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Thunderstruck & Other Stories
From the author of the beloved novel The Giant’s House—finalist for the National Book Award—comes a beautiful new story collection, her first in twenty years. Laced through with the humor, the empathy, and the rare and magical descriptive powers that have led Elizabeth McCracken’s fiction to be hailed as “exquisite” (The New York Times Book Review), “funny and heartbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “a true marvel” (San Francisco Chronicle), these nine vibrant stories navigate the fragile space between love and loneliness. In “Property,” selected by Geraldine Brooks for The Best American Short Stories, a young scholar, grieving the sudden death of his wife, decides to refurbish the Maine rental house they were to share together by removing his landlord’s possessions. In “Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey,” the household of a successful filmmaker is visited years later by his famous first subject, whose trust he betrayed. In “The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston,” the manager of a grocery store becomes fixated on the famous case of a missing local woman, and on the fate of the teenage son she left behind. And in the unforgettable title story, a family makes a quixotic decision to flee to Paris for a summer, only to find their lives altered in an unimaginable way by their teenage daughter’s risky behavior.
In Elizabeth McCracken’s universe, heartache is always interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy—an unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accent—that remind us of the wonder and mystery of being alive. Thunderstruck & Other Stories shows this inimitable writer working at the full height of her powers.
In Elizabeth McCracken’s universe, heartache is always interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy—an unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accent—that remind us of the wonder and mystery of being alive. Thunderstruck & Other Stories shows this inimitable writer working at the full height of her powers.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published April 22, 2014
153 people are currently reading
5850 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth McCracken
46 books986 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Elizabeth McCracken (born 1966) is an American author. She is married to the novelist Edward Carey, with whom she has two children - August George Carey Harvey and Matilda Libby Mary Harvey. An earlier child died before birth, an experience which formed the basis for McCracken's memoir, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination.
McCracken, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, and holds a degree in library science from Simmons College, a women's college in Boston. McCracken currently lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she is an artist-in-residence at Skidmore College. She is the sister of PC World magazine editor-in-chief Harry McCracken.
Elizabeth McCracken (born 1966) is an American author. She is married to the novelist Edward Carey, with whom she has two children - August George Carey Harvey and Matilda Libby Mary Harvey. An earlier child died before birth, an experience which formed the basis for McCracken's memoir, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination.
McCracken, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated from Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts, and holds a degree in library science from Simmons College, a women's college in Boston. McCracken currently lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she is an artist-in-residence at Skidmore College. She is the sister of PC World magazine editor-in-chief Harry McCracken.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 443 reviews
May 10, 2014
There are a few things I ask myself after reading a book of short stories: are they complete in and of themselves and will I remember any of them? In this book I have to say, yes. Brilliantly constructed with memorable characters and plots, there were none that I actively disliked.
I found the first story, "Something Amazing", haunting. "Property" is an amazing story about the many different ways we grieve. "Juliet" is set in a library, which is where I work and so many of the comments were very identifiable, a strange murder and the death of a rabbit, make this one I will remember. It is the title story that had the biggest impact on me as a mother, a horrible accident, the victim a daughter and a mother and a father who differ on how viable her future will be.
All these stories are about ordinary people confronting a tragedy and the ways they react to this. This collection has a common and relatable theme and it is a theme that we all face at one time or another.
I found the first story, "Something Amazing", haunting. "Property" is an amazing story about the many different ways we grieve. "Juliet" is set in a library, which is where I work and so many of the comments were very identifiable, a strange murder and the death of a rabbit, make this one I will remember. It is the title story that had the biggest impact on me as a mother, a horrible accident, the victim a daughter and a mother and a father who differ on how viable her future will be.
All these stories are about ordinary people confronting a tragedy and the ways they react to this. This collection has a common and relatable theme and it is a theme that we all face at one time or another.
July 22, 2014
Short story collections are often described as lovely, and if they're short story collections by women they're almost ALWAYS described as lovely. (A novelist of my acquaintance, much published, a lady, told me that with each new book the art department offers a jacket design of a woman, seen from behind, on a beach, whether there's a beach in the book or not.) Well, this is a short story collection by a woman, and it's not lovely,not at all. It's dangerous, partly because it says, in a handful of ways, that grief is neutral, that it is not something we "process", or "work through", that it is ever-present and in some ways stronger as time passes. McCracken DRAMATIZES this (pardon the capitals, but Goodreads seems to forbid italics); she never says it. In her dramatizations this ruling principle sticks to the bone. This is a book about people to whom something terrible has happened, and who are powerless to do anything to stop it, or to make sense of it, or to get beyond it. It is about endless loneliness, and the impossibility of ever being understood. And it is wildly entertaining. I laughed out loud a dozen times, and I often ran to my screen because something she'd done on the page made me want to BE her, to write like her, to be able to see things, however briefly, that way. If I wasn't a writer THUNDERSTRUCK would make me want to become one. As it is, it makes me want to be a better one.
May 6, 2015
A quirky and aromatic collection of short stories that I wish I liked more. McCracken centers her writing on themes of loss: a young academic who grieves the death of his wife, a sharp grandmother who loses her son and attends to his daughter, a married couple whose daughter partakes in risky behavior that results in an end to her innocence, and more. McCracken approaches death from several different angles, each one a unique perspective that pulls you into the characters' lives and stories.
Despite McCracken's vibrant writing, I felt an odd distance from her characters, as if I had heard about their sorrows from a friend as opposed to witnessing them up close. "Some Terpischore," a story about a woman who leaves her abusive lover, and "Thunderstruck," the title piece that revolves around a family's reckless daughter, compelled me the most with honest, tender emotion. But the other pieces blurred together for me. Even though they all had distinct plots, their tones came across as too muted for my taste.
Overall, a short story collection I would recommend to anyone who feels curious after reading its synopsis. While this set might not have worked for me, I do admire McCracken's writing style, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Despite McCracken's vibrant writing, I felt an odd distance from her characters, as if I had heard about their sorrows from a friend as opposed to witnessing them up close. "Some Terpischore," a story about a woman who leaves her abusive lover, and "Thunderstruck," the title piece that revolves around a family's reckless daughter, compelled me the most with honest, tender emotion. But the other pieces blurred together for me. Even though they all had distinct plots, their tones came across as too muted for my taste.
Overall, a short story collection I would recommend to anyone who feels curious after reading its synopsis. While this set might not have worked for me, I do admire McCracken's writing style, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
April 24, 2014
It took me less than twelve hours to devour these luminous short stories of bittersweet losses and vengeful ghosts. My favorite story here is “Property,” which I had already encountered in The Best American Short Stories 2011. As a serial renter, I appreciated (and cringed at) the descriptions of the dump the recently widowed protagonist finds himself inhabiting: “The ad should have read:
For rent, six-room hovel
... Or:
Wanted: gullible tenant for small house
... Or:
Available June: shithole
”; “The landlords had filled the house with all their worst belongings and said, This will be fine for other people.” Too true. I also loved the fact that the main character has taken on a project cataloguing ephemera, “constructing his little monument to impermanence” – what a perfect comment on what is lasting versus what disappears (here, his late wife and every material trace of her). The tone reminded me a lot of Anne Tyler’s The Beginner’s Goodbye.
A couple more stand-outs: In “Juliet,” narrated in the delightful first-person plural by the staff of a public library, an aloof patron with a secret family life is murdered by another town resident. The various members of staff respond to the news in disparate ways, at the same time as they deal with the death of the library’s pet rabbit, Kaspar (a friendly ghost?). “The House of Two Three-Legged Dogs” zeroes in on a nearly-bankrupt English family in rural France, their home overrun with pets. Though they may soon lose the house, their more pressing concerns are: selling a lemon of a car to fellow expats, and accepting delivery of an African gray parrot. It’s an unusual story, almost edging on the absurd – especially with the strangely clipped dialogue. I wondered if McCracken might have been influenced by Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart,” another French story that pivots on the receipt of a parrot.
Last but certainly not least: the title story is my other favorite. Wes and Laura are at their wits’ end with their rebellious twelve-year-old daughter, Helen, and decide a five-week sojourn in a Parisian apartment might be the best way for the whole family (including younger daughter Kit) to reconnect. However, an accident divides the family, marooning two of them in Paris and sending two back to the States. The Parisian half starts to imagine a new life in France, envisioning “what to make of a diminished thing” (to quote Robert Frost). It remains uncertain whether cynicism or the miraculous will win out in the end. McCracken is terrific at closing lines (see her An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination , one of my very favorite books), and the last lines of this story, and thus of the whole collection, are wonderful:
In the words of Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” – it’s figuring out what to make of loss that is. These nine empathy-rich short stories go some way toward helping readers figure out what to do with it all.
