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Apr 04, 2008

Adrianne rated it:

This is one of those books that has you rereading sentences over and over again, not because you couldn't parse their basic meaning, but because you suspect that a second reading will glean another, more subtle bit of information. It will also make you want to own a dog. It will also have you falling in love with Amy Hempel and wanting to make her your bride, in a house on the countryside with a weedy garden and a swamp nearby.

I started reading God of Small Things within five minutes More...

5 comments like (11 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2008

Matt rated it:

The reason for reading this book was because I could not otherwise get away from this lady until doing so. One such instance involved an innocent perusal of Raymond Carver's wikipedia entry, and there was Hempel and Gordon Lish sitting one booth over and trying to look conspicuously casual. Another time I was cruising Palahniuk.com (feeling all manly and disenfranchised, of course), and there she was again, rocking back and forth on her heels expectantly after blurting out an awkward "Hi!" More...

6 comments like (8 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2007

Ian rated it:

i kind of just want to copy one of her stories and so that's what i'm going to do. her stories are pretty short and this may be the shortest of them all. it's called:

"The Man in Bogata"

The police and emergency service people fail to make a dent. The voice of the pleading spouse does not have the hoped-for effect. The woman remains on the ledge -- though not, she threatens, for long.

I imagine that I am the one who must talk the woman down. I see it, a More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2007

David rated it:

I know it's a cliche, but some of these stories just took my breath away. "In the Cemetery where Al Jolson is buried" is just extraordinary, but there are at least a half a dozen other stories which are just as good.

This book contains all four collections of short stories written by Hempel over the last 20 years and has been praised to the skies. Deservedly so, IMO. Some of the stories are less than a page long, but they all pack a punch.

A couple of months late More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2007

Will rated it:

It was hard for me to read this book without constantly thinking about the agonizing amount of work that had to go into every single sentence. I kept picturing this frowny-faced, chain-smoking woman slumped over a typewriter desperately trying to warp every word to express exactly what she wanted. The end result was appropriately rewarding.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Núria rated it:

Debo ser desconfiada por naturaleza, porque cuando veo que un libro tiene críticas muy dispares (unas muy buenas y otras malísimas) sospecho, pero lo cierto es que también desconfío cuando un libro sólo tiene críticas excelentes. Para mí es más fácil creer que un libro está sobrevalorado que no que es tan bueno que consigue que todos los críticos se pongan de acuerdo. Por supuesto, me pasó esto mismo con los cuentos de Amy Hempel. Os desafío a que encontréis una crítica mala de Amy Hempel; busca More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

This has all four of Amy Hempel's short story collections in one volume. I am assigning it four stars mostly on the strength of her first collection, Reasons to Live published way back in the 1980s.

I kept thinking "a female Richard Brautigan" while reading her early stories. Quirky subjects and bizarre dialogue. You just never know where she's going to go next. Three of my four favorite stories in the whole book are from this first collection. The other three collections More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 03, 2008

Brian rated it:

I have a friend who once wanted to learn to play guitar. But, when he heard Jimi Hendrix play, he decided to give up the instrument because he couldn't imagine himself ever being able to play like that. Amy Hempel makes me feel the same way about writing--my fledgling attempts at writing fiction look clumsy and silly next to Ms. Hempel's elegant and delicate prose.

Ms. Hempel has a reputation for being a minimalist writer. Not being a literature major, I'm unsure of the exact definiti More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 26, 2007

Drej rated it:

Her sentences are clear and hard and sometimes heavy, like glass I-beams. That's a bad metaphor, because they aren't transparent; the sentences are the things you notice the most.

I first read Amy Hempel's story, "The Harvest," a while ago. I don't remember who told me about it. Someone in a writing group somewhere. I found it online and thought it was the most compressed, sharp blade of a story I'd ever read. I saved it somewhere on a now-defunct laptop. But now I've More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 23, 2009

R. marked it as to-read

I gave away my copy of the Reasons to Live several years ago to a friend and read most of Hempel's other works at Hillman Library in Pittsburgh; so, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have all of her works under one roof. I don't quite know why I feel compelled to write about this at all - but it's Monday night and outside it's raining. I only have four cans of beer to do me before my work week picks up steam. And then it's back to the red wine.

