Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Thunderstruck & Other Stories” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Thunderstruck & Other Stories

Elizabeth McCracken

3.93 · Rating details · 1,862 ratings · 354 reviews

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 heartbreakin ...more

Get A Copy

Or buy for

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published April 22nd 2014 by The Dial Press

More Details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Thunderstruck & Other Stories, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Thunderstruck & Other Stories

Lists with This Book

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great 2014 Book Preview

94 books — 416 voters

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

Book Riot's 100 Must-Read Contemporary Short Story Collections

100 books — 28 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

3.93 ·

Rating details

· 1,862 ratings · 354 reviews

Filter

Sort order

Jul 21, 2014 Richard Kramer rated it it was amazing

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 o ...more

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2014 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

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 ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Dec 23, 2013 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-via-edelweiss, short-stories, cathartic, first-person-plural

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 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:

“[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. ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2017 Panagiotis rated it really liked it

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 επ 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! ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2014 Thomas rated it liked it

Shelves: short-stories-for-fun, adult-fiction, realistic-fiction

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.

Desp ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Aug 18, 2014 Larry H rated it really liked it

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 mur ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 04, 2017 Solistas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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 ό 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. ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2014 Vincent Scarpa rated it it was amazing

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 t ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 12, 2014 Holly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-reads

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 ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 06, 2015 David rated it it was amazing

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 abse 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:

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.
...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2016 Meg added it

For 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 For 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. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 01, 2014 Julie Ehlers rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, short-story-collections

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.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 28, 2013 Diane Prokop rated it it was amazing

Brilliant, breathtaking, and unbeatable prose. McCracken at her finest. She constantly surprises and amazes me. A must read!

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2018 Holly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

Very enjoyable and well-written! I usually don't care for (extremely) plot-driven fiction, but these stories have a subdued, tranquil vibe in spite of all the drama. Went down like little birth control pills.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2014 Megan rated it it was ok

Shelves: first-reads, reviews-requested

[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 "ma ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 22, 2014 Rafe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014-books

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 bec ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2014 Tamsen rated it liked it

Shelves: short-stories

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 every ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2014 Helia Rethmann rated it really liked it

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: expectat ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2014 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2016 Jane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: female, library, shorts, us, twitter

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.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 19, 2016 Briane Pagel rated it it was ok

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 f ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 08, 2017 Cheryl Keller rated it it was amazing

I loved this book of short stories and I want to read more of Elizabeth McCracken's writings. These stories grip you from the beginning with the energy of McCracken's prose and the vividness of the characters and settings. These characters have "been around the block" and know a thing or two about some of the darker forces in our world, including various forms of poverty and of uncontrollable tragedy and the particular kind of grief it brings.

But every sentence pulled me into the next one, her ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2019 Shari Strong rated it it was amazing

In these nine stories, McCracken explores the terrain of failed, missed, and nearly-missed connections. People go missing, become ghosts of various sorts, while those still alive, left behind, or feeling alone or isolated try to make sense of what happened, what was lost, what they have left. These stories incorporate some of my favorite elements in short fiction: humor, terrible events, sad and hapless narrators, hope even where none is merited, and deft observations about human behavior and th ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2014 Pamela rated it did not like it

Shelves: boring, death, disappointing, eh, readin2015, short-stories, woefully-depressing, award-winning

To make a sweeping generalization, I enjoy collections of short stories. This is especially true for YA authors whose full-length novels I might not read because of instalove or love triangles or just general disinterest in the subject matter, but I find that you can really see a writer's craft shine when they're restricted to a shorter format. There's no time to develop an elaborate love triangle or parallelogram or whatever, Plus, I find that short stories tend to end with a punch.

Other reader To make a sweeping generalization, I enjoy collections of short stories. This is especially true for YA authors whose full-length novels I might not read because of instalove or love triangles or just general disinterest in the subject matter, but I find that you can really see a writer's craft shine when they're restricted to a shorter format. There's no time to develop an elaborate love triangle or parallelogram or whatever, Plus, I find that short stories tend to end with a punch.

Other readers and reviewers of Thunderstruck and Other Stories praise McCracken's prose for being funny and wise and "exquisite." When I finished, I sat there, wondering if I had read the same book as all of those other people. Because this collection of stories was at best, mildly offensive (which at least adds a little zing to the reading experience), but on the whole, as bland and unsatisfying as Dickensian oatmeal.

Basically, in each story, someone has died, is dying, or will die. The protagonists need to deal with this. Unfortunately, death is common to everyone, so it's not like this is a groundbreaking topic. I am unsure of what these stories were supposed to make me feel. They were neither creepy, nor sad, nor funny. It was a bit of a flatline.

I'm not going to do a breakdown of each story. Some were more memorable than others; this means, simply, that I felt more angry about those stories and so I made an effort to remember them in order to write this review.

"Juliet" is a story that pulls out all the stops on librarian stereotypes. Granted, that isn't the focus of the story, but since I was so very distracted by all the "children's librarian wears dorky shoes" comments, I don't really know what I was meant to take away from this.