A couple more stand-outs: In “Juliet,” narrated in the delightful first-person plural by the staff of a public library, an aloof patron with a secret family life is murdered by another town resident. The various members of staff respond to the news in disparate ways, at the same time as they deal with the death of the library’s pet rabbit, Kaspar (a friendly ghost?). “The House of Two Three-Legged Dogs” zeroes in on a nearly-bankrupt English family in rural France, their home overrun with pets. Though they may soon lose the house, their more pressing concerns are: selling a lemon of a car to fellow expats, and accepting delivery of an African gray parrot. It’s an unusual story, almost edging on the absurd – especially with the strangely clipped dialogue. I wondered if McCracken might have been influenced by Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart,” another French story that pivots on the receipt of a parrot.
Last but certainly not least: the title story is my other favorite. Wes and Laura are at their wits’ end with their rebellious twelve-year-old daughter, Helen, and decide a five-week sojourn in a Parisian apartment might be the best way for the whole family (including younger daughter Kit) to reconnect. However, an accident divides the family, marooning two of them in Paris and sending two back to the States. The Parisian half starts to imagine a new life in France, envisioning “what to make of a diminished thing” (to quote Robert Frost). It remains uncertain whether cynicism or the miraculous will win out in the end. McCracken is terrific at closing lines (see her An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination , one of my very favorite books), and the last lines of this story, and thus of the whole collection, are wonderful:
“[Wes] felt as though he were diving headfirst into happiness. It was a circus act, a perilous one. Happiness was a narrow tank. You had to make sure you cleared the lip.”
In the words of Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” – it’s figuring out what to make of loss that is. These nine empathy-rich short stories go some way toward helping readers figure out what to do with it all.
February 20, 2017
Αυτό το βιβλίο το είχα καιρό στην λίστα μου. Δεν μπορώ να θυμηθώ ποιες ήταν οι αναφορές που είχα, τι με παρακίνησε να το βάλω στα μελλοντικά μου αναγνώσματα, και από που το βρήκα. Το μόνο που ήξερα όταν το ξεκίνησα είναι πως πρόκειται για γυναίκα συγγραφέα και πως πρόκειται για μια συλλογή διηγημάτων.
Το εξώφυλλο μαρτυρά τις προθέσεις και το περιεχόμενο: literary fiction, μάλλον από κάποιο άρθρο των New York Times. Δεν έπεσα έξω και σίγουρα κάτι ήξερε ο πρότερος εαυτός μου, τότε, παλιά, που το επέλεξε. Εξαιρετικά, λοιπόν, τα κατάφερα μέχρις εδώ. Και παραπέρα δεν τα πήγα καθόλου άσχημα, καθώς διάβασα ένα εξαιρετικό βιβλίο. Από αυτά που είναι τόσο εντυπωσιακά, που πείθουν πολλών ειδών αναγνώστες. Εντυπωσιακό για τις ανατομικές ιδιότητες της ΜακΚράκεν πάνω σε όλων των ειδών ανθρώπους που μελετά, για την ευελιξία της να τρυπώνει σε όλες αυτές τις περιστάσεις, φερ ειπείν να κοιτάει από κοντά το Παρίσι με τα μάτια μια Αμερικάνικης οικογένειας, και να στέκεται την ίδια στιγμή μακριά, με ένα σημειωματάριο, καθοδηγώντας τους χαρακτήρες τις μέσα στις ιστορίες που σκαρφίζεται - τόσο κοινές, καθημερινές, αλλά τόσο αλλόκοτες καμιά φορά, με μικρές κλιμακώσεις να ωθούν τον αναγνώστη, να γυρνάει τις σελίδες.
Υπήρξε μια ιστορία, εκείνη με την βιβλιοθήκη -τίτλο δεν θυμάμαι- που με την καθολική φωνή του προσωπικού μου θύμησε τόσο πολύ Μιλχάουζερ, και ήταν απολαυστικά αινιγματική, με πειραγμένες τις αφηγηματικές της ράγες.
Χαίρομαι όταν εκπλήσσομαι ευχάριστα, ακόμα περισσότερο εντυπωσιάζομαι από έναν συγγραφέα που με βγάζει από την αναγνωστική μου βολή και τσαλαπατάει τις προσδοκίες μου. Ήμουν έτοιμος να καγχάσω πως θα διάβαζα κάτι γλυκανάλατο, από αυτά που διαβάζουν οι σικάτες κυρίες των προαστίων στις βόρειες πολιτείες και τελικά δάγκωσα την γλώσσα μου. Εξαιρετική η κυρία ΜακΚράκεν!
Το εξώφυλλο μαρτυρά τις προθέσεις και το περιεχόμενο: literary fiction, μάλλον από κάποιο άρθρο των New York Times. Δεν έπεσα έξω και σίγουρα κάτι ήξερε ο πρότερος εαυτός μου, τότε, παλιά, που το επέλεξε. Εξαιρετικά, λοιπόν, τα κατάφερα μέχρις εδώ. Και παραπέρα δεν τα πήγα καθόλου άσχημα, καθώς διάβασα ένα εξαιρετικό βιβλίο. Από αυτά που είναι τόσο εντυπωσιακά, που πείθουν πολλών ειδών αναγνώστες. Εντυπωσιακό για τις ανατομικές ιδιότητες της ΜακΚράκεν πάνω σε όλων των ειδών ανθρώπους που μελετά, για την ευελιξία της να τρυπώνει σε όλες αυτές τις περιστάσεις, φερ ειπείν να κοιτάει από κοντά το Παρίσι με τα μάτια μια Αμερικάνικης οικογένειας, και να στέκεται την ίδια στιγμή μακριά, με ένα σημειωματάριο, καθοδηγώντας τους χαρακτήρες τις μέσα στις ιστορίες που σκαρφίζεται - τόσο κοινές, καθημερινές, αλλά τόσο αλλόκοτες καμιά φορά, με μικρές κλιμακώσεις να ωθούν τον αναγνώστη, να γυρνάει τις σελίδες.
Υπήρξε μια ιστορία, εκείνη με την βιβλιοθήκη -τίτλο δεν θυμάμαι- που με την καθολική φωνή του προσωπικού μου θύμησε τόσο πολύ Μιλχάουζερ, και ήταν απολαυστικά αινιγματική, με πειραγμένες τις αφηγηματικές της ράγες.
Χαίρομαι όταν εκπλήσσομαι ευχάριστα, ακόμα περισσότερο εντυπωσιάζομαι από έναν συγγραφέα που με βγάζει από την αναγνωστική μου βολή και τσαλαπατάει τις προσδοκίες μου. Ήμουν έτοιμος να καγχάσω πως θα διάβαζα κάτι γλυκανάλατο, από αυτά που διαβάζουν οι σικάτες κυρίες των προαστίων στις βόρειες πολιτείες και τελικά δάγκωσα την γλώσσα μου. Εξαιρετική η κυρία ΜακΚράκεν!
August 21, 2014
The short stories in Elizabeth McCracken's great new collection, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, may not leave you feeling all shiny and happy inside, but you will find yourself marveling at her writing ability, and how she captivates and compels you in just a few short pages. These are stories that look at the bleaker side of life, love, and relationships, but many pack a serious punch.
Some of my favorites in this collection are: "Juliet," which tells the story of a community rocked by a murder, as narrated by staff from the library, who knew both the victim and the alleged murderer; "Property," about a young widower who moves into a dilapidated rental home and finds himself confronted by the detritus the landlord left behind; "The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston," told by the manager of a local grocery store, who feels a vested interest in the life of the teenage son of a missing woman; "Hungry," about a woman dealing with a dying son, an angry daughter, and a granddaughter who won't stop eating; and the title story (which is probably my favorite), about a family that flees to Paris in an attempt to curb their teenage daughter's rebellious behavior, and finds themselves affected in ways they could never imagine.
It has been a while since I've read one of McCracken's books, although I remember how much I enjoyed the wonderful The Giant's House a number of years ago, but I remember how much I love her storytelling skills. The stories in this collection hooked me pretty quickly, and left me thinking about them even as I went on to the next one. And even now, a few days after I've finished the collection, some of the stories—particularly the ones I've named above—have me wondering what happened to the characters when the stories ended.
If you're a short story fan, pick up Thunderstruck & Other Stories. The stories themselves might not make you joyful, but McCracken's writing certainly will.
Some of my favorites in this collection are: "Juliet," which tells the story of a community rocked by a murder, as narrated by staff from the library, who knew both the victim and the alleged murderer; "Property," about a young widower who moves into a dilapidated rental home and finds himself confronted by the detritus the landlord left behind; "The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston," told by the manager of a local grocery store, who feels a vested interest in the life of the teenage son of a missing woman; "Hungry," about a woman dealing with a dying son, an angry daughter, and a granddaughter who won't stop eating; and the title story (which is probably my favorite), about a family that flees to Paris in an attempt to curb their teenage daughter's rebellious behavior, and finds themselves affected in ways they could never imagine.
