One Hundred and Forty Five Stories in a Small Box: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, How the Wa...
This set brings together three works by the short-story genres most exciting writers: Eggers "How the Water Feels to the Fishes"; Sarah Mangusos "H...
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reviews
Nov 16, 2007
Alan
rated it: 
This review concerns only Unferth's Minor Robberies:
It is twisted and incompetently brilliant. She is the literary equivalent of a cheeky post punk band--elliptical, experimental, disturbing, anxious, manic, snottily and sincerely casual, falling apart--she whips off tiny snippets. Part of her inimitable voice is her intentional inelegance. Example: ". . . if reincarnation is right . . ." She very much has the tools to say "if the idea of reincarnation holds water," More...
It is twisted and incompetently brilliant. She is the literary equivalent of a cheeky post punk band--elliptical, experimental, disturbing, anxious, manic, snottily and sincerely casual, falling apart--she whips off tiny snippets. Part of her inimitable voice is her intentional inelegance. Example: ". . . if reincarnation is right . . ." She very much has the tools to say "if the idea of reincarnation holds water," More...
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Nov 19, 2008
Rae
rated it: 
I find it really hard to review McSweeney's publications objectively because I am so in love with the empire: the concrete detail, the interactiveness of the publications. The books are live creatures that seem to look back at you. I'm tempted to give this collection five stars just because the co-publication of three micro-story collections in one shared slipcover is such a great gesture.
I love Dave Eggers' work in general. I love where he starts, and where he quits, in almost every o More...
I love Dave Eggers' work in general. I love where he starts, and where he quits, in almost every o More...
Sep 08, 2008
I've only read Minor Robberies so far, and I have to admit to both liking the easy escape of the stories (reading them is about as much effort as playing solitaire, which is kind of a plus) and disliking the craft/art involved. I only recently read the N+1 review of Kevin Brockmeier that lays the phrase "Magic Feelism" out overtop his second story collection, and the full nature of this tendency described therein is still getting mapped out for me, but there's definitely a lot in comm
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Feb 16, 2009
Ken
rated it:
There are three books in this collection and this is the first installment of what will eventually total three reviews.
"Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape" by Sarah Manguso is a stellar collection of short short fiction. This is my first experience with this type of fiction and it rests somewhere between poetry and short story fiction. Each story is barely a paragraph but packed with content on a level of a good poem. Almost story is ripe for striking up conversation More...
"Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape" by Sarah Manguso is a stellar collection of short short fiction. This is my first experience with this type of fiction and it rests somewhere between poetry and short story fiction. Each story is barely a paragraph but packed with content on a level of a good poem. Almost story is ripe for striking up conversation More...
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Sep 27, 2009
unnarrator
rated it:
Explanation of rating:
Sarah Manguso FIVE STARS astonishing OMG I love her.
Dave Eggers THREE STARS for his acknowledgedly tepid homage to Lydia Davis.
Deb Olin Unfirth NO STARS because it was so bad I couldn't even finish it.
Sarah Manguso FIVE STARS astonishing OMG I love her.
Dave Eggers THREE STARS for his acknowledgedly tepid homage to Lydia Davis.
Deb Olin Unfirth NO STARS because it was so bad I couldn't even finish it.
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Dec 26, 2008
Dan
rated it: 
I took a professional reviewer's advice and didn't read any one of these three small books of short-short stories straight through. I jumped around, read a few from each as I progressed. Good call, because once I finished the two shorter ones, I was left with "Minor Robberies" by Deb Olin Unferth. The trouble with her book was that I had gotten used to the idea of short-short stories, or flash fiction, or snap fiction, or whatever the form is called. The volumes by Dave Eggers and Sar
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Jun 30, 2009
lnb
rated it:
it seems i am not the only one who only read the deb olin unferth volume -- libraries (rightly, thankfully) catalog these as three separate monographs.
deb olin unferth is really good. these short-short stories are really good, thoughtful, beautiful, spare. i learned that i am perhaps not the biggest fan of this form -- not that i think unferth is limited by it, or that her stories could benefit from expansion, but that my tendency as a reader is to digest books in large chunks. this More...
deb olin unferth is really good. these short-short stories are really good, thoughtful, beautiful, spare. i learned that i am perhaps not the biggest fan of this form -- not that i think unferth is limited by it, or that her stories could benefit from expansion, but that my tendency as a reader is to digest books in large chunks. this More...
Jun 13, 2009
Frank
rated it:
Three collections of Flash Fiction, all of them original and inspiring. Egger's 'How The Water Feels To The Fishes' is quite wonderful. I am taking them apart at the moment, looking for the joins, trying to see how it was all done.
Manguso's 'Hard To Admit and Harder To Escape' is a much more unified collection of simple morality tales, all first person, all told in a clearwater kind of voice. Their compact unity is awesome.
A lot of 'Reviewers' (a strange breed) seem to b More...
Manguso's 'Hard To Admit and Harder To Escape' is a much more unified collection of simple morality tales, all first person, all told in a clearwater kind of voice. Their compact unity is awesome.