3 comments like

Jan 13, 2008

Eileen rated it:

This is a book that many fiction writers have been waiting for for a long time, especially since Hempel's "Reasons to Live" has been out of print for a while. Essentially, this omnibus collection gathers together Hempel's four books of short fiction, including her most recent "The Dog of the Marriage." The book has been widely lauded in the press, but I will just say here that if you are looking to read some short stories by a master of minimalist fiction whose work is wryly More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Julie (Klickitat) rated it:

Hempel is amazing. Her prose is as crisp and sharp as you'll find and yet, enviably, appears effortless. Her style reminds me of a writing instructor of mine, who would always ask us: "Is every word in that sentence necessary? How much would you pay for that one there?" The lesson being, if you wouldn't lay your money on the line for any extraneous words, why include them? If Hempel took my instructor's class, she would be the teacher's pet. Every word in Hempel's stories has a purpose More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Valerie rated it:

Because I typically fall asleep or become distracted after a few pages of reading, short stories are ideal for me. In addition to that, a well-read friend of mine recommended this book to me, so I was really looking forward to exploring it. My excitement did not last long, however. I've read about four of her stories now, and I'm still wondering when things are supposed to become interesting. The book has been given plenty of awards and good reviews, but I can't quite seem to figure out why. Not More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 10, 2007

Jenna rated it:

Hempel has a way of making you aware of the mundane and fractured events of your life, taking stock in what normally wouldn't make the final edit of your "This Is Your Life" reel. I both get her and don't, connect with her narrators ( I use the plural, but they all seem to be fundamentally the same) and loathe them at the same time. I was amazed to read this collection, which includes stories from previous books spanning many years, and near the end feel like these stories were meant More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2008

carolyn rated it:

Contained within these pages are short stories that can make you stop breathing, sentences that I will remember forever and ever, that burned themselves into my brain the second I read them. I was AMAZED to learn that "In the Cemetary where Al Jolson is Buried" was the first piece of fiction she'd EVER written. It's beautiful and real, more real than this keyboard I'm typing on or the trees out my window. I will buy my own copy of this book and re-read these stories for the rest of More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Art rated it:

this collection of stories is really powerful. a lot of stories about how we deal with grief, love, loss, and how we balance out the affections of the world with our own weights we carry around. i say "we" when i mean "the characters", but you get the point. its amazing. The story "in the cemetary where al jolson is buried" about dealing with a friend's death is really beautiful, and "the harvest" was particularly good. i also highly suggest, "and lea More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Charlotte added it

Am I the only reader who doesn't take pleasure in reading Amy Hempel? She is always praised for writing "the perfect sentence," for the way she distills a story to its poetic essence, for writing precise little gems. (Some stories are less than two pages long.) How can I describe my aversion? Is it that I feel like I'm being toyed with? That Hempel's spareness is a literary exercise? There's a chill in her writing that comes from that spareness, I think. There was one story that More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2011

Jean rated it:

Her style is stronger than her plot line. I'll add more later.

Later... I just finished the section entitled "Reasons to Live." I thought it was time to read the Introduction by Rick Moody. Now I realize I finished her first book of short stories, and in this collection are four books. He starts by saying , "It's all about the sentences." Some of my Book Club friends would love that / her. After I read his line, I realized that at least two sentences are quite More...

2 comments like

Jul 20, 2010

Colin rated it:

Amy Hempel’s Collected Stories starts with my favorite short story collection ever, Reasons to Live, and then proceeds to highlight the author’s decline to mediocrity.

Don’t get me wrong; ask me who the best short story writer is and I’ll still say Amy Hempel, but sometimes you have to be honest, even about the people you admire most. Like many who got into Hempel prior to the rabid Chuck Palahniuk endorsement, I was hooked by the widely anthologized “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is More...

