Sam's review
The Dead Fish Museum: Stories by Charles D'Ambrosio
Sam's review
rating:
bookshelves: shortfiction
recommended for: short story fans, humans
status: Read in March, 2007
rating:
bookshelves: shortfiction
recommended for: short story fans, humans
status: Read in March, 2007
D'Ambrosio is really doing fine work in this collection. While nothing's quite as good as the opener "The High Divide", which was featured in the 2006 O'Henry stories, both "Up North" and "The Screenwriter" demonstrate his versatility with wildly different types of story; the first is an extremely coldly-drawn bit of naturalism about a husband obsessing over his wife's adolescent rape while hunting with her father, the latter a creepy, surrealistic story about a screenwriter in and out of a psychiatric ward, and his attraction to a former ballerina with self-mutilation issues. Most writers tend to find one of these poles and stick to them; this collection shows D'Ambrosio's skill at inhabiting almost every style of contemporary short fiction. Highly recommended!
