One Hundred and Forty Five Stories in a Small Box: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, How the Water Feels to the Fishes, and Minor Robberies
by Sarah Manguso, Dave Eggers, Deb Olin Unferth
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Read in February, 2008
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 collec...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 collec...more
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Read in February, 2008
Beautiful collection and well presented. My first taste of all of these authors, and I am very pleased. Since it's hard to rate a set like this, I've separated the authors and written my thoughts on each of them individually. I'd really like to give this 3.5 stars.
Sarah Manguso
I'm worried I read through her stories too quickly, because I really don't think I had the chance to let them settle in before turning the page. But, nonetheless, as the first book I've read in the set, I'm i...more
Sarah Manguso
I'm worried I read through her stories too quickly, because I really don't think I had the chance to let them settle in before turning the page. But, nonetheless, as the first book I've read in the set, I'm i...more
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Read in May, 2008
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 particularly liked &qu...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 particularly liked &qu...more
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Read in October, 2007
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,&quo...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,&quo...more
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Read in November, 2007
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 ...more
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Read in January, 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...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in March, 2008
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 they're...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 they're...more
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Read in November, 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...more
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Read in November, 2007
I enjoyed this tremendously. I read the Sarah Manguso first, because I was most excited about reading more of her work. But then I was sort of too distracted by the event and noting my response to it to know how much I actually liked it. Like wearing a blood pressure gauge the whole time, this tight band on my arm saying: well? well? Complicated. Some of the Dave Eggers stories were so wonderful. And then I loved the Deb Olin Unferth, the one I read last and with the least amount of antici...more
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Read in December, 2007
Impulse buy! Three little books in a bright and shiny slipcover case. Pretty, pretty. I've been failing in my attempts to write short shorts. Perhaps this will help.
UPDATE: It's a hard title to rate because it's three books. I didn't care much for the Manguso, liked some of the Eggers (but by this point, can't remember much about it), and thought the Unferth was four stars...some of hers are brilliant, brilliant. But it had the opposite effect of what I had initially hoped for. I think I'm g...more
UPDATE: It's a hard title to rate because it's three books. I didn't care much for the Manguso, liked some of the Eggers (but by this point, can't remember much about it), and thought the Unferth was four stars...some of hers are brilliant, brilliant. But it had the opposite effect of what I had initially hoped for. I think I'm g...more
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Read in November, 2007
One of the best items of note is the truly amazing packaging. Each writer is given their own hardback, while the whole 3 books gets wrapped in a design of love. The biggest surprise of this is the wondrous writing of Dave Eggers. Normally I find much of his work to be good but too wordy. He tends to create forest of words where the true essence gets lost, but not this time. The same excitement you see Dave have about writing and other writers comes out in hi own stories, which I haven't seen for...more
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Read in June, 2008
"How the Water Feels to the Fishes" by Dave Eggers is a lovely short story collection....and by short story, I mean very short story (most are just 2-3 pages, and some are as short as a line or two). Some I breezed through -- others were written with such compact, poetry-like language that I couldn't help but be sucked in...like in the story "Accident":
"You have done him and his friends some psychic harm, and you jeopardized their health, and now you are so close you f...more
"You have done him and his friends some psychic harm, and you jeopardized their health, and now you are so close you f...more
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Read in April, 2008
I love these books. McSweeny's approaches all parts of book making as an art, and it reslly shows in the way that even the paper flap with the bar code on it is well thought out and entertaining and thought provoking. (I want to frame it.)
Eggars' collection in particular reads as an amazing collection of prose poems with a short story or two thrown in. I've alwasy thought that his writing shines in the shorter formats, and it is very evident in many of these paragraph long stories.
Eggars' collection in particular reads as an amazing collection of prose poems with a short story or two thrown in. I've alwasy thought that his writing shines in the shorter formats, and it is very evident in many of these paragraph long stories.
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i think it's kind of sad how many people are either like ' oh i only read the dave eggers part ' or ' oh i don't like dave eggers but sarah manguso is awesome ' or whatever. i don't know why i think it's sad. i guess i think it's neat that these authors did this together. and i imagine that they like and are inspired by each other's work. anyway, i liked it all. tiny stories make me happy, most of this book is poetry without line breaks. it makes me feel.
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Read in October, 2007
the books made me happy in this order: Sarah Manguso, Deb Olin Unferth, Dave Eggers. i liked all of sarah manguso's stories. i liked most of deb olin unferth's stories. i didn't like the ones that weren't stories but were lists that i didn't understand. i think this was only one or two of the stories. i also at first didn't like when she listed multiple possibilities of what could happen but later i liked it. dave eggers' stories were good.
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Read in February, 2008
Eggers and Manguso's books were surprisingly bland and insipid. (Will someone tell me what the hell happened to Dave Eggers by the way?) Unferth's book, on the other hand, was fresh and beautiful- delicate in story structure but also hardy in tone. It reminded me of Anne Carson's short prose-- small revelations, almost too rich to be read back to back.
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Read in April, 2008
Granted, I only read the Eggers book before passing the collection on to its rightful owner, but I maintain that the series is worth all five stars. Dave Eggers is a fantastic writer; one of my favorites, hands down. He captures small moments or grand ideas with equal beauty. This book is the former. I would recommend this (or any of his books) to anyone.
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Read in March, 2008
My library separated the authors works; so I have only read Sarah Manguso's. The stories indeed seem like crystals. I'm fascinated that such short pieces occupy a territory not held by poems, but seem to define a new form; this excites me. I loved some of them, like the one about the espresso machine and the distress of not being understood.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
tiny story people
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.
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Read in November, 2007
A nice collection of some Eggers that I've come across in other formats. Glad to see them in one compact little book.
Also, a nice introduction to Ms. Manguso and Ms. Olin Unferth (for me). Between this and quarterly issue 24, some good things lining up to Bowl of Cherries, which I see at work, but not in my mailbox.
Also, a nice introduction to Ms. Manguso and Ms. Olin Unferth (for me). Between this and quarterly issue 24, some good things lining up to Bowl of Cherries, which I see at work, but not in my mailbox.
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