You Must Be This Happy to Enter (Punk Planet Books)
by Elizabeth Crane
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 221)
Read in April, 2008
I think they front-loaded this Chicago native's collection with the really good stories, the rest are all kind of average. "My Life is Awesome! And Great!" only uses exclamation points and question marks to end sentences, another is about a woman from my hometown of Lombard, Il who is turned into a zombie after getting bit at JoAnn Fabrics and then stars on the reality show "Starting Over." That story also mentions the Container Store. Another good piece is just notes for...more
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Read in February, 2008
In her third collection, Elizabeth Crane explores through a range of edgy, fantastical stories what it means to be unironically happy...sometimes ironically, sometimes not. Each premise is boldly imaginative -- a zombie tries televised therapy; an entire town turns transparent, then gentrifies; the perfect guy not only leaves his girlfriend but encourages your stalker-like behavior; people get arrested for being happy, fired for being sincere. I applaud the author for managing to call our cyn...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
People who like books
With a title like You Must be This Happy to Enter, you might expect bucket loads of bitter irony. This third collection of stories by Elizabeth Crane is actually filled with laugh out loud humor, strange turns of events and stories that look realistically at the world, while maintaining the belief that life is worth living.
These stories are some of the best I have read in years, and remind me of another favorite, Ted Chiang. Like Chiang, Crane sets up bizarre situations (a woman goes through...more
These stories are some of the best I have read in years, and remind me of another favorite, Ted Chiang. Like Chiang, Crane sets up bizarre situations (a woman goes through...more
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Read in March, 2008
oh my god! this book is so irritatingly cutesy-angsty-hipster-overly-everything! the first story features an exclamation mark after each sentence! how does this shit get published without the editors retching all over the manuscripts?!
sorry. i hope you didn't like it.
sorry. i hope you didn't like it.
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11 comments
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone
I'm just a little over halfway through this, and I'm already going to give it five stars. I've been glued to this on the G train. I want the G train to keep going so I can finish these stories before I have to read other things for my day job.
The title's perfectly apt: YOU MUST BE THIS HAPPY TO ENTER, with a happy bunny/precious moments creature staring at you from the cover, arms spread wide like a kid who can grasp the concepts of measurement to some basic degree. While these are stories ...more
The title's perfectly apt: YOU MUST BE THIS HAPPY TO ENTER, with a happy bunny/precious moments creature staring at you from the cover, arms spread wide like a kid who can grasp the concepts of measurement to some basic degree. While these are stories ...more
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Read in February, 2008
I've been a huge fan of Elizabeth Crane since When the Messenger is Hot. I appreciate the experimentation she does with the short story form -- it's like reading good performance art. It's exhilarating, weird, and daring, and above all, relentlessly contemporary.
This collection's best stories experiment with the completely mythical and the completely mundane (e.g., zombies and reality TV). Throughout, Crane has a devastatingly keen ear for modern language in all its hipster-ironic di...more
This collection's best stories experiment with the completely mythical and the completely mundane (e.g., zombies and reality TV). Throughout, Crane has a devastatingly keen ear for modern language in all its hipster-ironic di...more
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Read in February, 2008
As another reviewer here said, given this title of this book, you may be afraid that this book drips with so much irony that it will slip out of your hands as you read it. Don't be. Irony is there at times, but it's applied with a light hand, and Crane is about as funny and surefooted a writer as you'll find, without any of the arch, forced style that infects a lot of short story writers of her generation. And best of all, I'm damned if these stories don't actually give me some hope.
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
happy people, unhappy people
How hard is it to write stories about happy people? Hard. Crane took on the challenge with this book and did a fine and multitextured job. These stories are zany and sweet and funny. And I give Crane major props for continuing to define for herself what "story" can be, for refusing to squash her sensibility and style into any safe, prescribed form.
