Cecily’s review of All That Man Is > Likes and Comments

Cecily, Great review, as usual.

I think I might shelve this as a novel. The story/ies sound intriguing.

I'm probably more interested in the one about women though.

Lisa wrote: "Cecily, Great review, as usual.
I think I might shelve this as a novel. The story/ies sound intriguing.
I'm probably more interested in the one about women though."

1. Thank you, Lisa.
2. It's definitely fiction, but I'd class it as a collection of short stories, rather than a novel (whereas Flesh is definitely a novel).
3. Girl, Woman, Other is brilliant, imo, and is more of a hybrid: lots of individual stories, but they are connected in multiple ways.

Okay, Cecily. I did add Girl, Women, Other but haven't read it yet.

Thanks for another informative and thoughtful review. Perhaps the book suffered a bit because it was about nine different men rather than 1-2 who could have been portrayed in greater depth. Szalay did that quite skillfully in Flesh, I think. I look forward to your review of the book about the women. Cheers!

Richard wrote: "... Perhaps the book suffered a bit because it was about nine different men rather than 1-2 who could have been portrayed in greater depth..."

That wasn't the issue for me. Arguable, I knew less about the inner thoughts of Istvan, the sole protagonist in Flesh, than most of the nine men here. It was just patchy.

Richard wrote: "... I look forward to your review of the book about the women. ..."

Done a few years ago!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thank you for your reply. I think the main point of Flesh was that did not have much of an inner life. He allowed his instincts, mostly sexual, to dictate where his interpersonal life went. I think Szalay ws very skillful in depicting that.

Your review of Girl,Woman, Other made me want to read it. Thank you.

In retrospect, I see the links between this book and Flesh, which I was only so-so on due to the unchanging protagonist who kept speaking in single-syllable words.

This review is nicely designed and easy to follow. Wish I saw it before reading the book. Rating each story is an interesting strategy. Wish I'd done it. Then I could play the parlor game of comparing numbers.

Ken wrote: "In retrospect, I see the links between this book and Flesh..."

They're the sole reason I read this now, and I think my friend (who lent it to me) was right.

Ken wrote: "Rating each story is an interesting strategy...."

It wasn't my initial plan (I didn't have one), but the more I read, the more it felt like a short story collection than a novel.