It has been a while since I've read one of McCracken's books, although I remember how much I enjoyed the wonderful The Giant's House a number of years ago, but I remember how much I love her storytelling skills. The stories in this collection hooked me pretty quickly, and left me thinking about them even as I went on to the next one. And even now, a few days after I've finished the collection, some of the stories—particularly the ones I've named above—have me wondering what happened to the characters when the stories ended.
If you're a short story fan, pick up Thunderstruck & Other Stories. The stories themselves might not make you joyful, but McCracken's writing certainly will.
February 4, 2017
Μερικούς μήνες πριν, πέτυχα κάπου μια πρόμο-καμπάνια της Penguin για διηγήματα, όπου για ένα διάστημα λάμβανες στο μέηλ σου ένα διήγημα από κάποια συλλογή που επέλεγαν οι αρμόδιοι. Κάθε διήγημα "έσπαγε" σε 4 μέρη κ έπαιρνες ένα την ημέρα. Όταν γράφτηκα έλαβα το πρώτο μέρος του "Juliet" απ'τη νέα συλλογή της Elizabeth McCracken, την οποία δεν γνώριζα μέχρι εκείνη τη στιγμή κ μου άρεσε τόσο πολύ το διήγημα που γρήγορα παρήγγειλα το βιβλίο για να διαβάσω κ τις υπόλοιπες ιστορίες της κ αποδείχτηκε ότι έκανα πολύ καλά.
Οι 9 ιστορίες που θα βρει κανείς εδώ συνδέονται νοηματικά κ ασχολούνται με υπέροχο τρόπο με την απώλεια κ τη θλίψη που την ακολουθεί αλλά η McCracken γράφει με τέτοια ακρίβεια που τα διηγήματα προσφέρουν πολλά περισσότερα από απλή θλίψη. Η συγγραφέας φαίνεται να ξέρει πόσο χιούμορ να προσθέσει στην αφήγησή της κ πως να ισορροπήσει τον λυρικό τρόπο της γραφής της με την εκάστοτε ματιά που ρίχνει στο θάνατο
Με εξαίρεση τα Some Terpsichore κ Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey που με άφησαν αδιάφορο παρόλο που καταλάβαινα το λόγο ύπαρξής τους (ειδικά το δεύτερο), οι υπόλοιπες ιστορίες είναι πολύ καλές (όπως το "Juliet" κ το "Hungry") ενώ τρεις είναι μικρά αριστουργήματα. Το Something Amazing που ανοίγει τη συλλογή είναι ένα ιδιαίτερο ghost story που κοιτάει το πένθος της μάνας που έχασε πρόωρα την κόρη της. Σίγουρα δεν πρόκειται για την πιο πρωτότυπη σύλληψη που θα συναντήσεις αλλά εκεί ξεδιπλώνει το ταλέντο της η συγγραφέας, παίρνοντας χιλιοειπωμένα θέματα κ γράφοντας για αυτά με ένα τρόπο που δεν χωράει σε καλούπια, δεν ακολουθεί κλισέ κ αποφεύγει, σχεδόν εντυπωσιακά, τους εύκολους συναισθηματισμούς. Οι ιστορίες της αφήνουν μικρές αχτίνες φωτός, είτε μέσω μιας υποιστορίας που κινείται γύρω απ'το κεντρικό θέμα, είτε μέσω μιας συνειδητοποίησης του αφηγητή. Τρανό παράδειγμα του τελευταίου το "Property" με το υπέροχο φινάλε. Παρόμοια χαρακτηριστικά βρίσκεις κ στο έντονο The House of Three-Legged Dogs με τη διαλυμένη οικογένεια που μαζεύει κατοικίδια κ πίνει σα να μην υπάρχει αύριο αλλά κ το The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston που θυμίζει σχολιασμό απο κάποιο βιβλίο του Delillo.
Η καλύτερη ιστορία όμως είναι η ομώνυμη που είναι κ η μεγαλύτερη σε όγκο. Η οικογένεια του Wes περνάει αρκετά δύσκολα με την 13χρ. κόρη τους που περνάει έντονη εφηβεία. Ο πατέρας θα αποφασίσει να πάρει την οικογένεια κ να περάσουν το καλοκαίρι στο Παρίσι για να πλησιάσουν ξανά την κόρη τους κ να λύσουν τα προβλήματά τους. Εδώ υπάρχουν οι κορυφαίες σελίδες του βιβλίου με τον πατέρα να είναι ένας καταπληκτικός ήρωας που συγκίνει θες-δεν θες. Ομολογώ ότι οι τελευταίες σελίδες μού έκαναν την καρδιά κομμάτια.
Διαβάζοντας λίγα πράγματα για την McCracken είδα ότι σχετικά πρόσφατα πέρασε κι αυτή μια μαύρη περίοδο αποβάλλοντας λίγο πριν γεννήσει κ φαίνεται πως αυτή η απώλεια αποτέλεσε την κύρια πηγή της έμπνευσή της. Πριν πολλά χρόνια ο Κ.Β. τραγουδούσε "Μην αφήσεις τη ζωή να σε πάρει από κάτω / τους φόβους που σε τρέφουν να τους κάνεις κάτι άλλο /κάνε τους ποίηση ή μηχανήματα σπουδαία" κ η αμερικανίδα αυτό κάνει κ με το παραπάνω.
Συστήνεται ανεπιφύλακτα λοιπόν σε όσους θέλουν να δοκιμάσουν συλλογές διηγημάτων, με μόνιμη υπενθύμιση όμως ότι αυτά τα βιβλία δεν διαβάζονται μονορούφι, σαν κεφάλαια ενός μυθιστορήματος αλλά σε μικρές καθημερινές δόσεις (μια ιστορία την ημέρα π.χ.). Μόνο έτσι μπορούν να παραμείνουν στη μνήμη μας, μόνο έτσι αξίζουν τον κόπο.
Οι 9 ιστορίες που θα βρει κανείς εδώ συνδέονται νοηματικά κ ασχολούνται με υπέροχο τρόπο με την απώλεια κ τη θλίψη που την ακολουθεί αλλά η McCracken γράφει με τέτοια ακρίβεια που τα διηγήματα προσφέρουν πολλά περισσότερα από απλή θλίψη. Η συγγραφέας φαίνεται να ξέρει πόσο χιούμορ να προσθέσει στην αφήγησή της κ πως να ισορροπήσει τον λυρικό τρόπο της γραφής της με την εκάστοτε ματιά που ρίχνει στο θάνατο
Με εξαίρεση τα Some Terpsichore κ Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey που με άφησαν αδιάφορο παρόλο που καταλάβαινα το λόγο ύπαρξής τους (ειδικά το δεύτερο), οι υπόλοιπες ιστορίες είναι πολύ καλές (όπως το "Juliet" κ το "Hungry") ενώ τρεις είναι μικρά αριστουργήματα. Το Something Amazing που ανοίγει τη συλλογή είναι ένα ιδιαίτερο ghost story που κοιτάει το πένθος της μάνας που έχασε πρόωρα την κόρη της. Σίγουρα δεν πρόκειται για την πιο πρωτότυπη σύλληψη που θα συναντήσεις αλλά εκεί ξεδιπλώνει το ταλέντο της η συγγραφέας, παίρνοντας χιλιοειπωμένα θέματα κ γράφοντας για αυτά με ένα τρόπο που δεν χωράει σε καλούπια, δεν ακολουθεί κλισέ κ αποφεύγει, σχεδόν εντυπωσιακά, τους εύκολους συναισθηματισμούς. Οι ιστορίες της αφήνουν μικρές αχτίνες φωτός, είτε μέσω μιας υποιστορίας που κινείται γύρω απ'το κεντρικό θέμα, είτε μέσω μιας συνειδητοποίησης του αφηγητή. Τρανό παράδειγμα του τελευταίου το "Property" με το υπέροχο φινάλε. Παρόμοια χαρακτηριστικά βρίσκεις κ στο έντονο The House of Three-Legged Dogs με τη διαλυμένη οικογένεια που μαζεύει κατοικίδια κ πίνει σα να μην υπάρχει αύριο αλλά κ το The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston που θυμίζει σχολιασμό απο κάποιο βιβλίο του Delillo.
Η καλύτερη ιστορία όμως είναι η ομώνυμη που είναι κ η μεγαλύτερη σε όγκο. Η οικογένεια του Wes περνάει αρκετά δύσκολα με την 13χρ. κόρη τους που περνάει έντονη εφηβεία. Ο πατέρας θα αποφασίσει να πάρει την οικογένεια κ να περάσουν το καλοκαίρι στο Παρίσι για να πλησιάσουν ξανά την κόρη τους κ να λύσουν τα προβλήματά τους. Εδώ υπάρχουν οι κορυφαίες σελίδες του βιβλίου με τον πατέρα να είναι ένας καταπληκτικός ήρωας που συγκίνει θες-δεν θες. Ομολογώ ότι οι τελευταίες σελίδες μού έκαναν την καρδιά κομμάτια.