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Read in July, 2008
My brother just came back from Greece, where he apparently had some kind of life-changing Greek salad, and now he is sad every time he has to eat American produce. I just finished an A.S. Byatt anthology, and I could not bear to read more than four of the stories in this book. I'm not going to rate this one because I have no idea whether it was any good; all I know is that the level of hyper hipster ironic post-modernism here (a story consisti...more
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Read in May, 2008
I adore Crane's previous two short story collections, When the Messenger is Hot and All This Heavenly Glory. This one didn't connect with me. There's a lot of generic weirdness (mysterious words appear on a girl's forehead, an entire town turns transparent) but I felt these stories don't feel grounded or deep. My favorite, "What Our Week Was Like," feels complete as it quickly sketches, in Crane's trademark rattle-trap rambling, how a typical college girl slides into alcoholism, but th...more
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Read in May, 2008
I attended a reading by the author in Lincoln Square and had to grab the book. Elizabeth Crane is witty and the stories are the perfect length for my bus ride, while still having enough room to stretch out. I really dig the changes in format and tone, it really creates a separation of the stories not just in theme alone. I appreciated the inventiveness of the portrayal of a wide variety of stories of people and what makes them happy. I also appreciated being able to laugh at/with her characters,...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
women, men who love women, zombies who love TV reality shows
I don't remember how I found this book! But I'm sure glad I did! Otherwise, I wouldn't know about the marital difficulties of a man and Betty his reality-TV loving wife, who happens to be also a zombie! I wouldn't know the stranger than life story of BLUE GIRL, who was afflicted/blessed by having random words appear on her forehead! In short, I wouldn't know about the bizarre stories that appear not on Elizabeth Crane's head, but from it! Now I'm grateful to have read about Donovan's Closet, but...more
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Read in March, 2008
I was a fan of Crane's previous two books of short stories, and her newest is very similar--lots of run-on sentences, quirky characters, and odd situations. Some of the more gimmicky stories (every sentence in "My Life is Great! And Awesome!" ends with--you guessed it--an exclamation point) got on my nerves a little, but for every one like that, there was one like "Promise," that made me wish I'd written it myself.
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So I was very excited to see this is in stores now (just found it at Borders) but now that such a huge percentage of my Goodreads friends are Chicago-affiliated authors, and I haven't read THEIR books yet, I can't in good conscience read this one first...anyway, I've heard and loved many of these at literary events in the last few years, so looking forward to eventually reading it...
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Read in February, 2008
so excited about this book! she's an all time favorite of mine...and a local artist as well.
it did not disappoint. funny, bizarre and smart. can't be a better combination.
the stories all revolved around the idea of what happiness is to someone or all people. is it fleeting, relative, vulnerable, superficial or contrite. all this without being depressing.
it did not disappoint. funny, bizarre and smart. can't be a better combination.
the stories all revolved around the idea of what happiness is to someone or all people. is it fleeting, relative, vulnerable, superficial or contrite. all this without being depressing.
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Read in March, 2008
I tried to like this book, but I couldn't. Maybe it's the part of me that rejects fantasy situations. I mean, c'mon, there's a story called "Betty the Zombie" about a woman who gets on a reality show to deal with her "human flesh eating issues." Who knows, maybe you're into that kind of thing, so decide for yourself.
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Jim S., Christina McV.
Crazy wacked out stories! How fun! Oh yeah!
I don't even know where to start. Just read it. They're all pretty short.
The zombie on a reality show, the town where everything became clear, the baby who overnight turns into an adult-baby Ethan Hawke.
Read it!
I don't even know where to start. Just read it. They're all pretty short.
The zombie on a reality show, the town where everything became clear, the baby who overnight turns into an adult-baby Ethan Hawke.
Read it!
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Read in August, 2008
I am not usually a short story girl, but this book is amazing. I've laughed out loud at pretty much every story so far. Some of them are just plain weird, some are poignant, but they've all got this... someething to them that makes them freaking amazing. Go read it now!
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Read in February, 2008
Crane's experiment with writing stories about happy people is interesting, but there are some diminishing returns here. Her previous two collections moved me more. (Perhaps the shock of the new has faded, and that fact is to blame.)
That said, some stories still shine.
That said, some stories still shine.
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Read in February, 2008
Brave and funny meditations that start out with an engaging premise, a brilliant set up, and then plumb the depths, worries and hopes of the human heart.
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