sgomenterà è apprendere che costei siete voi o io, uno di noi. Sorpresa. Sorpresa. E forse vi chiederete chi sono io per intromettermi, per pormi come suo e vostro tramite. Mio è l’el More...

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Jan 26, 2011

ann rated it:

This is one of the rare books that I liked more at the beginning than at the end. The first story was wonderful, the majority of the rest were pretty mediocre.

Homes is a beautiful and clean writer, but the some of her stories seems exploratory rather than personally reflective...She has an obvious interst in childhood psychology, teenage sexuality, and sexual taboo. I understand that at the time this was published, it was a bit of a fad. Even I really liked, "Welcome to the More...

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Aug 12, 2010

Daniel rated it:

Didn't think too much of this. My problem is that there doesn't seem to be any exploration to why the characters in the various short stories feel and behave the ways that they do (this is probably best demonstrated in "Adults alone") it seems to be all effect and no cause. Although I suspect that this is (at least partly) due to the fact these are short stories as opposed to a novel, as Home's this book will save your life is in fact quite the opposite. However it should be said tha More...

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Jan 23, 2009

Sarah rated it:

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

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Mar 02, 2011

Rigatoni rated it:

I checked this book out of the library on my sister's recommendation to read Adult Alone, as a possible short story to teach my fellow graduate students. I started the story, but with each page, as the action became more and more bizzare and shocking, I'd stop reading, just to calm myself down. I finished the story while on vacation and I found myself reading passages out loud to my boyfriend, in complete disbelief the characters smoked crack. I immediately deemed this highly inappropriate mat More...

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May 25, 2007

Rebecca rated it:

"Elaine takes the boys to Florida and drops them off like they're dry cleaning..."

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Sep 26, 2011

Deborah rated it:

Some of these stories are fantastic and others just seem schematic and formulated to shock. I love the stories that deal with childhood sexual and violent impulses in an honest, unfiltered way. But some of this book already feels dated to me. Or too pat, somehow, too smug. Is it really as simple and as awful as A.M. Homes would have it? In a way, though, I guess A.M. Homes' disaffected, drug-using, impulsive, bored, and self-destructive American suburbanites are John Cheever's disaffected, lives More...

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Mar 04, 2008

Catie rated it:

to be in love with a barbie doll. ah. childhood.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 02, 2009

Ryan rated it:

Imagine a brand new building; a skyscraper, even. It's big, shiny, modern-looking, and so on. Then you step into the lobby and realize that on the inside the entire thing is really made of recycled particle board. That's the best way I can think of to describe how I feel about this book.

One review said it was simply flat -- I couldn't agree more. I think this is a book of really interesting premises that don't go anywhere interesting after the second paragraph. On paper (ha ha) these More...

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Jun 11, 2011

Teresa rated it:

E' come spiare, da una finestra, in dieci case diverse. Affacciarsi, per un momento, nella vita di dieci persone diverse. Non mi piace spiare.
Meriterebbe più di due stelle, le vicende sono ricche di particolari che rendono i fatti reali, rendono le persone raccontate reali. Persone che hanno tutto e a cui manca l'essenziale. Persone che hanno segreti piccoli o grandi, ( come tutti ) e noi ne veniamo a conoscenza attraverso pezzi di discorsi, di storie. Ma alla fine non sono altro che questo More...

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Jun 07, 2008

Becky rated it:

I watched the movie adaptation and became obsessed much in the way as when I first watched Donnie Darko. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the book, and when I finally did, I was not disappointed overall. Although the book was written in 1990, few details seemed dated. Even then, things like the girls with big hair and the struggle to figure out what CD players are all about seem reminiscent to my own experiences if not totally relatable in my current life. Reading the book was like getting More...

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Jan 27, 2009

Megan rated it:

I loved this book because of it's honest portrayal of suburban America. As far-fetched as some readers might find these stories, it's their denial that suburban life isn't "picture perfect" or maybe they have only experienced the bubble of their own small town. This is a creative glimpse into everyday life. And because it's broken into short stories, the book moves fast and only shows brief flashes of life leaving much to be interpreted by the reader.

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Dec 13, 2008

Terry rated it:

I told you I'd read more A.M. Homes (despite my disappointment in In a Country of Mothers)! I enjoyed this collection very much, though by the end of the collection I could see that she uses the same "how shocking! I must read on!" introductory paragraph technique over and over. A minor quibble. I think someone who likes Aimee Bender would like Homes' short stories, though they are much less "fantastic" than Bender's.