A lot of 'Reviewers' (a strange breed) seem to b More...
Jun 17, 2009
Matt
rated it:
I'd been trying for a while, in a remarkably half-assed way, to get a copy of this, partly because I was worried that when I did get it it wouldn't be as good as I'd hoped.
And well, I needn't have worried. The Eggers' stories aren't great, but well, no one buys the book for the Eggers' stories. They are the ringers of the bunch, the hook to get you into the other, vastly better books.
I read Manguso's book of Columbus poems or whatever it was, and didn't think so much of it. I More...
And well, I needn't have worried. The Eggers' stories aren't great, but well, no one buys the book for the Eggers' stories. They are the ringers of the bunch, the hook to get you into the other, vastly better books.
I read Manguso's book of Columbus poems or whatever it was, and didn't think so much of it. I More...
Oct 25, 2007
Heidi
rated it:
Much as I love Dave Eggars it was Deb Olin Unferth that sold me this book. Out of her backpack. She gave me a really good discount. I'm awfully gratefully, it turns out I really like tiny ickle bitty stories. I like them a lot.
Jun 24, 2011
Scott
rated it:
Because of this book, I'm going to try a little experiment this summer. The idea is that I'll write a short-short story each day for a certain period of time. Maybe I'll start it on my birthday and then go until a month later. Maybe I'll go longer. Maybe I'll start earlier, but probably not tomorrow.
There's also plenty in here to serve as seeds for projects for Creative Writing and/or Sophomore English. One: use your name as the title for a story. Two: Imitate "The New Rules." More...
There's also plenty in here to serve as seeds for projects for Creative Writing and/or Sophomore English. One: use your name as the title for a story. Two: Imitate "The New Rules." More...
Apr 14, 2011
Anna
rated it:
This is a beautiful boxed set and some really great stories inside each separate collection. I found each author's voice distinct and interesting, even as I wished there was a little more crossover in tone between the three to hold it together. Eggers was my favorite volume, and Deb Olin Unferth's work was also quite interesting and marked by some very profound pieces. The weakest volume in my eyes was Sarah Mangusos's simply because I found many of her stories to feel a little too navel-gazi
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May 11, 2011
Melanie
rated it:
This is the book that made me fall in love with Dave Eggers; trying now to tear through everything else he's written/produced/etc. I was also quite taken with Deb Olin Unferth's rough style; I'd never even heard of her previously, but read through her contribution ravenously. Sarah Manguso, I have to say, is who places my rating at 4 rather 5 stars. Her micro-fiction felt too autobiographical to me—I could see the room where she was writing, could feel her trying to write her way out of boredom
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Sep 06, 2011
Scott
rated it:
I realized that I should have read these in the opposite order. I started with Manguso's Hard to Admit..., which turned out to be my favorite. It is very pleasingly off-kilter and disquieting. Unferth's Minor Robberies was next. Similar to Manguso's in tone but more self-conscious. Eggers' How the Water... was just not very good; most of the works felt like entry-level writing class experiments (not that I could do better). If I had started with the Eggers, I could have ended with a bang.
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Dec 02, 2010
Laala
rated it:
“Still we love and are unloved, still we understand no one, still we and our love die, still reality is hard to admit and harder to escape, still the essential moments are unexpected but nothing is new, still we were wrong about the past but the future is about to begin, still things make sense, still there is but one reliance.” — Sarah Manguso, Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape
This book doesn’t take long to get through. It’s 81 short stories — and by short, I mean short. None are lon More...
This book doesn’t take long to get through. It’s 81 short stories — and by short, I mean short. None are lon More...
May 21, 2010
Jennie
rated it:
The first book I read was Deb Olin Unferth's Minor Robberies. As with any book of short stories, some are awesome, some are not. Some use language in really impressive ways, and some are so overly wrought they make me cringe. Some pack powerful emotional punches, and some leave me thinking "What was the point of that?" Some blow my mind, and some are way over my head. The ones that stick with me the most are "Deb Olin Unferth" and "To Do," because, shockingly e
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Jun 23, 2009
Hey so does anyone else hope that Dave Eggers' "How the Water Feels to the Fishes" has something to do with that bit in Infinite Jest where the old fish says to the two younger fish, "How's the water today, boys?" and swims off and then one young fish says to the other, "What the hell is water?" I read that when David Foster Wallace mentioned it in his Kenyon speech and didn't realize it was in IJ cause I hadn't read it yet. I think it's in one of Don Gately's refl
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Feb 19, 2008
Mark
rated it:
Clever idea, nicely executed... up until now I haven't been a fan of Eggers's work, but many of the stories in "How the Water Feels" grabbed me by the throat. I'll be looking to read his stuff from now on... Manguso is more of a poet, and maybe for that reason her pieces show a lot more care with the language. They read really well. Many of them are emotionally effective, and a few are very funny. But some of them seem to just kind of sit there being formal and blurring together... My
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Mar 10, 2008
Anne
rated it:
After reading two of the books in this set, I'm bringing my review down to 4 stars [see update below:] because: I'm tired now. A bit weary, that is, of short encapsulated clever witty storybits that are making me feel old-fashioned for not always getting it.