Διαβάζοντας λίγα πράγματα για την McCracken είδα ότι σχετικά πρόσφατα πέρασε κι αυτή μια μαύρη περίοδο αποβάλλοντας λίγο πριν γεννήσει κ φαίνεται πως αυτή η απώλεια αποτέλεσε την κύρια πηγή της έμπνευσή της. Πριν πολλά χρόνια ο Κ.Β. τραγουδούσε "Μην αφήσεις τη ζωή να σε πάρει από κάτω / τους φόβους που σε τρέφουν να τους κάνεις κάτι άλλο /κάνε τους ποίηση ή μηχανήματα σπουδαία" κ η αμερικανίδα αυτό κάνει κ με το παραπάνω.
Συστήνεται ανεπιφύλακτα λοιπόν σε όσους θέλουν να δοκιμάσουν συλλογές διηγημάτων, με μόνιμη υπενθύμιση όμως ότι αυτά τα βιβλία δεν διαβάζονται μονορούφι, σαν κεφάλαια ενός μυθιστορήματος αλλά σε μικρές καθημερινές δόσεις (μια ιστορία την ημέρα π.χ.). Μόνο έτσι μπορούν να παραμείνουν στη μνήμη μας, μόνο έτσι αξίζουν τον κόπο.
August 13, 2016
Exceptionally good. Stories informed, one guesses, by McCracken's experiences of grief, and her family's travels, but each very much a fictional creation. Sentences that made me slow down to appreciate every word choice and McCracken's shrewd and pungent sense of humor. I was most strongly affected by by the second ("Property") and the last ("Thunderstruck") but there isn't a weak story in the collection. It's cliche to say this but they reminded me of what (short) fiction can do, and that short stories needn't be slight, or elliptical, or coy, or end in epiphanies; that so much can be revealed about people's complexities in one story that the characters live past the story and inflect one's own life, too (I'm still living with Wes and Helen this morning as I write this).
August 25, 2016
I wasn't sure about this at first. The first four stories were really sad, but to me they were nothing but sad, no mercy of any kind for the characters or the reader. I didn't know if I could take a whole book of that. But then the fifth story, "The House of Two Three-Legged Dogs," while still sad, displayed a little humor, and the one after that, "Hunger," though completely brutal, was also absolutely beautiful and true. The rest of the stories were like diamonds: hard, bright, stunning.
April 16, 2014
An expert collection of stories—without a single false note from beginning to end—that explore and interrogate concepts of ownership, narrative possession, grief, and caregiving. McCracken's language, character rendering, and story architecture are unparalleled in this, her first collection of stories since 1993. More than happy to wait another twenty years for the next one if they're always going to be this good.
Don't just buy this book. Read it. Move it to the top of your to-read pile, just trust me on this. You will sail through it and take four days to read the last story because to finish it means to acknowledge the book has ended, and you will never again be able to read these stories for the very first time.
Don't just buy this book. Read it. Move it to the top of your to-read pile, just trust me on this. You will sail through it and take four days to read the last story because to finish it means to acknowledge the book has ended, and you will never again be able to read these stories for the very first time.
May 10, 2024
Ho apprezzato molto lo stile dell'autrice, e soprattutto come delinea deliziosamente ogni personaggio che scrive. Lo consiglio anche alle persone che, come me, non amano particolarmente le raccolte di racconti perchè ad ogni storia è dedicato sufficiente spazio da non lasciare quel solito senso di insoddisfazione. Tuttavia mi piacerebbe molto approfondire questa autrice nella forma del romanzo.
January 23, 2024
Guardò la moglie, che amava, che sperava tanto di convincere, e gli sembrò di buttarsi a capofitto nella felicità. Era un numero da circo, pericoloso, per giunta. La felicità è una vasca stretta. Devi essere sicuro di evitare i bordi
April 30, 2015
Before jumping in to this marvelous collection, you should know something that is not at all apparent from the book jacket’s text: these are stories about loss and grieving.
The losses range from tragic (a six-year old girl lost to lymphoma, a boy kidnapped by a creeper on a bus, a young man suddenly widowed fifty years too soon) to violent (a woman murdered in her home by a stranger, another woman frightfully abused by her controlling husband), with a heavy dose of brutal family matters (an absent drunk of a son kicking his parents out of their home, a mother excluded from attending her own son’s death by a resentful daughter armed with a steno pad full of maternal sins, a wayward teenager who wreaks irreversible havoc on her family, a boy who chronically locks his younger brother in alarmingly tight spaces as revenge for purportedly receiving most of their mother’s affection, a mother raging against the ruined life of her son charged with murder). Not exactly “escape” material.
The actual events of these losses are not so much the main focus. Those events typically occur near the beginning of the stories, or in a passing moment, or in the background. Rather, McCracken’s focus is on the grief, on the fallout, on how her mostly sympathetic characters bend or break in the face of sadness.
It does make you wonder what sort of message McCracken is selling. That deep suffering will inevitably crash into your life? Or that your best chance at happiness is adapting well to that suffering? (One husband/father endures so much yet ultimately has a sort of awakening, “as though he were diving headfirst into happiness.”) Or that it would be a mistake to focus only on the chaos, neglecting life’s humor? (You’d never guess it from what I’ve noted so far but, throughout, McCracken’s writing is wonderfully funny.) Or that we should learn to live with our sadness instead of leaving it behind? (Because I finished this book wondering whether the whole concept of “closure” might not be a bit of a myth.)
Whatever the overall message (if any), there are plenty of juicy insights for your consideration:
All of this is delivered with the very best sort of writing—the type of writing that is so good that it kills one’s aspiration to ever take a stab at writing a novel. Check this out: “The grandmother was a bright, cellophane-wrapped hard candy of a person: sweet, but not necessarily what a child wanted.”
Summing up, I read books in search of two things: beauty (as in beautiful writing) and insight. (Don’t argue with me that fiction is fiction, and not an avenue towards understanding real life. You will lose, and I will probably inadvertently crush you in the process.) Five stars for Thunderstruck & Other Stories, because it so solidly delivers on both counts.
The losses range from tragic (a six-year old girl lost to lymphoma, a boy kidnapped by a creeper on a bus, a young man suddenly widowed fifty years too soon) to violent (a woman murdered in her home by a stranger, another woman frightfully abused by her controlling husband), with a heavy dose of brutal family matters (an absent drunk of a son kicking his parents out of their home, a mother excluded from attending her own son’s death by a resentful daughter armed with a steno pad full of maternal sins, a wayward teenager who wreaks irreversible havoc on her family, a boy who chronically locks his younger brother in alarmingly tight spaces as revenge for purportedly receiving most of their mother’s affection, a mother raging against the ruined life of her son charged with murder). Not exactly “escape” material.
The actual events of these losses are not so much the main focus. Those events typically occur near the beginning of the stories, or in a passing moment, or in the background. Rather, McCracken’s focus is on the grief, on the fallout, on how her mostly sympathetic characters bend or break in the face of sadness.
It does make you wonder what sort of message McCracken is selling. That deep suffering will inevitably crash into your life? Or that your best chance at happiness is adapting well to that suffering? (One husband/father endures so much yet ultimately has a sort of awakening, “as though he were diving headfirst into happiness.”) Or that it would be a mistake to focus only on the chaos, neglecting life’s humor? (You’d never guess it from what I’ve noted so far but, throughout, McCracken’s writing is wonderfully funny.) Or that we should learn to live with our sadness instead of leaving it behind? (Because I finished this book wondering whether the whole concept of “closure” might not be a bit of a myth.)
Whatever the overall message (if any), there are plenty of juicy insights for your consideration:
Some Terpichore suggests that “real” love is possible even with respect to a deeply flawed person.
The narrator in Juliet, upon learning of an unknown woman’s murder, oddly hopes that the victim at least knew the murderer. It must be psychically comfortable to ascribe another person’s very bad luck to something other than very bad luck.
Reading Hungry, in which a girl is whisked away from her dying father for the sake of a summertime in hot pursuit of temporary comfort (“at the country club, the dinner club, the miniature-golf-course snack bar, the popcorn stand at the shopping mall, the tea room at Younkers, every buffet”), you get a sense of how normal it is to run away instead of toward.
And then in The House of Two Three-Legged Dogs, there is the father wanting total strangers to absolve him—because strangers are "the only ones who ever can."
All of this is delivered with the very best sort of writing—the type of writing that is so good that it kills one’s aspiration to ever take a stab at writing a novel. Check this out: “The grandmother was a bright, cellophane-wrapped hard candy of a person: sweet, but not necessarily what a child wanted.”
Summing up, I read books in search of two things: beauty (as in beautiful writing) and insight. (Don’t argue with me that fiction is fiction, and not an avenue towards understanding real life. You will lose, and I will probably inadvertently crush you in the process.) Five stars for Thunderstruck & Other Stories, because it so solidly delivers on both counts.
