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Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead
“I’m thrilled to see him in bookstores at last.”—Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude “Filled with stunning images and incantatory rhythms.”— Time Out Chicago A wide-ranging and assured, surprising, and funny debut collection. Alan DeNiro’s gently surreal stories use a toolbox of genres (including science fiction and fantasy) to grapple with issues of identity, family, gender, and politics. (Think Aimee Bender or George Saunders.) Even in the oddest moments, these characters are real people grappling with real relationships and real heartbreaks. The title story was shortlisted for the O. Henry Award. A Book Sense Pick. Alan DeNiro lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
215 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 12, 2009
its not true love. in fact, many of the stories made me roll my eyes a little bit. these situations are fine, its the transmission of them i have a problem with. they are millhauser stories without his ease of storytelling. i think its great when people are in love with language and underused words, and if you can write like durrell or mccarthy, that preoccupation becomes a strength. but if it is jarring, juxtaposing words that dont ordinarily sit next to each other just reads adolescent. reading these gives me the same feeling wes anderson gives me. i want to like you, sirs, but it is not to be.
September 25, 2021
I'm not sure why it is, but whenever I remember reading this book I want to think I read it in the pink bathroom of the house I grew up in.
This is entirely impossible.
It's as if, just by reading this book, I was transported to a magical place and time in my life, when I lived across the street from what I absolutely believed was an fantastical lake, by extraordinary means. Considering the beliefs I had about the lake of my childhood and the lake in the book's title story, this really does make sense. (Promise.)
In actuality, I read Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead in the mid-2000's when I lived in Pocatello, Idaho during a time that was not always so magical or wonderful in my real adult life, yet was made incredible by my children and the fiction I read.
Though certainly a fine author's earlier work, the imagination, the skill, and the potential to shake up the genre and literary worlds are certainly there. The stories are full of wonder, and I can't wait to read DeNiro's most recent release, which is waiting for me in California upon my return from SE Asia.
(Incidentally, Skinny Dipping was one of the books I got Pocatello, Idaho's Marshall Public Library to purchase during my "Let's bring mind-bending literature to Idaho" phase, and one of the books I've gotten the LG library to purchase in my "Let's bring mind-bending literature to LG" phase.)
This is entirely impossible.
It's as if, just by reading this book, I was transported to a magical place and time in my life, when I lived across the street from what I absolutely believed was an fantastical lake, by extraordinary means. Considering the beliefs I had about the lake of my childhood and the lake in the book's title story, this really does make sense. (Promise.)
In actuality, I read Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead in the mid-2000's when I lived in Pocatello, Idaho during a time that was not always so magical or wonderful in my real adult life, yet was made incredible by my children and the fiction I read.
Though certainly a fine author's earlier work, the imagination, the skill, and the potential to shake up the genre and literary worlds are certainly there. The stories are full of wonder, and I can't wait to read DeNiro's most recent release, which is waiting for me in California upon my return from SE Asia.
(Incidentally, Skinny Dipping was one of the books I got Pocatello, Idaho's Marshall Public Library to purchase during my "Let's bring mind-bending literature to Idaho" phase, and one of the books I've gotten the LG library to purchase in my "Let's bring mind-bending literature to LG" phase.)
August 8, 2007
Great imagery, but too often reads like a grad student's perilously purple prose, erring on the side of experimentation and self-consciousness when a concise plot might have better served the story. Still, DeNiro’s narratives have a haunting staying power marking him as an author worth watching. Oh, and Small Beer Press makes great looking books.
February 6, 2008
A short story collection like this should not be read as I read it, on the train to and from work, over a period of several weeks. It deserves more. And therefore I'm sorry Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. But even so, you're the best short story collection I've read in a year. I adore the tropes you explode into a surrealism unlike any kind I've encountered. I like the never-sentimental teenage desperation panting beneath each story. I can even endure your occasional language hard-on. We'll meet again in a context where there is no crazy guy sitting behind me and singing Dionne Warwick.
August 18, 2007
Here, here for local authors. I've waited for this book to arrive at the store for awhile now. It has come. The first sentence of the first story reads, "In your absence, the Byzantines infiltrate our City." I'm hooked, expecting to make quick work of this.
UPDATE: making progress at expected rate. am bumping from 3 to 5 stars. expect that it will remain at 5 when I finish.
UPDATE: Finished, it remains at 5.
UPDATE: making progress at expected rate. am bumping from 3 to 5 stars. expect that it will remain at 5 when I finish.
UPDATE: Finished, it remains at 5.
December 11, 2007
Weird, intelligent, sometimes funny, often bittersweet, the short stories in this collection are something else. Alan DeNiro is an amazing writer, and his stories run the gamut from a high-school loner shadowed by her own personal FBI agent to a professional killer of babies to a culture that inhabits the mythical towns propagated by erroneous maps, and more in between. Well worth a look.
May 17, 2020
This is one of those collections of stories where every story is a new heavily invented world, and where everything relies on the worlds in which the stories are set.
Some story collections, like George Saunders's, create absurd worlds, but the focus is always on the emotional conflicts and turmoils of the characters, and so the characters can thereby be removed from the worlds if they must. That is, the characters could have the same problems in whatever world they happen to inhabit.
This collection, for me, is too reliant on the specificity of the worlds. The characters are products of their worlds. I can see how that might appeal to some people (lovers of speculative fiction), but that's not me, I guess. Some stuff just didn't apply.
It is a smart collection, though, and many of the stories are thinkers.
Recommended for lovers of worlds.
Some story collections, like George Saunders's, create absurd worlds, but the focus is always on the emotional conflicts and turmoils of the characters, and so the characters can thereby be removed from the worlds if they must. That is, the characters could have the same problems in whatever world they happen to inhabit.
This collection, for me, is too reliant on the specificity of the worlds. The characters are products of their worlds. I can see how that might appeal to some people (lovers of speculative fiction), but that's not me, I guess. Some stuff just didn't apply.
It is a smart collection, though, and many of the stories are thinkers.
Recommended for lovers of worlds.
December 30, 2022
I read this collection a few months back, and unfortunately, none of the stories really stuck with me. DeNiro crafted interesting and imaginative fictional settings that made me wonder more about the world they took place in, but I wasn’t too engaged with the narratives themselves.
April 16, 2009
The collection started promisingly, but soon enough each of the stories started to blend together in a wealth of interesting details DeNiro dreamed up, and weak stories built up around them.
September 8, 2014
DeNiro is a fantastic writer and a great guy (from what I can tell on twitter). These stories are magical
August 23, 2007
love. seriously love. i may start stalking this man for the first story in this book alone...
Currently Reading
February 14, 2012Good - took too long to read so lost my ways sometimes. I would recommend.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews