peeled_grape's reviews
134 reviews

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

2.0

I really wanted to like this--I read "The Story of an Hour" and I was taken by it--but Chopin writes like she's yelling at everyone all the time. She also can't write endings, and this is no exception. I don't want to use this term to describe her writing, but it's very accurate: she's the poster child for the 19th century hysterical woman. She's overly dramatic, I think. I wish this had been more complex, as I feel Edna's marriage and her feelings both toward her husband and toward Robert would call for something less straightforward than what's here. Her marriage isn't bad, it's just not what she wants it to be--but it's treated like it's the worst thing ever. Despite being considered a feminist text, Chopin lets Edna's life be absolutely ruled by her relationship with the men in her life.

Edna is crushed when Robert leaves, and she drowns herself. All Chopin stories I've read end like this: the female lead realizes she's still married and dies at the thought of it.)

It wasn't bad. It just also wasn't good.

Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin

3.0

All of these stories are vague, which works (really well!) in some cases. The vagueness often contributes to this sense of "almost-horror," where dread is created by the way characters act in an unquestioning manner without explaining their actions. In other stories, though, I think this keeps a story from being as smart as it could've been. It feels lazy, like an "I don't want to tell you what this is because I couldn't think of anything it could be" type feel. There's 20 stories in this collection, and the vagueness is at play in every one of them. In other words, you start to anticipate it, and it gets less effective. Things start to lose their punch. However, the shorter length of the stories made them easy to get through, especially if you like me and find it hard, at times, to finish short story collections.

My favorite stories were "Toward Happy Civilization," "Mouthful of Birds" and "Underground" (with "Butterflies" as a runner-up). "Toward Happy Civilization" was the most unsettling to me (nothing bad happens but there is this desperate sense of a need to escape throughout it, and this is managed beautifully), though "Mouthful of Birds" was definitely the creepiest. "Underground" and "Butterflies" have nice plot twists.

Revenge by Yōko Ogawa

4.0

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

4.0

Russell definitely flexes her range in this collection, but some stories are much better than others. The first two, "Vampires in the Lemon Grove" and "Reeling for the Empire" are incredible for entirely different reasons; the first has perfect comedic timing, and the second, although slow to start, becomes surprisingly cathartic and satisfying. Others are less so ("Dougbert Shackleton's Rules for Antarctic Tailgating" and "Proving Up," in my opinion), which was a little disappointing. "The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis" is haunting, but stunning, and there's so much happening there. What a great way to end it. This writing is thick in a way I can't quite place--I couldn't tear through the whole book at once; I had to pause and let the stories sink in before continuing. In places, I wanted these stories to dig deeper, like in "The New Veterans." Overall, it's fantastic, and I want to absorb this through my skin.

Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders

5.0

WOW, okay. I am so interested in all of this. There is so much going on here. I am interested in moral dilemmas, moral grayness and the way people do bad things for good reasons (and the way we feel while reading those decisions unfold). I love that there are unlikable characters. I like the subverted expectations. There are moments when these stories just seem silly, and then it gets smart, and all of it just works. God. It's so good.

It's hard to pick out my favorite stories from this collection because I really liked them all for some reason or another. "Escape from Spiderhead" probably tops the list, maybe followed by "Puppy" and "Tenth of December." The endings of "Home" and "The Semplica Girl Diaries" were surprising and amazing, though I was frustrated for a solid ten seconds before realizing "wait, I like that."

They're so abrupt, but that abruptness gives it this incredible realistic quality -- no neat, happy endings, just real ones. It works really well in the case of a soldier who can't quite adjust to home life, and of a poor family struggling with unexpected bills. Saunders explores those spaces without patronizing or making light of them, which I really liked.

I think this is one of my favorite short story collections. Highly recommended.

