Heather read and liked Mindy's review of Three Lives (Signet Classic):

"So, I got through the first story, "The Good Anna," without too much strain thanks to the helpful introduction in this edition that explains Stein's repetitive writing style. I wasn't particularly impressed, but I enjoy reading older fictio...more So, I got through the first story, "The Good Anna," without too much strain thanks to the helpful introduction in this edition that explains Stein's repetitive writing style. I wasn't particularly impressed, but I enjoy reading older fiction as much for the window into how life looked in the past as for the story. Again thanks to the introduction, I was prepared for the inevitably racist caricatures of black folks in "Melanctha" and was looking forward to what the intro author suggested was the most developed character of the women in these stories. But sweet jeebus I don't know how I made it through that story without poking my freaking eyes out!!!! Melanctha and Jeff had the same accusatory conversation over and over and over and over and (at least one more) OVER again. The exact same phrases and sentences over and over, etc. It was excruiating. I ended up getting through it like I sometimes had to get through not drinking--second by second, minute by minute, this too shall pass, measuring the least little progression, you're almost there, look you did one more page! "The Gentle Lena" was a blessing after that ordeal, and I liked it much better than the other two but I can't tell if it's because the story was better or I was just relieved that it and the repetitive dialogue passages were so much shorter. I hate to say it, but if the rest of Stein's writing is this tedious I may have to risk my pink card and forgo The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.

One a personal note, as I was rolling my eyes while Melanctha and Jeff went through the exact same argument with each other for the bazillionth time, I was also thinking about how if someone went back through my journal they would do the same thing as they read over and over my back and forth codependent obsessing about whichever guy I was with at the time b/c it all reads exactly the same, just fill in the appropriate name. *how embarrassing*(less) "

Heather read and liked Scroutch's review of Three Lives (Dover Thrift Editions):

"Melanctha was a very short story that was good. Melanctha was a very short story that was repetitive but good. Melanctha was a story about a woman whose life was very short, repetitive, and not always good. "