As I noted the first time I posted on this, I loved Sarah Manguso's contribution, Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape: sharp, poetic, witty, and often devastating. She has a really distinctive voice, and taken altogether the coll More...
As I noted the first time I posted on this, I loved Sarah Manguso's contribution, Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape: sharp, poetic, witty, and often devastating. She has a really distinctive voice, and taken altogether the coll More...
May 20, 2008
Joanna
rated it:
I'm going to have to break this review into categories.
Overall presentation: Five stars, absolutely. This boxed set of three small hardcover story collections is a pleasure to hold, to touch, to admire. Soft earth tones with a muted pinstripe pattern, gold stamped title, well designed spine.... I just loved reading these books.
Minor Robberies: Four stars. This collection of three to five page stories was quirky, intriguing, emotionally apt, and satisfying. I partic More...
Overall presentation: Five stars, absolutely. This boxed set of three small hardcover story collections is a pleasure to hold, to touch, to admire. Soft earth tones with a muted pinstripe pattern, gold stamped title, well designed spine.... I just loved reading these books.
Minor Robberies: Four stars. This collection of three to five page stories was quirky, intriguing, emotionally apt, and satisfying. I partic More...
Feb 12, 2009
Nate
rated it:
I found this collection in a record store. Three mini volumes by Sarah Manguso, Deb Olin Unferth and Dave Eggers neatly packed together in an impressive package. It's like buying three already used and very interesting sketchbooks. Further along, you may notice that reading one of these books while on public transport has a tendency to make you feel like you're hanging out with its author. It's the McSweeney's literary equivalent to a pizza night, which incidentally is something their website re
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Jun 13, 2010
Julia
rated it:
I took these three tiny books to the park on a sunny morning and proceeded to read all one hundred and forty five stories. Three hours later, I picked up my bike and rode away satisfied. It was like a long brunch of many courses and several well-timed mimosas and I was terribly sad when I found there were no more to be had. For those who feel their reading lives are lacking fiction, these stories will recharge the brain bank.
Jan 16, 2008
This little box has provided great subway fodder for the past week. Though Eggers's volume "How the Water Feels to the Fishes" wasn't all that exciting (same old same old), Sarah Manguso's "Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape" is a fine collection of profound little vignettes - tight hunks of writing that I often wanted to read twice. Childhood mixes with artists' colony mixes with the writer's years as a maladjusted art student eager for social acceptance. But the point is
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May 01, 2008
Amy
rated it:
YES!!! Three books, three authors, 145 short stories, endless pleasure. Of course, Dave Eggers' book was my favorite. He has this way of writing that pulls you in, makes you think all these wonderful ideas, then drops you back off in the real world. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. The other two are just as ace!
Deb Olin Unferth's shorty-short stories pack a punch and leave you wanting to find out more about her, her writing, anything you can devour.
You know when you have three things and More...
Deb Olin Unferth's shorty-short stories pack a punch and leave you wanting to find out more about her, her writing, anything you can devour.
You know when you have three things and More...
Mar 13, 2009
Kevin
rated it:
This was one of my first forays into short fiction (quick fiction, flash fiction, etc) and while the collections here are a bit uneven, they are also very interesting. You need to get into a rhythm of the flow of the stories for maximum pleasure, I think.
Feb 11, 2012
David
rated it:
This is a great collection of tiny stories. I didn't find a single one in here that I didn't like. They really seemed to go well together. Each author had their own flavor, but there was a certain unity to the whole thing. I could really see why these were all put together.
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Apr 19, 2009
jake
rated it: 
There are 145 stories in this box from three different authors. There's some fun with language and some very pretty lines, but that's about it. Of the 145 stories, maybe eight or nine are worthy of anything.
Dec 09, 2010
Kiddo
rated it:
Dave Eggers should not write novels. If you distilled his novels to 40 prose poems, like the ones here, he would be a purely good writer.
And the packaging is nice too.
And the packaging is nice too.
Dec 19, 2007
Of the three books, I've only read Mr. Eggers' so far: it's good, hit/miss (lots of glancing blows, though certainly also a few direct shots to the gut/laughzone), the best are sort of wobbly, in that they walk the tightrope between goodness and some other unsettling sense readerwise that's maybe related to a formal concern with brevity, but they almost always nail the landing, something that's totally important in terms of professional somersaulting. I'm glad I bought these books. I look forwar
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Jun 01, 2009
oriana
rated it:
Oh, I don't know, gosh. I mean, Dave Eggers and Deb Olin Unferth are two of my most most favorites, and to be sure, some of these stories were terrific. But a lot were just so-so, and I think, like poetry, it's real easy to do a mediocre short-short story, and extremely difficult to do one really well. Plus one by one, in a lit mag or something, I think these stories would have had a lot more punch, but back to back to back I feel like a lot of the tension and sparkle was lost in the muddle.
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