Emperor of the Air [Hardcover]

Ethan Canin (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: TRAFALGAR SQUARE + (1987)
• ASIN: B000SHA0UU
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, compelling writing, March 6, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Emperor of the Air (Paperback)

I read this collection of stories by Ethan Canin 10 years ago, and continue to recommend it as an absolute must for anyone who enjoys fiction. The writing is straightforward and evocotive, and the plots are about real experiences that it seems almost everyone, regardless of age, race or class, will find almost eerily familiar. I agree with the reviewer who loved "We Are Nighttime Travelers." I was 29 when I read it, but my reaction was completely visceral. "Star Food" and "Where We Are Now" have the power to be classics as well. My former literature professors might send me out of class if they heard me say this, but I honestly feel these stories are very different from much of the "literary" fiction we read these days. Canin never writes over our heads. He never tells stories that appeal only to intellectual minds or to an inside group of reader/writers who have all spent time at the same fellowship programs and writers colonies. He respects his readers and has the courage to go straight for the heart. Every good story should be suspenseful, and Canin creates an irrestible sense of "what will happen now?" from the very first line. He gives us stories with beginnings, middles and ends that linger in the mind for years. Obviously, I just can't say enough. . .

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A triumph of style, July 22, 2001

By 

J. Gilmore "jonnygil" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Emperor of the Air (Paperback)

Canin's prose is very natural, sparse and elegant simultaneusly. Because of that, if he can continue to produce he will likely be read for a long time. As far as the substance of his stories . . . At times I did feel that he was overreaching-the title story was not my favorite. However, I enjoyed and gained (I feel) from all of them. "Where We Are Now" is an honest study on the lost dreams of a midwestern couple in LA. I also very much liked "The Year of Getting to Know Us," about a man revisitng his distant relationship with his dying father.

I am impressed with Canin's ability to shift from 1st to 3rd person and back, and with the exception of "Pitch Memory," create interesting, authentic characters. I think he is a very talented writer, talented enough to forgo cuteness and pretension. As far as criticsm, there is a sense of repitition reading the stories, as all of the main characters are essentially dreamers. But the book *is* called "Emporer of the Air," and I think that the stories are different enough, reflecting crises at adolesence, early adulthood and old age, that they read and feel distinct. One story is about an older brother leaving home, another a dying old man emotionally estranged from his physically present wife, and another is about an old man who longs for something to care for. The stories may be too subtle for some, and parts may displease others for opposite reasons. Ultimately, though, it is telling that Walker Percy gave "Emporer of the Air" his endorsement, as it is at times similarly magical to Percy's "Moviegoer."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite rendering of dialogue, September 18, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Emperor of the Air (Paperback)

This book was literary star Ethan Canin's first, a collection of short stories. I'm not a huge fan of short stories, but I'm a Canin fan, so I read it, and I'm glad I did. He's able to find compassion, loveliness, and surprise in the everyday lives of people. In the tale "We Are Nighttime Travelers," a retired couple rediscovers their love for each other, and in "Star Food," a boy protects the identity of someone stealing groceries from his parents' store. His writing is straightforward but exquisite and should have a wider appreciation among the reading audience.
Emperor of the Air was written during Canin's years as a medical student in Boston, reminding me of parallels with another boy wonder, Daniel Mason, who likewise wrote a dense and mesmerizing novel (The Piano Tuner) while he was in medical school in San Francisco. That it's possible to write like this while fellow classmates are struggling just to keep from flunking out just stuns me.