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July 12, 2016For more reviews, visit www.ebooksandcooks.com
This book rounds out the two weeks I’ve spent exploring short story collections, and it’s a great note to end on. McCracken has a way with descriptive language; her characters and places are easy to imagine. Information in the stories is doled out in crumbs and each that you feast on makes you greedier for the next. The stories have a way of unraveling in both a surprising and natural way. Many of the stories have definitive conclusions. This isn’t a necessity for me, but I know a lot of people prefer to read short stories that don’t end abruptly without resolution.
I’ll do my best not to give away too much in this review.
My favorite story is The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston. Karen Blackbird has disappeared from a dead-end street in a small Boston neighborhood, leaving her son Asher behind with his grandfather. Asher is caught shoplifting frozen pizza at the Hi-Lo grocery, and the manager treats him with mercy but finds a police officer to take him home. Officer Leonard Aude drives Asher home, sees the deplorable conditions, and takes Asher to his home until Asher can be placed in foster care. The story follows the manager, and his reaction when he finds out about the boy’s missing mother.
Some Terpsichore is the story of a man who plays a saw with a violin bow and the woman who accompanies him singing. He first hears her singing while climbing the steps of the Washington Monument and decides her voice sounds just like his saw. He invites her to come and live in Philadelphia and sing in the nightclubs where he plays, and she follows him there. This story has some of McCracken’s best descriptive language, including the line, “His hair looked like it had been combed with a piece of buttered toast.”
Juliet is a story written in the first person plural by the staff of a local library. They talk about the various patrons and make fun of the slightly odd children’s librarian. The children’s librarian befriends the woman the library staff calls Juliet. The children’s librarian and Juliet eat lunch together frequently, and the staff doesn’t understand their friendship. When something bad happens to Juliet, the tenor of the library’s patrons changes.
Hungry follows a grandmother and granddaughter on the country’s Fourth of July Bicentennial in 1976. The girl has come to Des Moines to live with her grandmother for the summer because her father has been hospitalized. The girl’s grandmother and her grandmother’s neighbor take to feeding her to excess. Family tensions about the girl’s hospitalized father boil over on that hot summer day.
The stories in this collection are unique and unexpectedly quite good. I had never read anything by McCracken before this book, but I will definitely read more. I have heard her memoir is an excellent book as well. I highly recommend this short story collection.
This book rounds out the two weeks I’ve spent exploring short story collections, and it’s a great note to end on. McCracken has a way with descriptive language; her characters and places are easy to imagine. Information in the stories is doled out in crumbs and each that you feast on makes you greedier for the next. The stories have a way of unraveling in both a surprising and natural way. Many of the stories have definitive conclusions. This isn’t a necessity for me, but I know a lot of people prefer to read short stories that don’t end abruptly without resolution.
I’ll do my best not to give away too much in this review.
My favorite story is The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston. Karen Blackbird has disappeared from a dead-end street in a small Boston neighborhood, leaving her son Asher behind with his grandfather. Asher is caught shoplifting frozen pizza at the Hi-Lo grocery, and the manager treats him with mercy but finds a police officer to take him home. Officer Leonard Aude drives Asher home, sees the deplorable conditions, and takes Asher to his home until Asher can be placed in foster care. The story follows the manager, and his reaction when he finds out about the boy’s missing mother.
Some Terpsichore is the story of a man who plays a saw with a violin bow and the woman who accompanies him singing. He first hears her singing while climbing the steps of the Washington Monument and decides her voice sounds just like his saw. He invites her to come and live in Philadelphia and sing in the nightclubs where he plays, and she follows him there. This story has some of McCracken’s best descriptive language, including the line, “His hair looked like it had been combed with a piece of buttered toast.”
Juliet is a story written in the first person plural by the staff of a local library. They talk about the various patrons and make fun of the slightly odd children’s librarian. The children’s librarian befriends the woman the library staff calls Juliet. The children’s librarian and Juliet eat lunch together frequently, and the staff doesn’t understand their friendship. When something bad happens to Juliet, the tenor of the library’s patrons changes.
Hungry follows a grandmother and granddaughter on the country’s Fourth of July Bicentennial in 1976. The girl has come to Des Moines to live with her grandmother for the summer because her father has been hospitalized. The girl’s grandmother and her grandmother’s neighbor take to feeding her to excess. Family tensions about the girl’s hospitalized father boil over on that hot summer day.
The stories in this collection are unique and unexpectedly quite good. I had never read anything by McCracken before this book, but I will definitely read more. I have heard her memoir is an excellent book as well. I highly recommend this short story collection.
May 7, 2023
Fantastic. Sometimes funny, always smart, these stories share a common theme: loss. Not a cheery read by any means but wow, McCracken is a terrific writer, and her empathy for her characters is clear. 4 1/2 stars
December 28, 2013
Brilliant, breathtaking, and unbeatable prose. McCracken at her finest. She constantly surprises and amazes me. A must read!
December 22, 2024
Un'autrice che non avevo mai sentito nominare, una lettura iniziata alla cieca, e una bellissima scoperta.
Grande sensibilità, bella scrittura, racconti realistici, disincantati, che spesso lasciano un senso di impotenza, di amarezza; privi di avvenimenti eclatanti "in grande", ma senza dubbio eclatanti nella vita di una persona: lutti, innamoramenti e disinnamoramenti, fughe e illusioni infrante, speranze testarde.
Cercherò di scrivere un commento più articolato non appena ne avrò il tempo, per ora non posso che consigliare la lettura.
Grande sensibilità, bella scrittura, racconti realistici, disincantati, che spesso lasciano un senso di impotenza, di amarezza; privi di avvenimenti eclatanti "in grande", ma senza dubbio eclatanti nella vita di una persona: lutti, innamoramenti e disinnamoramenti, fughe e illusioni infrante, speranze testarde.
Cercherò di scrivere un commento più articolato non appena ne avrò il tempo, per ora non posso che consigliare la lettura.
May 5, 2014
[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.]
The back and inside jacket of this book has adjectives like "magnificent" and "exquisite" and "marvelously quirky," but I didn't really see much of that in the actual stories. I wasn't, I suppose you could say, impressed with the stories themselves, and the writing style was generic in that I felt I had read several other authors who write the same way. Nothing really stuck out to me as being "magnificent" or "marvelously quirky," just a bit plain.
I managed to make it through to the end, feeling a bit more satisfied with the title story than with the rest of them, although I enjoyed "Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey" and "The Lost and Found Department of Greater Boston" almost as much. It felt a bit like trudging through mud to get there, though, which is unfortunate because I did have high hopes for this collection. Maybe that's what did me in.
So rather unfortunately, this book is just "okay" for me, and therefore gets 2 stars. Obviously others enjoyed it more than I did, but it was not my cup of tea.
The back and inside jacket of this book has adjectives like "magnificent" and "exquisite" and "marvelously quirky," but I didn't really see much of that in the actual stories. I wasn't, I suppose you could say, impressed with the stories themselves, and the writing style was generic in that I felt I had read several other authors who write the same way. Nothing really stuck out to me as being "magnificent" or "marvelously quirky," just a bit plain.
I managed to make it through to the end, feeling a bit more satisfied with the title story than with the rest of them, although I enjoyed "Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey" and "The Lost and Found Department of Greater Boston" almost as much. It felt a bit like trudging through mud to get there, though, which is unfortunate because I did have high hopes for this collection. Maybe that's what did me in.
So rather unfortunately, this book is just "okay" for me, and therefore gets 2 stars. Obviously others enjoyed it more than I did, but it was not my cup of tea.
January 8, 2015
I’ve read such positive reviews of Elizabeth McCracken’s fiction and enjoy her engaging Twitter account so much, that I’ve been very eager to read her writing for quite some time. “Thunderstruck” is a collection of short stories which is vibrantly alive and demands the reader’s attention. If I were to hazard a comparison, her fiction is as inventive as AL Kennedy’s whose story collection All the Rage I reviewed earlier this year. It’s a cliché but the language and metaphors McCracken uses are really so refreshing that they make the reader re-view the world. There is also an absurdist tinge to her fiction (informed no doubt from authors like Ionesco who is referenced in one story) which is a form of writing that really thrills me. The stories are full of engaging, quirky characters who chaotically navigate through the narratives in ways which surprise and left me thinking about their meaning long after.
Read my full review at LonesomeReader review of Thunderstruck by Elizabeth McCracken
Read my full review at LonesomeReader review of Thunderstruck by Elizabeth McCracken
April 22, 2014
This is a marvelous collection, one of those books that make you wish that the author would just go sit down and write all the time.
Thunderstruck includes nine stories, each of which delivers a gut-punch of revelation. Readers familiar with McCracken's writing will know what to expect -- clear, impeccable prose in which someone's heart is broken, someone's inner life is imperiled, someone's loss is almost too much....but the unfolding of these troubles is handled with such empathy that they become more chrysalis than catastrophe.
