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73rd out of 274 books
—
58 voters
Willful Creatures
by
Aimee Bender (Goodreads Author)
Aimee Bender’s Willful Creatures conjures a fantastical world in which authentic love blooms. This is a place where a boy with keys for fingers is a hero, a woman’s children are potatoes, and a little boy with an iron for a head is born to a family of pumpkin heads. With her singular mix of surrealism, musical prose, and keenly felt emotion, Bender once again proves hersel...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
August 8th 2006
by Anchor
(first published August 16th 2005)
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I didn't even mean to start reading this collection. I'd been taking my time between books by reading various lit mags, and was so taken by Bender's story in an old issue of Tin House that I picked up her book. It had been on my shelf for over a year, and suddenly I was reading story after story--4 or so at a time. They are all swift reads, the prose simple and lovely, all of them strange: a boy has keys for hands, a woman raises potatoes as her children, a motherfucker (literally, he fucks moth...more
Oct 04, 2007
Nathanial
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
little men, little women, and steel-headed creatures
Shelves:
fantasy
"What's interesting in a story isn't the situation," said Amy Hempel, quoting her instructor at Columbia, Gordon Lish, "it's the people in it and how they respond to it."
So with Bender. Of course the cover has a picture of a little man in a cage - that's what happens when the little men hunters capture a little man and sell him to a big man. Big whup. The story comes in when we see how the big man deals with his new power, and how the little people have prepared for such abuses.
Bender writes in...more
So with Bender. Of course the cover has a picture of a little man in a cage - that's what happens when the little men hunters capture a little man and sell him to a big man. Big whup. The story comes in when we see how the big man deals with his new power, and how the little people have prepared for such abuses.
Bender writes in...more
I'm not sure if I'm more discerning a reader now than I was when I first read Bender's two short story collections, or if I was more easily impressed then, but rereading this collection and TGITFS have been pretty eye-opening. I, in fact, am not the huge Aimee Bender fan I thought I was. Granted, there are still a few stories in both collections that I genuinely admire. "Off," for example, is magnificent, and one of my favorite stories period. I also still enjoy "Motherfucker" and "I Will Pick O...more
Well, really I would give this 1.5 stars, as there was two stories I really liked ("End of the Line," about a big man who adopts a little man for a pet, and "Off," which takes the risk of a cruel, unlikeable narrator. Okay, and "Dearth," about a women who has potatoes for children, genuinely moved me). My problem was that the majority of these stories were basically Kooky Premises that, in my opinion, work better as premises than as stories. This was also my problem with Bender's novel "The Part...more
I'm not sure I can star-rate books of short fiction. Some of these stories (e.g., "Off") I loved so much that I nearly cried when I read them, while others (e.g., "Fruit and Words") I hated to the point of becoming physically ill. In her dart-throwing at axes mapping "Whimsical Quirk" and "Nihilistic Depravity," Bender does on occasion hit some sublime points. I'd read "Off" in an anthology, and it was like doing some weird new exercise that doesn't feel all that special at the time, but the nex...more
6 likes · like · see review
Weird stuff... fortunately, I like weird stuff. I don't know that I would recommend this collection of short stories to anyone I know, but out there somewhere is someone with a twisted outlook on the world, who appreciates dark humor and allegorical glances into the grey areas of human nature; and that person is the one who can appreciate these surreal portraits. Bender's brand of magical realism is really pushed to the boundaries - bordering on fantasy much more so than on reality... making som...more
I really want to like Aimee Bender...but based on this collection I think she's overhyped. For one thing, all the press about Bender as a fantasist or magical-realism practitioner is GROSSLY overstated. Most of the stories in here are straight-up realistic, and only a few are outright fantastical. Not that there's anything wrong with that—I'm just saying there's some false advertising going on.
The stories are all slightly on the quirky side but most of them are so wispy and minor-key that they d...more
The stories are all slightly on the quirky side but most of them are so wispy and minor-key that they d...more
Hearing that this book made the 2005 James Tiptree, Jr. Award short list, I was curious. Bender's writing fascinates and horrifies me; I have a love/hate thing for her novel An Invisible Sign of My Own. I've heard that short stories are her forte, so I was uber-curious about this collection. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.
What is gripping about these stories is the simple, quiet horror that steals across the pages. What can I say that everyone hasn't said before? Each story left me with...more
What is gripping about these stories is the simple, quiet horror that steals across the pages. What can I say that everyone hasn't said before? Each story left me with...more
"Surreal," "bizarre," and "outlandish" appear frequently in descriptions of Bender's stories, most culled from prestigious literary magazines. Despite their unreal premises, these stories rarely fail to connect with readers emotionally. Her characters are often both disturbed and disturbing. Opinions differ on whether to call Bender a dark writer or a magical realist, but nobody has unkind words for her prose. Some of these tales__fairy tales, even__succeed masterfully; others are weak by compar
...more
Willful Creatures Stories by Aimee Bender
New York: Doubleday & Company
$22.95 – 208 pages
The man went to the pet store to buy himself a little man to keep him company. The pet store was full of dogs with splotches and shy cats coy and the friendly people got dogs and the independent people got cats and this man looked around until in the back he found a cage inside of which was a miniature sofa and tiny TV and one small attractive brown-haired man wearing a tweed suit. He looked at the price...more
New York: Doubleday & Company
$22.95 – 208 pages
The man went to the pet store to buy himself a little man to keep him company. The pet store was full of dogs with splotches and shy cats coy and the friendly people got dogs and the independent people got cats and this man looked around until in the back he found a cage inside of which was a miniature sofa and tiny TV and one small attractive brown-haired man wearing a tweed suit. He looked at the price...more
Oh, Aimee Bender you have wooed me with your wily words. I savored the little delectables like, “Goodbye’ we said to each other, and the kiss was an old dead sock.” And “It was like the whole afternoon had got a haircut that was too short.” She peppered such strange juxtapositions throughout all the stories which were themselves like reading Dali painting—close to reality but wonderfully distorted. There seemed to be a lot of kissing in her stories, magical realism and then a few plain stories,...more
This was a refreshing read of short stories. They are very honest and imaginative, and I especially liked the story about the boy with keys for fingers that finally saved a boy in a metal shack. It was a very metaphorical story about opening secrets to his father's life in the war. But the boy just couldn't get inside. Instead he opened doors where the keys would fit. Some of the love stories, like the one with the woman who's goal is to kiss three men at a party with different colored hair, end...more
This book made me SO UNCOMFORTABLE. All prickly and twitchy and fidgety like I was watching the stupid movie about your period in 6th grade. I have often said that there are few things that are still taboo or untouchable, and I think that after reading this set of short stories, I have to say that my argument has been a cop out. There's a lot we shy away from and a lot that still makes us squirm. You just have to attack it in a new way or see it from another side to make it work.
I'm not normall...more
I'm not normall...more
"The blonde is next, and he is someone I used to date and in fact only broke up with around three months ago so I think it'll be easy; I find him in the corner talking to two other guys and I glide over and because I am me I am wearing an incredible dress tonight; this one looks almost like it is made of metal; it has this slinky way of falling all over my hips and I feel like an on faucet in it and of course I am the most dressed up at the party, I always am, but that's the whole point, so when...more
After reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, I sought out something else by Aimee Bender.
