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209th out of 731 books
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492 voters
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The Nimrod Flipout: Stories
by
Etgar Keret
From Israel's most popular and acclaimed young writer--"Stories that are short, strange, funny, deceptively casual in tone and affect, stories that sound like a joke but aren't" (Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi)
Already featured on This American Life and Selected Shorts and in Zoetrope: All Story and L.A. Weekly, these short stories include a man who finds...more
Paperback, 176 pages
Published
April 4th 2006
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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after reading: Right, here is the thing about short stories: I just don't like them. And here is why: short stories (like long stories) are either good – and you wonder why the writer didn't just keep writing because now you are really interested in these characters/this scenario/the voice/whatever – or they are not good, and you wonder why you wasted your time.
It should come as no surprise that I, as expected, put our friend Etgar in the former category. Many of these stories are re...more
It should come as no surprise that I, as expected, put our friend Etgar in the former category. Many of these stories are re...more
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I had no expectations when I picked up this collection of short stories. It was, along with other books, a surprise gift from a friend–would I like the books? Would I like the stories? I wondered. And oh boy–I certainly do like the stories in this collection!
Etgar Keret is now on my radar–his writing reminds me of Aimee Bender’s short stories, whimsical and so reminiscent of fairy tales, only with a very dark twist. (For instance, a story entitled “Pride and Joy” is about a boy who k...more
Etgar Keret is now on my radar–his writing reminds me of Aimee Bender’s short stories, whimsical and so reminiscent of fairy tales, only with a very dark twist. (For instance, a story entitled “Pride and Joy” is about a boy who k...more
I reviewed this for a class I was in so I thought I'd post my revieweven if it is a little to long:
Young Israeli men, their penises, lovers, pets, and business deals are the subjects of this collection of short and very short short stories. Keret speeds through the lives of his lonely characters barely stopping for plot and refusing conclusions but making plenty of space for some phenomenally funny details of Israeli urban life. His characters “puke chopped liver” and encounter a pes...more
Young Israeli men, their penises, lovers, pets, and business deals are the subjects of this collection of short and very short short stories. Keret speeds through the lives of his lonely characters barely stopping for plot and refusing conclusions but making plenty of space for some phenomenally funny details of Israeli urban life. His characters “puke chopped liver” and encounter a pes...more
Maybe this just got too built up for me or something, but... I get it, the tone sounds flippant but it really isn't. That gets kind of samey. Shrug.
I hate to be lazy and quote a critic’s review of a book I just read, but it’s this or nothing. Anyway, Joseph Weisberg in the newest NYT Book Review critiques Keret’s “latest” collection (early work recently released in the US), “The Girl on the Fridge.” Near the end of his review Weisberg states, “If you haven’t read Keret, start with his 2006 collection, “The Nimrod Flipout.” It shows him more fully in command, better able to connect his style to the emotion that lies beneath.” Having only rea...more
I know I'm naive and American (but I'm not ignorant) but Israel's got some funny writers going on. Etgar Keret isn't as hard-hitting and poignant as, say, Sam Lypsite, but he does have that sly hetero-in-love "buddy humor" thing like the narrator Teabag and his friend drug dealer friend Gary in 'Homeland', and a perfect sense of comic timing. The stories in this are usually no more than 3 pages, but each has some delicate bit of truth in it that keeps such a story in your head. Kere...more
Like a box of chocolate truffles, each bite sized, complex, and mouthwatering
I am at a loss for how to describe Etgar Keret’s work to those who’ve yet to have the pleasure. To comment merely on his stories brevity – the longest I believe comes in at perhaps eight pages and thirty fill this slim volume – would make him seem too much the trickster, a writer with a gag instead of the extraordinary story teller one will meet in “The Nimrod Flipout.” Perhaps instead I might offer exampl...more
I am at a loss for how to describe Etgar Keret’s work to those who’ve yet to have the pleasure. To comment merely on his stories brevity – the longest I believe comes in at perhaps eight pages and thirty fill this slim volume – would make him seem too much the trickster, a writer with a gag instead of the extraordinary story teller one will meet in “The Nimrod Flipout.” Perhaps instead I might offer exampl...more
This is an utterly fantastic collection. I've long been meaning to read some Keret and am so glad that I've finally gotten here. He's capable of doing one of the most challenging things in writing with surprising ease and agility: humor. And not just a smile, but pure laughter, rising on accident, despite suppression and embarrassment at being in public with a bus full of people who don't speak your language.
He gets there through situations. It's not a single sentence that makes you ...more
He gets there through situations. It's not a single sentence that makes you ...more
Within Israeli letters Etgar Keret apparently occupies a sphere of his own. Kind of Raymond Carver like in not only his use of the short story but also in the somberness of tone and subject matter Keret also has definitely learned some things from the schools of magical realism and absurd fiction, and all to his benefit.