Elizabeth McCracken's stories are very funny, if you like your humor with a soupcon of tragedy and a smidge of heartbreak. Every now and again the writing goes someplace dark, quirky, and just a little forsaken, and in those moments the reader is exposed to some deft new reminder of the human condition.
Thunderstruck includes nine stories, each of which delivers a gut-punch of revelation. Readers familiar with McCracken's writing will know what to expect -- clear, impeccable prose in which someone's heart is broken, someone's inner life is imperiled, someone's loss is almost too much....but the unfolding of these troubles is handled with such empathy that they become more chrysalis than catastrophe.
Elizabeth McCracken's stories are very funny, if you like your humor with a soupcon of tragedy and a smidge of heartbreak. Every now and again the writing goes someplace dark, quirky, and just a little forsaken, and in those moments the reader is exposed to some deft new reminder of the human condition.
March 27, 2015
This collection is about the many ways we lose people - and how we deal with our grief. My favorites were "Property," "Juliet," and "Something Amazing."
Some lines I liked:
"Whatever you have lost there are more of, just not yours."
"The dead live on in the homeliest of ways. They're listed in the phone book. They get mail... Their beds are made. Their shoes are everywhere."
"'You can tell more from dentures than from years of diaries,' she'd said then. 'Dentures do not lie.' She herself threw everything out. She did not want anyone to exhibit the smallest bit of her."
"It was one of the reasons they belonged together: they were flea-market people, put together out of odd parts."
"He'd wept already, and for hours, but suddenly he understood that the real thing was coming for him soon, a period of time free of wry laughter or distraction."
Some lines I liked:
"Whatever you have lost there are more of, just not yours."
"The dead live on in the homeliest of ways. They're listed in the phone book. They get mail... Their beds are made. Their shoes are everywhere."
"'You can tell more from dentures than from years of diaries,' she'd said then. 'Dentures do not lie.' She herself threw everything out. She did not want anyone to exhibit the smallest bit of her."
"It was one of the reasons they belonged together: they were flea-market people, put together out of odd parts."
"He'd wept already, and for hours, but suddenly he understood that the real thing was coming for him soon, a period of time free of wry laughter or distraction."
December 2, 2014
Lovely, lovely, lovely and sad. DO NOT READ IF YOU CONTEMPLATE SUICIDE. All the stories here are about loss, grief, dying, or having to choose between terrible choices. But consider how McCracken draws people: "He, thirty-nine, red-headed, pot-bellied, long-limbed and beaky, a rare and possibly extinct bird", or, how a neighborhood looking for a mission woman, reflects: "The neighbors wanted posters for every person they lost, even themselves. Missing: former self. Distinguishing marks: expectations of fame, ability to demand love. Last seen wearing hopeful expression, uncomfortable shoes."
Some of her sad, beautiful sentences will stay with me for a long, long time.
Some of her sad, beautiful sentences will stay with me for a long, long time.
February 25, 2019
A very good audiobook. The reader, Erin Yuen, does a fine job. All of the stories are so strong in this format, but the final one, Thunderstruck, is just devastating - and fantastic.
Oh, what an exquisite collection of stories! For me, all of Elizabeth McCracken's work is affecting on an emotional level. Her story lines, characters, and even her sentences, grab you by the guts and do not let go. This goes straight to the top of my Best of 2014 list.
Oh, what an exquisite collection of stories! For me, all of Elizabeth McCracken's work is affecting on an emotional level. Her story lines, characters, and even her sentences, grab you by the guts and do not let go. This goes straight to the top of my Best of 2014 list.
February 12, 2016
Usually when I read a short story collection I look back later and think, 'what was that story about again? I don't remember that story'. That did not happen with this collection. Each is a clear, strong, fully-formed tale, a tiny novel packed with detail (maybe too much for some). I have no idea how someone does this.
March 21, 2019
I made it to the story where the author uses transgender people as the oh how weird / unique moment and then I stopped. I'm exhausted with the other'ing and lack of humanity. Do better. Develop a trans character and stop using them as props- interact with trans people in a meaningful way.
January 12, 2018
I liked this collection of short stories...although it has morose undertones, the stories have interesting plots and are thought-provoking.
July 20, 2016
It wasn't until the last, eponymous, story in this collection that I realized the theme that strung them all together, so I guess I might be slow on the uptake. The stories in Thunderstruck are about how we deal with loss, but the loss comes in all kinds of different varieties.
It's a bit of an uneven collection, despite all the praise it has received, and many of the stories feel like they miss the mark a bit. Reading these stories is something like hearing someone talk about a great book and feeling like maybe you've read it: you can recognize where the exciting or emotional parts are, but aren't quite sure they actually existed.
In Something Amazing, the loss is of children, one who died of lymphoma, the other who disappears one day, and the feelings they leave behind -- the mother of the dead girl believing she herself is sick, papering over the door to the girl's room in her grief, the brother left to pick up the pieces. This story is moving and interesting, and because it's not clear if the ghost mentioned in the story is meant to be literally a ghost in the story, or a metaphor, the story has a bit of a spectral element.
Property is about a sudden, young widower moving into a rundown rental house in America, and his efforts to rehab it. This story didn't stick with me much; the main character isn't very likeable and the story itself feels like the summarization of a novel. There are elements that are interesting but they're quickly glossed over, and every character except the main one feels more interesting than the protagonist.
Some Terpsichore on the other hand is almost brilliant: the story of a woman who sang like a saw, and how she accidentally became famous, is touching and unique, a fresh take on what is practically a genre (the broken-down ex-showgirl genre).
Juliet is an interesting story that doesn't quite make it to good. Centered around a woman who befriends a librarian (but told by someone other than the main characters), it doesn't really hit its peak until the very end. Like Property it feels like the better story was hidden behind all the set dressing the author focuses on; there is a very moving scene near the end that should have a wallop, but because it just feels dropped in there from another (better) story the impact is muted.
I did not like The House Of Two Three-Legged Dogs. Part of that was personal: I do not like stories of people who are broke and struggling for money and have trouble finding them entertaining. Even with that caveat though, the story wasn't much. It's about a husband and wife who are bankrupt, in France, and their son, whose name is on the title of their house, is going to sell the house to fix some (never really explained) situation of his own. The husband and wife have lots of pets, including 50 budgies, and they have an eccentric and drunk friend, Sid, and it's all supposed to be very moving, I think, but it felt rushed and forced. Also, I don't like 3-legged dogs, either, so this story really had no chance with me, even if it had been better.
One of the things, before moving on to other stories, that marks most of these stories so far is that in each story, the actual reason for the story seems to be approached only glancingly. As I re-think each story, it's like they are less-entertaining, less-thoughtful works based on better stories. If you've ever read (or seen performed) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, then you know the idea I'm getting at: it is possible to retell a story from the perspective of another character in the original story, and in doing so gain new insight into the old story as well as be entertained by the new.
That doesn't happen here, in part because there is no original story for us to know about. Instead, the stories that work are stories that deal with the best part of what's going on: Some Terpsichore, for example, focuses like a laser on the best part of that woman's story. Juliet, meanwhile, involves a murder and a heartbreak and a rabbit dying and a family in crisis and yet somehow none of it is interesting; it reads like a semithoughtful review of a movie about those things.
Hungry at least returns to the interesting stuff; the story of Lisa and her grandmother takes place all in one day, really, the 4th of July in the 1970s, while Lisa is spending time with her grandma as her dad is dying in the hospital. Lisa's plan to do Patrick Henry's speech, her love of sweets, the interaction with a neighbor and the grandma's heartbreak about her son are well-written. It's a good story, worth reading.
The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston led me to start thinking about setting. Lots of these stories are set in and around Boston, it seemed; at least, the narrator occasionally managed an annoying BAHSTEN accent, which (sorry, Bostonians) generally made the characters seem less thoughtful, intelligent, and likeable. But the setting didn't even matter; I have no idea where Hungry or Some Terpsichore were set, and they were good stories. Setting should only be mentioned prominently, especially in a short story, if it matters for some reason, and I couldn't figure out why it would in any of these stories. Writers should keep in mind Chekhov's gun: don't mention things that aren't going to be important.
Anyway, this story is another one of those that misses the mark: it is primarily about a young boy whose mother disappears and he is starving in his house with his terrible grandfather, but as with the others, that's actually the least interesting part of the story. McCracken skips from character to character: the mom, the grocery store manager who helps the boy and thinks it might somehow change his own life, the police officer, more on the mom, a flashback to the night she left, until it's too much to take in so quickly. Then at the end McCracken returns to the grocery store manager, whose role in the matter was completely misunderstood by the boy, and the scene is again supposed to be a huge, devastating one, but because we've spent a million years on other people, it's muted. What could have been a heartbreaker of an ending is instead sort of Lifetime movieish.