"The children's librarian had no friends at the library. She wore peasant skirts and thick-soled shoes and pendants on long black strings." Um, if you are a children's librarian with no friends, you're doing it wrong. The kids, at the very least, should be your friends. And while I think that we youth services librarians can be the quirkiest of the bunch in our sartorial choices (pink hair! poodle skirts! bow ties!) we can't all be lumped into the "hippie" category. And for pete's sake, what's wrong with wanting to wear peasant skirts or clunky shoes? They're dang comfortable!

Anyway, "Juliet" is essentially the story of how a small community deals with a brutal murder--that of quirky library patron "Juliet"--or Suzanne, as we come to find her name is. Stabbed ninety-six times and a local boy of a big-name family arrested for the murder. It's hinted that the children's librarian (never granted a name, interestingly; I'm sure I could write an essay about the symbolism in that, but this is not lit class, thank the Old Ones) was suspiciously absent around the time of Suzanne's death, but it's so much easier to believe the circumstantial evidence and convict Tommy Mason of the murder. It's a decent short story, but aside from someone being murdered and people saying hurtful things, not much else happens.

The other story that stuck with me was "Hungry," mostly because of how it dealt with weight and children. Sylvia is caring for her granddaughter, Lisa, while Lisa's father (and Sylvia's son) is in the hospital dying of cardiac failure. Sylvia spends the entire story beating herself up over the fact that she has--horror of horrors--allowed Lisa to get fat during her sojourn in Iowa. Woman: priorities, you need them straight. Your son is dying and his daughter is old enough to know and you're in distress because Lisa split her pants? Too many buffets out there in Des Moines and Lisa has become a problem to fix "with dietetic caramels and sugar-free fake M&Ms ... For the block party this afternoon, she and Lisa together had made a lo-cal noodle kugel: low-fat cottage cheese, fat-free sour cream, margarine, a cornflake topping." Lisa, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care or notice that she's bigger than when she arrived. She's more interested in declaiming famous orations of the past. But you know what? She's going to get a complex real quick with her grandmother constantly trying to "slim her down."

"It pained her, too, the pudge of her granddaughter's thighs. The straps of her bathing suit cut into her shoulders, and her weight had changed." Sylvia superficially acknowledges that weight isn't everything, but we also learn that she routinely underfed and critiqued her daughter Rena.

Although I understand (I think) where McCracken is going with this story: Sylvia expresses her love through control and criticism, and flips out about her ten-year-old granddaughter's weight as a way to push aside the reality that her son is going to die--it's still profoundly uncomfortable to read. Maybe that's an interesting way to look at it for Sylvia, but I keep thinking about Lisa, and how she'll grow up. Heck, I started having food anxieties reading the story--some of the food comments were pretty triggering. I guess the theme is that we're all broken and life sucks, which is kind of the theme of all of the stories here.

None of these stories left me thunderstruck. I saw no spark of liveliness or humor or even originality in them. They simply were, and I wish I hadn't spent my time reading them. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 02, 2018 Rachel Pollock rated it really liked it

Honestly, I appreciated all of the stories except for the titular one, which struck me as less-well-crafted than the rest. Many more hits than the one miss. If you like short story collections, this is a good one.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2019 Mark rated it really liked it

Shelves: story-collection

This story collection had been on my TBR forever. I had heard plenty of good things and it did not disappoint. Smart, crafty and slightly bent. Just my cuppa...

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2018 Nikiverse rated it it was ok

Shelves: short-stories, audio

listened to this on audiobook and had a very hard time focusing on the stories. it could be me, it could be the quality of the writing. i wasnt a fan tho

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2014 Rachel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: short-stories

The tone of these stories all feel very different to me, though I can't put my finger on why. Most are in third person, and they dance around the central events via omniscient narrator who teases you with slightly more information and/or speculation than the characters themselves are capable of. Maybe it's the characters themselves who are a bit different--middle and lower class kids and adults of varying mental health, European wanderers who were bougious, tourists, or run down, the largely unn The tone of these stories all feel very different to me, though I can't put my finger on why. Most are in third person, and they dance around the central events via omniscient narrator who teases you with slightly more information and/or speculation than the characters themselves are capable of. Maybe it's the characters themselves who are a bit different--middle and lower class kids and adults of varying mental health, European wanderers who were bougious, tourists, or run down, the largely unnamed collective staff of a library that narrated one of my favorite stories, "Juliet."

At the 2014 National Book Festival, McCracken divulged that two of the stories were once part of the same fledging novel-in-progress that ultimately died out, in part because these stories were so disparate. But thematically, there's a bit of a string. Characters are lost either to death or the unknown, and we center on how it changes or exacerbates the relationships of those around them. In "Something Amazing," a grieving mother who lost a young child lets a young boy into her house while his abusive older brother, we learn through the hinting omniscient narrator, is lost forever to a traumatic, unknown event that later switches his own mother's favor back to him (the irony of how you get what you desire). In "Juliet," the library plays center stage to people on both sides of a death--Juliet turns into a pseudonym when the woman is murdered; the angry father of the murderer turns meek; the children's librarian who befriended the protagonist turns bitter and confrontational. In "Hungry" a woman is kept from the son who is dying by the daughter who always resented her; she has to find meaning in her son's last moments while keeping the truth from her granddaughter.