Keret's stories, while not all equally brilliant are all substantive and intriguing as all hell. Starting from a basic premise and giving it a simple but integral dar...more
Keret's stories, while not all equally brilliant are all substantive and intriguing as all hell. Starting from a basic premise and giving it a simple but integral dar...more
I'm not sure how many stars to give this book, because I only liked 2 of the stories in it, but fuck it, those 2 were really good stories!
I'm more interested in Goodreads as a way to share enthusiasm and excitement than I am in a network of Pedagocial Pedigree.
So... If you like short stories then you might really like this book, but I wouldn't g out and buy it. I'd borrow it from your cousin, and then lend it to a friend. Hell, I'd lend it to you, if Mya ever gives it back to me.
...more
I'm more interested in Goodreads as a way to share enthusiasm and excitement than I am in a network of Pedagocial Pedigree.
So... If you like short stories then you might really like this book, but I wouldn't g out and buy it. I'd borrow it from your cousin, and then lend it to a friend. Hell, I'd lend it to you, if Mya ever gives it back to me.
...more
My wife watched old episodes of Real Housewives. I finished this book.
This is a collection of short stories, some absurd, some pointless, some funny, some dull.
It's really hard to figure out how much I did or didn't like this book. The cover alone sold me on reading the book, and there are times when it almost reaches the heights of absurdity that a picture of a short man in a bunny suit who has just shotgunned a bunch of fat birds promises. With the exception of the stor...more
This is a collection of short stories, some absurd, some pointless, some funny, some dull.
It's really hard to figure out how much I did or didn't like this book. The cover alone sold me on reading the book, and there are times when it almost reaches the heights of absurdity that a picture of a short man in a bunny suit who has just shotgunned a bunch of fat birds promises. With the exception of the stor...more
My second collection of short stories by Keret this year (see my review of The Girl on the Fridge). As in the other book, The Nimrod Flip Out is a set of thirty ultra-short “stories” categorized as quirky, absurdist, and minimalist. These stories often present slices of life (or in some cases, slices of slices of life) filled with strangeness meant to emphasize the absurdities of life and life’s situations and the emotions that fill these situations. Overall, I found this to be a stronger collec...more
love love love. some of the best short stories I have ever read. Read this book now! there is a story about the craters on the moon that will take your breath away.
Why did I buy The Nimrod Flipout? Look at the cover, and look at that name. It just seemed so unique and inviting. The Nimrod Flipout is just a bunch of short stories, and some really short stories - like, 2 pages short. The author doesn't really seem to care that much. He comes up with a good, kooky idea or two, or a keen observation or two, and that's a story. Write a real novel and then I'd have something to discuss. Still, the next time you're lost in a bookstore and bored, maybe you'll pick...more
He never lets you settle in, which I don't love, but which he intends, so I try to be forgiving. Full of the awesomes, though, regardless of my prejudice.
Great selection of short stories, which felt less like reading and more like sitting in a bar listening to the funniest guy you know tell you stories. Not even very funny stories in particular, but... The kind that, given the right storyteller, suddenly become humorous. Also, because it's like listening to your friend tell you stories, it feels so familiar that you kind of sit back and accept everything as it comes. Even when it comes to talking fish, shrinking humans and people giving birth to ...more
I think of Keret as the Israeli Murakami, when Murakami's good, that is. Stick with it to the end: the last five stories are especially rewarding.
wow someone out there totally understands my slightly demented sense of humor...ok, completely demented!
I find it hard to believe that I picked up this book just because of the crazy cover art (a mournful looking little fat guy with a smoking rifle surrounded by dead birds). The short stories in this book are amazingly well crafted and extremely powerful. The oddness could leave me a bit befuddled, but in a good way if that makes any sense. Sometimes something is so well written you just get pissed you haven't written anything like that. Sometimes it's so much better than even that and you jus...more
Reviewed at my blog:
I finished The Nimrod Flipout while sitting in my mechanic's office as he patched our tire. Keret's stories are the short, sharp kind that can be killed off in that brief an interval and in such a magnificent place. The last time I chuckled aloud so much at a book was when I discovered David Sedaris. Keret deals in a homey sort of magical realism as if magic was merely the hook for a joke. Really, you should go read some; it will only take a minute.
I finished The Nimrod Flipout while sitting in my mechanic's office as he patched our tire. Keret's stories are the short, sharp kind that can be killed off in that brief an interval and in such a magnificent place. The last time I chuckled aloud so much at a book was when I discovered David Sedaris. Keret deals in a homey sort of magical realism as if magic was merely the hook for a joke. Really, you should go read some; it will only take a minute.