1 comment like

Jul 18, 2009

Chris rated it:

Maybe 4.888882 stars. Maybe you just shouldn't read too many of one person's stories in one sitting. You (I) can get burnt out. I admire her talent for distillation. I love DFW and his "maximalism", and I love the traditional stuff (the classics) like O'Connor and Hemingway and Kipling and De Maupassant. And I love Hempel and Carver and July and their minimal styles. I'm not sure I could put together any kind of critical theory about which succeeds more than the other, and which More...

0 comments like

Oct 24, 2010

Shelley rated it:

My introduction to Amy Hempel began with In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried. After reading her collected stories, this one is still my favorite; it was her very first published short story and it is probably the best short story I've ever read, if not the most poignant. It is obvious that each sentence that Hempel writes is carefully constructed, each word deliberate. I imagined her keeping a notebook with her at all times, writing every profound thought or idea that entered her mind and More...

0 comments like

Feb 12, 2011

Andrew added it

Amy Hempel is a beautifully spare writer. This seems to be the consensus, and I agree with it. Her sentences are clipped and imagistic, and it's hard not to make Raymond Carver comparisons. But there was a great wake of Carver clones in the '80s, and Ms. Hempel is, unfortunately, not nearly as talented. Carver was able to make his empty descriptions pulse with life and truth, whereas Hempel's leave me wanting something more.

I can't argue with her stylistic skill, but her narrativ More...

0 comments like

Nov 12, 2008

Michelle rated it:

Pre-review:
I think I'm in love.

Review:
Fans of the short story will love Amy Hempel. Fans of good writing will love Amy Hempel.

She says so much, yet her language is completely uncluttered. These stories need to be read slowly so that they may be savored. I almost want to reread the whole collection so that I can pick up anything I may have missed the first time around.

8 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 26, 2011

Henry added it

Stylistically instructive. Substantially unfulfilling, excepting "The Dog of the Marriage" and "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried." Like Adam Johnson and other well-researched modern eclectics, there's a lack of moral vision, an encompassing system or direction in the writer's worldview. (I don't believe in post-postmodern values. It doesn't have to be absurd or un-invested to be new. Old values like family can be fresh values.) These are variations on the same superf More...

0 comments like

Nov 03, 2008

Rauan rated it:

Really good (incredibly good) in places but all-in-all not so good. And worse, often boring. Someone with impeccable taste should compile a Selected.

Also, reading through other reviews I see that someone refers to the introduction, by Rick Moody, as "annoying":
that's exactly right.

0 comments like

Dec 03, 2011

Morgan rated it:

ok so wondering, why, so many of the authors i am loving are alum of yaddo in saratoga. my aunt has a rental on lake saratoga, have only driven by this magical yaddo, that over its life time has pumped out so many good books.
in fact, the first time i read dog of the marriage and tumble home, i was sleeping on the floor at lake saratoga, feeling like some of the stories were being told from this town. when i figured out yaddo was right down the fucking street from where i was lounging, zip More...

0 comments like

Oct 17, 2008

Jude rated it:

i have loved this writer since The Most Girl Part of You many years ago, and treasure her paperbacks, but didn't realize til this book came out how respected she was by other writers. This is amazing short fiction, this is language as a precise and startling joy.

0 comments like

Jan 12, 2009

Marielle rated it:

Amy Hempel, as also described by the forwarding writer, aches as she words each sentence. Each sentence does ache of something- heartbreak, sickness, fear, death, fear of death, fear of being alone. And she loves her dogs. A lot of her stories are set around her home that is near a cemetery, but this landscape is often overshadowed by the misfortune in her life anyway. She is not depressing to read, but cynical and hopeful for a new day, one that she can rely her dog to be there to share wit More...

0 comments like

Dec 23, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Wow! I'm not sure there is anything else to say. These stories were stunning and it was obvious that Hempel has heavily influenced authors whom I admire like Amiee Bender and Etgar Keret, not to mention almost all of my friends who write. Everything that happens is strange and funny and a little bit sad. It is like all the characters are following their own internal dialogues to its natural and absurd conclusion. They are all figuring out how to care for one another and themselves in a world ful More...

0 comments like

Feb 08, 2010

Alex rated it:

These stories are all about touch and resonance, carefully chosen words and images dropped into still pools of memory and left to ripple outward, poetic and beautiful.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)