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Mar 09, 2009

Ebony rated it:

Loved this book. Loved. I don't recommend it very often, which is odd because I thought it was amazing. It's got that mix of humor and emotion that I am apparently quite fond of. And the characters are so real, genuinely human. Despite their myriad shortcomings I wanted to know what there was to know about them and it was both entertaining and enlightening to find out.

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Dec 10, 2010

Jenny rated it:

Some short stories are good because they have a twist or surprise in them, or are full of casts of quirky characters. These are the other kind, the type that you'll keep thinking back to because they were full of messed up people doing bizarre things, but somehow they resonate with you, and suddenly you want to go hide in your linen closet and write love letters to yourself.

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Aug 02, 2011

Chazley added it

Homes is an amazing writer -- really beautiful prose and not a single cliche in the book. And she knows how to build tension in a story, no doubt. I stayed up late to finish the collection, which turned out to be a bad idea because the stories increase in creepiness throughout. It's the kind of book that needs to be followed by cartoons.

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Jan 31, 2010

marg rated it:

I wanted to read this because I thought the movie was so original and interesting. Well, apparently the original or at least the interesting part was Hollywood's addition (go figure) and the short stories were just an abstract inspiration. I thought these stories were weird, and especially held against the movie, very empty.

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Dec 21, 2008

Lauren rated it:

You can kind of compare these minimalistic stories of domestic discord to Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. While Homes is more subversive, Carver is all around better at presenting the slice-of-life narrative that makes this kind of prose so haunting.

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Jul 02, 2010

Bullet rated it:

I found this book on accident when I was in high school, when I used to go to the library, close my eyes, and point at a random book on a shelf, then read it. These short stories still blow me away with their wit, pain, and subtleties. I've consistently gone back to this book for inspiration.

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Jan 11, 2009

Hillary rated it:

I feel strange putting a rating on this. Homes is certainly unique, and her stories stay with you. Maybe/probably I should go up to four stars. She's not a great prose stylist, but her absence of style is clearly fought for hard, and she makes you worried in your stomach like few writers.

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Dec 08, 2008

Mallory rated it:

I have never read anything by A.M. Homes, but I'm a big fan now. Safety of Objects is a really brilliant read if you like short stories. I love the humor of some of them. My favorite story by far is A Real Doll. If you want something with a little more edge than Lars and the Real Girl, read this story.

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Nov 10, 2008

Kendall added it

Collection of short stories. I remember reading somewhere about her novel called Music for Torching- which I understand is an Extended Play version of the story Adults Alone. I noted that I didn't like the stories very much. I things Homes writes well- but the stories were bleak with no (for me) redeeming qualities. I don't mind be dragged down if I'm going to get something out of being down there. I also had a problem with many of the endings. It's a problem I have with most modern short s More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Ron rated it:

Homes is far too intense for the average reader, a social critic mining the same territory of suburban angst mapped out by Richard Yates two decades earlier. She is, however, a far more interesting and digestible writer, even as her stories shock more than his ever could.

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Apr 14, 2008

Steven rated it:

I had a vague recollection that one of the stories in this collection was similar to Music For Torching. And sure enough, the first story “Adults Alone,” features Elaine and Paul. Until rereading these stories I had forgotten how inventive, weird, and funny they are. Hard to classify really, although its probably not too far off to say that they tackle some contemporary taboos. “Chunky in Heat,” “Yours Truly,” “A Real Doll,” and even “Jim Train,” with its pissing in the boss’s potted plant’s pot More...

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Aug 23, 2007

Jacey rated it:

What do you rate a book that is so well written in it's depressingness that it makes you feel like shit. Yes, this book is depressing, it's a bit lynchian in the sense that it pulls back the veil of modern suburbia to reveal the ugly, sad armpit that it is.

I once had a friend who thought that Liz Phair song where she chants (ironically) in the background about all the things she wants to do to (you), was sexy. Really it's depressing and sad, but he found it sexy, which was also k More...

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Apr 07, 2009

Nichole rated it:

I enjoyed some of the stories, including "The Doll" and "Slumber Party" but most of them didn't interest me. I felt very detached from the characters; a lot of their actions didn't seem to make sense and I never felt invested in how it was all going to work out.

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