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What Members Thought
Jess Walter focuses on the downtrodden and ne'er-do-wells in this collection of the stories. The gift of Walter is his use of humor alongside the emotional hammers he slams into the reader ever so often. Take the last story "Statistical Abstract of My Home Spokane, Washington," which begins with a list of mundane facts, transitions to comedic images of the narrator falling down on his BMX because his bell-bottoms get caught in the chain, and ends with a raw emotional gut-punch. Walter is amazing
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Memh. Disappointing after Beautiful Ruins. Notes to author: just because you live in the Spokane area doesn't mean every short story has to be set there. Also, you can portray a character as gritty without using the F-bomb every other word!
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Great collection of short stories, dealing with the present and future in and around spokane. It's dystopian at times, heavy at times, poetic always. I look forward to reading one of his novels soon. Highlights: "Anything Helps", "Virgo", "Please" and the chilling "We Live In Water"
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Jess Walter at his most cynical, no more sea side italian villages - here is down town Spokane in all its ugly, dirty glory. Love, love, love - genius contemporary writing.
Feb 08, 2013
Carol Smith
marked it as firstreads-entries
Feb 26, 2013
Andrew
marked it as to-read
Apr 04, 2013
Erin Shaw
marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2013
Sharon Styer
added it
Jul 02, 2013
Janine Holter
marked it as to-read