"the Lost and Found Department of Greater Boston" is probably my favorite, where the omniscient narrator probes what might have happened to a missing woman, but the real protagonist is "the Hi-Lo Manager," who defines himself that way certainly as much as the story does, after an altercation with the woman's son which the two of them remember quite differently. I also liked "Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey" where a man goes to die on a friend-turned-enemy's couch, reminiscing on the private, complicated aspects of a publicly damning documentary the other man made of him.

But by the time I got to "Thunderstruck," where a rebellious pre-teen was taken to Paris to curb her appetites, I was a little weary. Surely, despite the obviously misleading happy start, the girl would end up either dead or missing--McCracken now chose a compromise between the two. But this time, the varying reactions of the parents just seemed exhausting--.until we were allowed a brief glimpse into the girl's altered mind.

Just a brief continuity note--I did read "Property" in a Best American Short Stories anthology where I named it a favorite; still liked it here, but nothing new to report. :p ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2014 Patricia rated it liked it

I am trying to decide if I am not a fan of short stories or if these short stories didn't work for me. I think it is a mix of both. It seems with short stories, I don't retain the story nor message. It may be because the writer doesn't have time for in depth character and plot development. I believe that is the shortcoming in McCracken's stories. In general, I and many other readers found the stories, characters and themes depressing; filled with sorrow, lack of hope, death, bleakness.
"Thunders I am trying to decide if I am not a fan of short stories or if these short stories didn't work for me. I think it is a mix of both. It seems with short stories, I don't retain the story nor message. It may be because the writer doesn't have time for in depth character and plot development. I believe that is the shortcoming in McCracken's stories. In general, I and many other readers found the stories, characters and themes depressing; filled with sorrow, lack of hope, death, bleakness.
"Thunderstruck" was my favorite. The story of Helen, a twelve year old girl, who with her family goes to Paris for the summer. Helen survives a horrific accident and becomes disabled. Neither Helen nor her father wanted to leave Paris before the accident and perhaps in hindsight they should have remained forever. The mother, Laura, seems to have no hope, love nor optimism for her now disabled daughter.
"Property" was the story of a forty year widower who rents a rundown house to recover after the death of his wife. He cleans out the house and moves in his personal belongings. When the landlady returns, he finds all the things he'd thrown away were the possessions and memories from her life and failed marriage. "This was a house abandoned by sadness, not a war or epidemic but the end of a marriage, and kept in place to commemorate both the marriage and its ruin."
"The Lost and Found Department of Greater Boston" is a story about a young boy, Asher Blackbird, whose mother, Karen, disappears. Asher is left in his home with his invalid grandfather who dies. Asher's story is brought forward when he is caught shoplifting food in a convenience store. The store manager becomes obsessed with Karen's disappearance.
"Some Terpsichore" begins with a saw hanging on the wall. Forty years earlier, the protagonist Miss Porth fell in love with Gabe Macon who played the saw and she sang. They had an unhealthy relationship and she leaves taking the saw as a reminder of when they first fell in love and were enchanted.
There were several common themes in many of the stories: run down, seedy or dumpy houses/apartments, pets, many people down on luck or life, children lost, lonely or unloved, characters living or traveling abroad, and Canada and French references.
McCracken writes lovely prose but these stories are simply depressing and in some cases bizarre. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 09, 2014 Steve Petherbridge rated it it was amazing

Recommended by a Goodreads friend, what struck me about this collection was the originality and how each story shone with quality. There is the expected quality prose from a writer building a good reputation, but, the overall composition skilfully displays the human effect of disappearance and death within the family, the tenderness and care of strangers and family members to others in trouble, compassion, the challenges of parenthood and the difficulties posed by life. Many stories do not end c ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Around the Year i...: Thunderstruck & Other Stories, by Elizabeth McCracken	1	7	Jul 08, 2018 10:08AM

Readers Also Enjoyed

Genres

Short Stories

291 users

Fiction

102 users

Literary Fiction

18 users

Short Stories > Short Story Collection

8 users

See top shelves…

About Elizabeth McCracken

Elizabeth McCracken

369 followers

Librarian 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 Figme ...more

Books by Elizabeth McCracken

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination

More…

Trivia About Thunderstruck & O...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from Thunderstruck: & ...

“Whatever you have lost there are more of, just not yours.” — 2 likes

“I’m so sorry,” he said, because after Pamela died, he promised himself that if anyone told him the smallest, saddest story, he would answer, I’m so sorry. Meaning, Yes, that happened. You couldn't believe the people who believed that not mentioning sadness was a kind of magic that could stave off the very sadness you didn't mention – as though grief were the opposite of Rumpelstiltskin and materialized only at the sound of its own name.” — 1 likes

More quotes…