Peter Elroy: A Documentary By Ian Casey is easily the worst story in the book. A man dying of pancreatic cancer is dropped off to visit a documentarian who made him look like an a**hole 30 years ago and destroyed his career as... an economics professor? Meh. It felt too forced and too quirky and too inexplicable, and at no point was there the opportunity (or reason) to care about "Peter Elroy" for any reason. He wasn't dramatically drawn enough for us to take some sort of bitter pleasure in his downfall (or downstay), but he wasn't making any effort to be more likeable or generate sympathy. I couldn't tell why this story was even in here, unless it was to pad out the page count.
The title story, Thunderstruck, is a B+ of a story, maybe A-, and also worth reading. A family takes a 5-week trip to Paris after their 12-year-old daughter is brought home from a party she snuck out of the house to go to, wearing just a t-shirt. The story itself manages a good setup of both dread and hope, and captures some family dynamics pretty well; the main characters are interesting and people you want to root for, even the 12-year-old. When things take a turn for the dramatic, the story even manages to up itself a notch.
It would be an A+ of a story but for two things: One, it feels again a bit rushed; McCracken should have let the story be a bit longer, maybe; there's a lot that happens, especially near the end, that apparently happens in a relatively short time, and it was jarring when she reminded me that it was such a short time. (I had the same feeling with The World According To Garp; sometimes writers have so much happen to a person and then they're all oh yeah by the way that was all in 3 weeks and it's too much; it pulls you out of the story while you're trying to work out the time sense.) But it's more than that: without spoiling what actually happens (because it's still worth reading), I can tell you that McCracken chooses sides.
The story boils down to the husband and wife of Helen, the 12-year-old, having differences of opinion about Helen and her life going forward; the mom has one (very depressing but realistic) view and the dad has another (hopeful and optimistic) view. How the dad realizes what the mom is telling him, and how he decides to look at it, is wonderful. Had McCracken left the story at that, she would have written a story worth remembering. But she cheats, and lets the reader know that the dad is right and the mom is wrong, in a way. This doesn't have the effect of making the dad braver or better, because the dad doesn't know it. He's not being brave, by not confronting the mom with what he knows. It's just McCracken, not trusting her readers to be ready to handle ambiguity, and so leading them like donkeys: oh by the way you need not think for yourself, here is what I will tell you.
That would be fine, except that the rest of the story actually requires us to not know what McCracken tells us, for the story to be great, for it to work. It's hard to explain fully without you having read it, but the point of the story seems to be that people can work through loss of any kind, even the loss of faith in a spouse caused by the revelation of who they are and how they affect our own dreams, even the loss of those dreams themselves, if we love enough -- even though we are not sure what, or who, we are loving about.
That's what I took to be the theme, anyway, and it would work great, but, again, McCracken takes away the ambiguity. Her story makes you want to side with the dad while also understanding the mom, and accepting her -- the way the dad does -- but she makes it okay for you to do that by telling you it's okay.
All in all, the stories were okay. It's not a waste of time to read it. I enjoyed all but two of the stories, at least a bit. But if I had to do it over again, I'd probably just read a few of them. McCracken has some talent, for sure, but she never quit hits the mark.
________________________
Weird synchonicity PS: This collection of short stories ends with a story in which art helps a person cope with a loss; the cover is (as you can see) an all-white cover with a blue line and seems like it's related to that story.
My collection of short stories, Just Exactly How Life Looks, ends with a story in which art helps a person cope with a loss; the cover is (as you can see) an all-white cover with a blue line which (I can tell you) is directly related to the last story.
"Thunderstruck" is actually just "Thunderwhelmed."
It's a bit of an uneven collection, despite all the praise it has received, and many of the stories feel like they miss the mark a bit. Reading these stories is something like hearing someone talk about a great book and feeling like maybe you've read it: you can recognize where the exciting or emotional parts are, but aren't quite sure they actually existed.
In Something Amazing, the loss is of children, one who died of lymphoma, the other who disappears one day, and the feelings they leave behind -- the mother of the dead girl believing she herself is sick, papering over the door to the girl's room in her grief, the brother left to pick up the pieces. This story is moving and interesting, and because it's not clear if the ghost mentioned in the story is meant to be literally a ghost in the story, or a metaphor, the story has a bit of a spectral element.
Property is about a sudden, young widower moving into a rundown rental house in America, and his efforts to rehab it. This story didn't stick with me much; the main character isn't very likeable and the story itself feels like the summarization of a novel. There are elements that are interesting but they're quickly glossed over, and every character except the main one feels more interesting than the protagonist.
Some Terpsichore on the other hand is almost brilliant: the story of a woman who sang like a saw, and how she accidentally became famous, is touching and unique, a fresh take on what is practically a genre (the broken-down ex-showgirl genre).
Juliet is an interesting story that doesn't quite make it to good. Centered around a woman who befriends a librarian (but told by someone other than the main characters), it doesn't really hit its peak until the very end. Like Property it feels like the better story was hidden behind all the set dressing the author focuses on; there is a very moving scene near the end that should have a wallop, but because it just feels dropped in there from another (better) story the impact is muted.
I did not like The House Of Two Three-Legged Dogs. Part of that was personal: I do not like stories of people who are broke and struggling for money and have trouble finding them entertaining. Even with that caveat though, the story wasn't much. It's about a husband and wife who are bankrupt, in France, and their son, whose name is on the title of their house, is going to sell the house to fix some (never really explained) situation of his own. The husband and wife have lots of pets, including 50 budgies, and they have an eccentric and drunk friend, Sid, and it's all supposed to be very moving, I think, but it felt rushed and forced. Also, I don't like 3-legged dogs, either, so this story really had no chance with me, even if it had been better.
One of the things, before moving on to other stories, that marks most of these stories so far is that in each story, the actual reason for the story seems to be approached only glancingly. As I re-think each story, it's like they are less-entertaining, less-thoughtful works based on better stories. If you've ever read (or seen performed) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, then you know the idea I'm getting at: it is possible to retell a story from the perspective of another character in the original story, and in doing so gain new insight into the old story as well as be entertained by the new.
That doesn't happen here, in part because there is no original story for us to know about. Instead, the stories that work are stories that deal with the best part of what's going on: Some Terpsichore, for example, focuses like a laser on the best part of that woman's story. Juliet, meanwhile, involves a murder and a heartbreak and a rabbit dying and a family in crisis and yet somehow none of it is interesting; it reads like a semithoughtful review of a movie about those things.
Hungry at least returns to the interesting stuff; the story of Lisa and her grandmother takes place all in one day, really, the 4th of July in the 1970s, while Lisa is spending time with her grandma as her dad is dying in the hospital. Lisa's plan to do Patrick Henry's speech, her love of sweets, the interaction with a neighbor and the grandma's heartbreak about her son are well-written. It's a good story, worth reading.
The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston led me to start thinking about setting. Lots of these stories are set in and around Boston, it seemed; at least, the narrator occasionally managed an annoying BAHSTEN accent, which (sorry, Bostonians) generally made the characters seem less thoughtful, intelligent, and likeable. But the setting didn't even matter; I have no idea where Hungry or Some Terpsichore were set, and they were good stories. Setting should only be mentioned prominently, especially in a short story, if it matters for some reason, and I couldn't figure out why it would in any of these stories. Writers should keep in mind Chekhov's gun: don't mention things that aren't going to be important.
Anyway, this story is another one of those that misses the mark: it is primarily about a young boy whose mother disappears and he is starving in his house with his terrible grandfather, but as with the others, that's actually the least interesting part of the story. McCracken skips from character to character: the mom, the grocery store manager who helps the boy and thinks it might somehow change his own life, the police officer, more on the mom, a flashback to the night she left, until it's too much to take in so quickly. Then at the end McCracken returns to the grocery store manager, whose role in the matter was completely misunderstood by the boy, and the scene is again supposed to be a huge, devastating one, but because we've spent a million years on other people, it's muted. What could have been a heartbreaker of an ending is instead sort of Lifetime movieish.
Peter Elroy: A Documentary By Ian Casey is easily the worst story in the book. A man dying of pancreatic cancer is dropped off to visit a documentarian who made him look like an a**hole 30 years ago and destroyed his career as... an economics professor? Meh. It felt too forced and too quirky and too inexplicable, and at no point was there the opportunity (or reason) to care about "Peter Elroy" for any reason. He wasn't dramatically drawn enough for us to take some sort of bitter pleasure in his downfall (or downstay), but he wasn't making any effort to be more likeable or generate sympathy. I couldn't tell why this story was even in here, unless it was to pad out the page count.
The title story, Thunderstruck, is a B+ of a story, maybe A-, and also worth reading. A family takes a 5-week trip to Paris after their 12-year-old daughter is brought home from a party she snuck out of the house to go to, wearing just a t-shirt. The story itself manages a good setup of both dread and hope, and captures some family dynamics pretty well; the main characters are interesting and people you want to root for, even the 12-year-old. When things take a turn for the dramatic, the story even manages to up itself a notch.
It would be an A+ of a story but for two things: One, it feels again a bit rushed; McCracken should have let the story be a bit longer, maybe; there's a lot that happens, especially near the end, that apparently happens in a relatively short time, and it was jarring when she reminded me that it was such a short time. (I had the same feeling with The World According To Garp; sometimes writers have so much happen to a person and then they're all oh yeah by the way that was all in 3 weeks and it's too much; it pulls you out of the story while you're trying to work out the time sense.) But it's more than that: without spoiling what actually happens (because it's still worth reading), I can tell you that McCracken chooses sides.
The story boils down to the husband and wife of Helen, the 12-year-old, having differences of opinion about Helen and her life going forward; the mom has one (very depressing but realistic) view and the dad has another (hopeful and optimistic) view. How the dad realizes what the mom is telling him, and how he decides to look at it, is wonderful. Had McCracken left the story at that, she would have written a story worth remembering. But she cheats, and lets the reader know that the dad is right and the mom is wrong, in a way. This doesn't have the effect of making the dad braver or better, because the dad doesn't know it. He's not being brave, by not confronting the mom with what he knows. It's just McCracken, not trusting her readers to be ready to handle ambiguity, and so leading them like donkeys: oh by the way you need not think for yourself, here is what I will tell you.
That would be fine, except that the rest of the story actually requires us to not know what McCracken tells us, for the story to be great, for it to work. It's hard to explain fully without you having read it, but the point of the story seems to be that people can work through loss of any kind, even the loss of faith in a spouse caused by the revelation of who they are and how they affect our own dreams, even the loss of those dreams themselves, if we love enough -- even though we are not sure what, or who, we are loving about.
That's what I took to be the theme, anyway, and it would work great, but, again, McCracken takes away the ambiguity. Her story makes you want to side with the dad while also understanding the mom, and accepting her -- the way the dad does -- but she makes it okay for you to do that by telling you it's okay.
All in all, the stories were okay. It's not a waste of time to read it. I enjoyed all but two of the stories, at least a bit. But if I had to do it over again, I'd probably just read a few of them. McCracken has some talent, for sure, but she never quit hits the mark.
________________________
Weird synchonicity PS: This collection of short stories ends with a story in which art helps a person cope with a loss; the cover is (as you can see) an all-white cover with a blue line and seems like it's related to that story.
My collection of short stories, Just Exactly How Life Looks, ends with a story in which art helps a person cope with a loss; the cover is (as you can see) an all-white cover with a blue line which (I can tell you) is directly related to the last story.
"Thunderstruck" is actually just "Thunderwhelmed."
September 27, 2024
Voleva essere famoso e che nessuno lo guardasse mai, che probabilmente è la condizione umana solo più amplificata.
Storie di fantasmi e di lutti, di presenze-assenze, di perdita e di speranza. 9 declinazioni del dolore e del suo impatto sull’uomo, 9 storie di vita quotidiana autoconclusive e piene di empatia.
Elizabeth McCracken parla alla nostra anima di genitorialità, di matrimonio, di mancanze e soprattutto di memoria.
La morte è onnipresente, ma non è tanto il momento in cui la vita cessa che interezza a McCracken. L’autrice ha sempre l’obiettivo puntato sul prima e sul dopo e va a scavare nell’ interiorità dei suoi personaggi, restituendoci ritratti umani tanto reali da far male.
Ho sempre pensato che l’arma segreta di un buon scrittore di racconti sia la misura. I racconti che ho apprezzato di più nella vita avevano sempre una circolarità e una precisione che li rendeva perfetti per lo spazio a loro riservato.
Ecco, Elizabeth McCracken ha questo senso della misura, ma non solo. È evocativa, ironica, tenera. Leggerla è un piacere, ma ha anche un impatto emotivo non di poco conto.
Insomma, alcuni racconti di questa raccolta rimarranno con me ancora a lungo.
Apprezzo poi la delicatezza con cui questa scrittrice maneggia i propri personaggi spezzati e affranti.
Dopotutto sono solo persone ordinarie messe di fronte alla tragedia. Il loro mondo è stato spazzato via e all’improvviso vedono aprirsi una porta su quell’altro mondo, al di là del nostro, popolato dalle persone che non ci sono più.
Ma nulla di troppo sovrannaturale qui: si respira un sentore gotico solo nel primo racconto, dopodiché la materia narrativa si fa molto concreta. Detto ciò, la componente sentimentale non viene mai meno.
Vorrei dirvi anche qualcosa sulle trame, ma mi rendo conto che una serie di racconti cosi magistrale va anche un po’ goduta, senza sapere troppo.
4 stelle e mezzo
Storie di fantasmi e di lutti, di presenze-assenze, di perdita e di speranza. 9 declinazioni del dolore e del suo impatto sull’uomo, 9 storie di vita quotidiana autoconclusive e piene di empatia.
Elizabeth McCracken parla alla nostra anima di genitorialità, di matrimonio, di mancanze e soprattutto di memoria.
La morte è onnipresente, ma non è tanto il momento in cui la vita cessa che interezza a McCracken. L’autrice ha sempre l’obiettivo puntato sul prima e sul dopo e va a scavare nell’ interiorità dei suoi personaggi, restituendoci ritratti umani tanto reali da far male.
Ho sempre pensato che l’arma segreta di un buon scrittore di racconti sia la misura. I racconti che ho apprezzato di più nella vita avevano sempre una circolarità e una precisione che li rendeva perfetti per lo spazio a loro riservato.
Ecco, Elizabeth McCracken ha questo senso della misura, ma non solo. È evocativa, ironica, tenera. Leggerla è un piacere, ma ha anche un impatto emotivo non di poco conto.
Insomma, alcuni racconti di questa raccolta rimarranno con me ancora a lungo.
Apprezzo poi la delicatezza con cui questa scrittrice maneggia i propri personaggi spezzati e affranti.
Dopotutto sono solo persone ordinarie messe di fronte alla tragedia. Il loro mondo è stato spazzato via e all’improvviso vedono aprirsi una porta su quell’altro mondo, al di là del nostro, popolato dalle persone che non ci sono più.
Ma nulla di troppo sovrannaturale qui: si respira un sentore gotico solo nel primo racconto, dopodiché la materia narrativa si fa molto concreta. Detto ciò, la componente sentimentale non viene mai meno.
Vorrei dirvi anche qualcosa sulle trame, ma mi rendo conto che una serie di racconti cosi magistrale va anche un po’ goduta, senza sapere troppo.
4 stelle e mezzo
December 29, 2023
Nove storie, per parlare di cose di questo mondo.
In maniera predominante: la perdita, il dolore, i sogni che si infrangono e le speranze che si adattano.
La scomparsa di un figlio, la perdita della propria moglie, l'allontanamento dal proprio migliore amico, e mille altre sfumature per descrivere il dolore che un vuoto ci lascia dentro.
Questo è stato il mio primo approccio con l'autrice, ed è stato uno scontro in piena forza: lo stile di McCracken è estremamente evocativo, riesce a materializzare di fronte ai nostri occhi ogni tipo di situazione, da quella più mondana a quella più assurda, con il suo linguaggio forbito ma mai lezioso, molto scorrevole e penetrante, brillante nella sua cupezza.
Ogni racconto è riuscito a colpirmi con la sua unicità, con i suoi aspetti più oscuri ed amari, più luminosi e dolci, più spietati e taglienti e desolati e assurdi.
Una lettura fantastica, che riesce a colpirci con una forza inaspettata, spezzandoci il cuore in mille modi diversi.
Recensione sul blog:
https://legolegimus.altervista.org/co...
In maniera predominante: la perdita, il dolore, i sogni che si infrangono e le speranze che si adattano.
La scomparsa di un figlio, la perdita della propria moglie, l'allontanamento dal proprio migliore amico, e mille altre sfumature per descrivere il dolore che un vuoto ci lascia dentro.
Questo è stato il mio primo approccio con l'autrice, ed è stato uno scontro in piena forza: lo stile di McCracken è estremamente evocativo, riesce a materializzare di fronte ai nostri occhi ogni tipo di situazione, da quella più mondana a quella più assurda, con il suo linguaggio forbito ma mai lezioso, molto scorrevole e penetrante, brillante nella sua cupezza.
Ogni racconto è riuscito a colpirmi con la sua unicità, con i suoi aspetti più oscuri ed amari, più luminosi e dolci, più spietati e taglienti e desolati e assurdi.
Una lettura fantastica, che riesce a colpirci con una forza inaspettata, spezzandoci il cuore in mille modi diversi.
Recensione sul blog:
https://legolegimus.altervista.org/co...
January 17, 2025
A collection of short stories will always contain some that are better than others, but the test is how many of the stories stick with you. It's already clear that almost all these stories, or at least snippets of them, will stick with me.
My favorites were Juliet and Property. The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston and Some Terpsichore were also excellent. I found Thunderstruck a tad too downbeat (as a story, not the tone).
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
My favorites were Juliet and Property. The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston and Some Terpsichore were also excellent. I found Thunderstruck a tad too downbeat (as a story, not the tone).
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
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