Customer Reviews

The Collected Stories

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Writing this precise doesn't get learned. It comes straight from something higher. This is as poetic as you are likely read. Words will smash your face in. Desparation looms everywhere, and hope is just around a deserted corner.

These stories present vision of many different times and places, all told with precision and biting humor. Many take place in New York in the '50s and '60s. You will witness a major social and cultural center at a crucial moment. You will feel you lived there for a brief time while you read the story.

I got this book after hearing one of the author's short stories read on-air. I liked the story, but did think that it did leave you wondering a bit. My guess was that the other short stories by this author would be similar, if not quite as amorphous.

Truth be told, the story that I had originally heard (one of the Nachman series), was one of the more solid and complete stories in the set. It's like he's transcribing the continous internal/thought-life of his subjects as they react to various experiences, from the mundane to the outlandish.

I've read a few of the others, but don't know when or if I'll read more.

All these stories are good but the Nachman stories are amazing--funny, sad, poignant, revelatory--everything I ever wanted from a work of fiction. Michaels was a great writer.

This book is a collection of short stories. The book is a paperback that cost $2.02 but appears as if brand new. I received it within 10 days from New York and I am in Union City, CA. It would have been nearly impossible to find in a local book store.

Bought this based on an effusive review I read in The New Republic. To mangle a phrase from George Costanza, "It's not him, it's me." I guess if you're fascinated by obsessive-compulsive fixations by an author on self, to the total exclusion of nearly anything else, this will be a Michaels' tour-de-force right up your alley. Struggled through the first two offerings, then gave this a friendly funeral in the kitchen garbage can.

Can't win 'em all. Oh, and canceled subscription to The New Republic. What a rag.

Like "The Men's Club" these stories have a great pull at the start and then you realize there is nothing behind them, just the promise of something that never happens.