Well, first off you need to know how hard it is to write a short story to appreciate the beauty and craft of these. Not that I could do it, but looking at the reviews by people who say Keret "just doesn't care" is infuriating to me…
These are beautiful and kooky and hurtful. I cried more than once, which was more than I laughed. I loved this book. I wanted to read through the whole thing in a night, but it requires time to digest, even the really short stories. I know I didn't...more
These are beautiful and kooky and hurtful. I cried more than once, which was more than I laughed. I loved this book. I wanted to read through the whole thing in a night, but it requires time to digest, even the really short stories. I know I didn't...more
these stories are surreal, hilarious and beautiful. most of the stories are only a few pages so it's a great subway read. the sort of make-believe element might be off-putting to some people, and i agree that it can be frustrating to be introduced to characters in such strange situations with no explanations of what got them there. but the absurdity, i think, allows the the author to isolate these very specific aspects of human emotion. even if it is literally impossible to relate to the circums...more
My 2010 bookcrossing review:
I really enjoyed this book. I remember reading a newspaper review years and years ago and thinking it sounded quite interesting. It's a book of short stories, and they're well-written, fun, a bit quirky to the point of some kind of magical realism at time, and really quite humourous. They're by an Israeli writer, Etgar Keret, who I'd not heard of, but to be fair, I can't think of any other Israeli writers right now. Most of these stories are about everyday l...more
I really enjoyed this book. I remember reading a newspaper review years and years ago and thinking it sounded quite interesting. It's a book of short stories, and they're well-written, fun, a bit quirky to the point of some kind of magical realism at time, and really quite humourous. They're by an Israeli writer, Etgar Keret, who I'd not heard of, but to be fair, I can't think of any other Israeli writers right now. Most of these stories are about everyday l...more
In preparation for my first trip to Israel I picked up this collection of short stories. Keret is unafraid and daring in his style, and this surely resonates even after the translation. These stories are all only a few pages, and within their satirical absurdity are hidden a multitude of deeper truths. The limited length of the stories can actually detract from what would otherwise be a truly amazing composition, and the frequent stops and starts make it difficult to establish a rhythm until ...more
The main plot from Tatia Rosenthal's $9.99 (2008) is technically adapted from several of the short stories here. I said technical because the attraction of Etgar Keret's short stories (besides being ridiculously good looking for a writer) is his ability to construct a fantasy that seems so palpable and possible, and as a result the film differs from it by taking another route into pure abstraction. 'hmm, all the characters and props are the same, but somehow I feel like I'm reading something com...more
The fish shut up again and so did I. Almost a minute later, it added, "Never mind, forget it, I'm depressed."
Halibut was probably my favorite story and I must remember to order the talking fish next time I eat out... though in my case it will probably be a talking crab since I prefer the company of crabs over fish. Fish are just... too snooty.
The title story, The Nimrod Flipout reminded me of me and now I realize that my troubles could be due to my close circle ...more
Halibut was probably my favorite story and I must remember to order the talking fish next time I eat out... though in my case it will probably be a talking crab since I prefer the company of crabs over fish. Fish are just... too snooty.
The title story, The Nimrod Flipout reminded me of me and now I realize that my troubles could be due to my close circle ...more
I make no secret of the fact that I'm a huge fan of the short story. There's something uniquely satisfying for me about digesting a complete piece in a single sitting, then possibly even re-reading it a second or third time to pick up on the subtleties I may have missed the first time through. Furthermore, I think short fiction is a true test of a writer's skill, since there's a very limited space to achieve one's purpose, construct a satisfying plot, and flesh out one's characters. I think that...more
This was a really pleasant surprise. Keret's stories are hilarious and full of the fantastic, but they're grounded it something that makes them more than just quick larks. Keret has the talent to pack a lot of meaning and a lot of craft into these short stories, some of which are only three or four pages long, all of which are immensely readable and almost addictive.
What fascinates me, though, is the sheer prevalence of Germans. Keret's stories generally involve outsiders, but none s...more
What fascinates me, though, is the sheer prevalence of Germans. Keret's stories generally involve outsiders, but none s...more
This is a collection of (very) short stories by an Israeli named Etgar Keret. The stories in this book are deceptively simple, almost bordering on parable, and they are excellent, on the whole. Keret's writing is intuitive; he makes telling stories look easy. Despite only having a couple pages to work with in most stories, he manages to make it connect emotionally almost every time. Of course, there were some stories I didn't care for, and some I wasn't smart enough to "get," but the n...more
I both did and did not like this book. I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoy viewing abstract/avant-garde art - the premises and twists and turns in these short stories are so off-the-wall they open your mind in different directions, and that's usually a good thing. However, more often than not, these extremely short stories (typically no more than 3 pages long) depend upon some perversion as their hook, which gets boring and predictable. In many cases, a story starts out solidly with an almost t...more
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Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television.
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“It's amazing how people can sound like retards when they're talking to their girlfriend, especially if they really love her a lot. Because when you're just fucking someone you make a point of keeping your cool, but when you're really in love - it can sound pretty repulsive.”
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110 people liked it
“According to Gur's theory of boredom, everything that happens in the world today is because of boredom: love, war, inventions, fake fireplaces - ninety-five percent of all that is pure boredom.”
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11 people liked it
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