Stranger Things Happen: Stories by Kelly Link

4.0

It was hard for me to get into this one (though maybe that's because I read this in the strange time of quarantine, where I can focus on very little). Some of these stories read like dreams -- nothing makes sense, and only follows a loose line of logic. For me, this randomness was a little much at times, and I found myself agreeing with Link when she writes that other people's dreams aren't particularly interesting. Still: "Flying Lessons" is one of my favorite short stories ever let alone one of the best in the collection. Link has endings mastered, and that shows in this story a lot. "Shoe and Marriage" and "Travels with the Snow Queen" are the other two I really liked. There is this quirkiness to "Shoe and Marriage" I admire quite a bit. There is a lot of turning stories that are familiar to us (Greek mythology, fairytales, etc.) into something both ordinary and magical, and I think that sticking those stories in the same collection unified it. The reconstruction of these more classic stories worked really well, and I really loved them.

The Lost Daughter Collective by Lindsey Drager

4.0

Smart, but strange. I have a feeling most of this went over my head. I read this all in a day, but I feel like I need way more time and maybe more readings to pick it apart. The title is the best way to think of this: it's a collection of all the ways a father can lose a daughter, and I think it's the title that helped me gain some understanding of the novel. (I read "The Archive of Alternate Endings" first and was more in the "looking for breadcrumbs" mindset.) It is extremely removed from the world we know, which gives it this dystopian, satirical undertone, but wraps back around to things that are familiar to us. Very strange. Very smart.

I found myself admiring the endings in these narratives -- I think Drager has mastered multiple narratives -- but also individual, more philosophical lines. "Fear is the bedmate of truth" is such a raw line. This is one of those "if you blink, you miss it" books, where you really have to be paying attention. There is so much detail and there are so many narratives that every line matters. And the form -- that was brilliant.

The only reason it gets four stars and not five is for the language: everything is said like a riddle and never outright (though this is absolutely more of a personal preference).

The Dark Dark: Stories by Samantha Hunt

4.0

I don't have particularly strong feelings about this collection, but it was well done. "The Story Of Of" was by far the best story in this collection. I am obsessed with its form and its ending and how it finishes the collection (which begins with a story called "The Story Of," which is both very different but, plot-wise, similar, which is a very cool and very smart thing to do). "Beast" was my second favorite, and "A Love Story" my third. These are stories about relationships and motherhood and what happens when either goes wrong. A woman turns into a deer, a story procreates itself by dividing, a woman kicks her husband out for no reason

and only realizes what she's done eight months later

. These are very strange and bizarre stories, and I think they work best together.

Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson

4.0

Mixed feelings about this collection. "The Tower," "Song for the Unraveling of the World" and "Shirts and Skins" probably round out my top three. "The Cardiacs" is really short, but I really liked that one. I think that Evenson's flash fiction is probably the most original and refreshing to read. This was also a great collection for me to read as a writer -- I've felt pressured to write something the length of Kelly Link's stories, but always find that a bit daunting, so it is cool to see a collection of 10-page stories. These stories also mix genre fiction in them, which I also like to see.

On the other hand: I feel like a lot of these stories rely on stereotypes and clichés. "Born Stillborn" has a character with mental illness who is violent because of it; "Trigger Warnings" would have been my favorite if it didn't imply that real trigger warnings are ridiculous and superabundant. (The FORM of "Trigger Warnings," though. And the humor. It was so close to being so great, and then he had to title it "Trigger Warnings.") Other times, it's like "ahh, a possession!" or "ahh, murderer!" and I feel like horror can be so much more creative than that, especially literary horror. "Sisters" ends with "and then we ate her for dinner!" which just felt cheap. We've done that before, let's try something new. I think that many of these stories were really excellent, but others fell into worn-out storylines.

My Happy Life by Lydia Millet

5.0

Jesus Christ. This novel. It rivals "The Road" as far as depressing content goes, though this one is more heartbreaking and less bleak, I'd say. It is as much the way the story is told as the plot itself. The narrator is entirely unaware of her own pain, considering herself fortunate in situations that are horrible: for example, when she is struck by lightning (which happens in the first 20 pages so it's not a spoiler), she expresses gratitude that the sky chose her to touch. It's so unfortunate that it is a little outlandish, at first, but then it moves into a less episodic style, and starts to really take form. It's terrible! And you should definitely do something fun and light after reading this! But there are some moments in here that are really stunning and dark all at once, and it's worth reading this just for those moments.