I really enjoyed the prose in this book. Just the right amount of description and character development for short stories. The stories were all based around some kind of strange character, such as the man who buys a tiny man as a pet, or the woman who finds potatoes turning to children in her stock pot. Sometimes, the protagonists are cruel, which I found at times interesting and at times disappointin...more
I really enjoyed the prose in this book. Just the right amount of description and character development for short stories. The stories were all based around some kind of strange character, such as the man who buys a tiny man as a pet, or the woman who finds potatoes turning to children in her stock pot. Sometimes, the protagonists are cruel, which I found at times interesting and at times disappointin...more
I liked the one with the potato children the best. The pumpkinhead one was also pretty good--I loved the detail about how they had to turn their heads sideways while having sex. The second one in the collection (the one about the woman at the party with the goal to kiss three different men) was also both very Aimee Benderish and very un-Aimee Benderish, if that makes any sense, and I liked it a lot. I liked how "Debbieland" was narrated by a collective "we" narrator; a very intersting technique...more
i loved the particular sadness of lemon cake! funny, sad, quirky
so, i went to the library to take out other books by aimee bender. the only one on the shelf is willful creatures. i've read 5 of the stories & i'm not going to finish the book. they are all quirky, but dark, and sinister & cruel. the next story is called motherfucker. i think that is a good place to stop! when the other books get returned to the library, i'll check them out, but i want the feeling back that i had when i fin...more
so, i went to the library to take out other books by aimee bender. the only one on the shelf is willful creatures. i've read 5 of the stories & i'm not going to finish the book. they are all quirky, but dark, and sinister & cruel. the next story is called motherfucker. i think that is a good place to stop! when the other books get returned to the library, i'll check them out, but i want the feeling back that i had when i fin...more
I've got to hand it to my friend Sherif on this one: it manages to top "The Girl In The Flammable Skirt" in almost every way. Not only because there wasn't one story that didn't engage me on some level of mind-bending awe, and not only because it was perfectly balanced between longer and sorter pieces; but because the overall emotional stakes of the book seem higher than her previous short story collection, almost as if she's been working up to stories of this caliber of concise power for a whil...more
I read this collection of short stories because someone who I both trusted and adored told me that these stories were HER, that somehow Aimee bender had captured her internal landscape and written them down.
That's a hell of a lot to live up to, and Willful Creatures didn't disappoint in the least.
Whimsical, but not simple; heartbreaking but not overtly sad - these stories capture the depth of the mundane and the intricacies of metaphor used to describe the world. The story of Salt and Pepper wa...more
That's a hell of a lot to live up to, and Willful Creatures didn't disappoint in the least.
Whimsical, but not simple; heartbreaking but not overtly sad - these stories capture the depth of the mundane and the intricacies of metaphor used to describe the world. The story of Salt and Pepper wa...more
Perhaps the title linking all of these stories together, "Willful Creatures," should've given me a clue that most of the characters in this book would be brash, loud, unlikable, or just plain difficult people. I've loved Aimee Bender's other works, she is quirky, original, with a unique voice. Although I didn't like the characters, I did like some of the stories: the last in the book about the strange children born; the boy whose fingers are keys and he spends his life trying to find which doors...more
Excellent collection. I want to write like Aimee Bender. Her stories are incredibly light and effervescent, yet filled with deep undercurrents of meaning and truth. They are beautiful, fun, funny. She has a unique talent. Highlights for me were: “Dearth”, about a woman whose children are potatoes; "Fruit and Words", about an unusual fruit stand in the desert between L.A. and Vegas; "Ironhead", about a little boy born with an iron for a head to parents with pumpkins for heads; and "Job's Job", ab...more
I was really excited about this collection two stories in. From there, the excitement ended. I really enjoyed the surrealist stories best. For me, "End of the Line" made the book. It was such a delicious morsel, and I was hoping for more of that.
I really, really disliked "Off." I felt the really real, plain, ordinary stories without magical elements were the weakest.
The problem for me was that Bender doesn't give most of the characters names. It's "the man" "the woman" "the girl" "the boy" stor...more
I really, really disliked "Off." I felt the really real, plain, ordinary stories without magical elements were the weakest.
The problem for me was that Bender doesn't give most of the characters names. It's "the man" "the woman" "the girl" "the boy" stor...more
Jul 13, 2009
Syd
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Readers who appreciate strange, dark and symbolic writing.
Willful Creatures by Amee Bender is a collection of fictional short stories that offer a look at different kinds of authentic love. The stories are whimsical and slightly melancholy with an optimistic finish. Relying on odd characters and lyrical prose, the stories offer a surreal prospective into human emotion.
I fell in love with Amee Bender's style when I read The Girl in The Flammable Skirt several years ago. Willful Creatures follows the same whimsical and eccentric style. Although her char...more
I fell in love with Amee Bender's style when I read The Girl in The Flammable Skirt several years ago. Willful Creatures follows the same whimsical and eccentric style. Although her char...more
Odd, but also really snappy and exciting - a quick read and unlike anything I've ever read before. My favorites tended towards realism - "The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers," "Debbieland," "Motherfucker," "I Will Pick Out Your Ribs (From My Teeth." Personal preference, I guess. This passage, the last in the book, I loved:
"I am the drying meadow; you the unspoken apology; he is the fluctuating distance between mother and son; she is the first gesture that creates a quiet that is full enough...more
"I am the drying meadow; you the unspoken apology; he is the fluctuating distance between mother and son; she is the first gesture that creates a quiet that is full enough...more
Really, really fun and inventive. Flips typical situations upside down. She's a hero of mine.
Short stories of this ilk are, for me, like slowing down to pass a car accident. I'm freaked out and fascinated and generally put on edge by both car accidents and "fantastic" short stories. Sometimes I feel emboldened on that edge and sometimes I'm just scared of falling off. Most of Bender's stories put me on that second, more precarious edge.
A boy with key fingers? Creepy but appealing. I kept imagining the texture of his fingers and I wanted to know more about WHY the fingers fit the doors t...more
A boy with key fingers? Creepy but appealing. I kept imagining the texture of his fingers and I wanted to know more about WHY the fingers fit the doors t...more
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Apr 03, 2011
Lindsey
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
oprah's book club, dumb girls & dumb girls at the pool
I was pretty excited to take in some Aimee Bender, but was sadly disappointed by this collection. There are definitely some gems, but I found the bulk of the stories somewhat dull and some of the prose a little bit trite. Bender is at her best when she moves into abstract territory or flirts with fairy-tale-esque allegory, but she never does it quite as well as my favorites in that vein (specifically, Banana Yoshimoto or Etgar Keret). Many of the stories seemed to follow a tired formula of intro...more
There is no one in contemporary fiction who writes like Aimee Bender. When I read her, I end up thinking a lot about the word "story" and how she actually tells stories. They are fantastic and weird and surreal, but they also tell us something about actual life, which I think is the oldest principle of storytelling--using the fantastic to illustrate something about the known world. Plus, her use of language is incredible, and her sense of rhythm impeccable. I read much of this book out loud to m...more
I Don't Do Reviews.
It's true. I don't. But I do like to mention books I've enjoyed, and I've not enjoyed anything more than Willful Creatures, by Aimee Bender in a long time.
So where to start? Well, the book's a collection of short stories, fifteen in all. And they're fantastic and I mean, REALLY fantastic. I ordered the book from my library after reading a review of it in The Short Review. The first story grabbed my attention, it was like being grabbed by the throat, to tell the truth. And afte...more
It's true. I don't. But I do like to mention books I've enjoyed, and I've not enjoyed anything more than Willful Creatures, by Aimee Bender in a long time.
So where to start? Well, the book's a collection of short stories, fifteen in all. And they're fantastic and I mean, REALLY fantastic. I ordered the book from my library after reading a review of it in The Short Review. The first story grabbed my attention, it was like being grabbed by the throat, to tell the truth. And afte...more
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Aimee Bender is the author of the novel An Invisible Sign of My Own and of the collections The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures. Her work has been widely anthologized and has been translated into ten languages. She lives in Los Angeles.
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“I am the drying meadow; you the unspoken apology; he is the fluctuating distance between mother and son; she is the first gesture that creates a quiet that is full enough to make the baby sleep.
My genes, my love, are rubber bands and rope; make yourself a structure you can live inside.
Amen.”
—
36 people liked it
My genes, my love, are rubber bands and rope; make yourself a structure you can live inside.
Amen.”
“While she cut the mushrooms, she cried more than she had at the grave, the most so far, because she found the saddest thing of all to be the simple truth of her capacity to move on.”
—
6 people liked it
More quotes…
May 05, 2008 09:18am
Robert, I am discussing this very topic in class right now (symbolism, not the use of all caps). We've just gotten...more
May 05, 2008 01:07pm