Customer Reviews

Emperor of the Air

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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. . .

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."

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.

I approached this book with high expectations, considering the reviews lavished upon it. However, I found Canin to be one of the most disappointing contemporary writers I've had the misfortune of coming across (along with Michael Chabon). His stories are predictable, his attempts at change in his characters vacillates between trite and the kind of easy salvation the media pours into our faces day after day. If you're looking for innovative short stories, look up George Saunders or Jennifer Egan.

...because now I'll never see it again. Stated simply, this is a work of art. The stories are inspired, and the characters are handled with such compassion and subtle understanding that it is difficult to believe that this is Canin's first published work. I agree with the critics that it is also his best. Having read _Of Kings and Planets_ recently, I feel that his artistic integrity may be suffering the pressure of compromise coming from his book deal, but it may also be that his subject matter is exhausted. I thought that _Blue River_ was all right, though it was certainly outshined by this gem. I agree with the other reviewers that "We are Nighttime Travellers" and "Star Food" are the kind of stories that stop time dead in its tracks. If he never writes a good book again, Canin should still be regarded as an exceptional success.

This is one of the best short story collections I've ever read, docking just below the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver as the most crafted collections of stories in my experience.

-- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

This was a pretty good book, especially if you're into Robert Gottlieb-era New Yorker stories. Canin really is a stylistic genius and "Pitch Memory" - a story near the end of the collection - is probably one of the best tales I've ever read.

On the other hand, if you're not into what's termed "literary fiction" these days, I'd give this collection a miss. All of these stories are pretty slow-moving and except for a couple, most of them focus on familial relationships. Coming to terms with your father. Coming to terms with your mother. Coming to terms with your older brother who's going off to California. You get the picture.

All in all, though, a good collection to sit back and lose a few hours in, and heck, you could do worse.

Though Ethan Canin was only in his late 20s when he wrote this book of short stories, it is the work of a great thinker and an unusual writer. It has become one of my favorite books and I'm not ashamed of saying it ranges along with Steinbeck, Auster and Kundera's as one of this century's great works.

I enjoyed most of these stories. My only complaint would be that sometimes they came off with too strong an air of an MFA style. I found he was using an old trick: during conversations between characters he would intersperse actions with dialogue--"he said. he cut into the bread. he said. he buttered the bread. etc."--blending them together in a forced kind of way. An effective tool when used well, but distracting when relied upon too much.

Otherwise the stories were tender and subtle. Canin has a quiet voice that nevertheless comes through clearly--the story attunes our ear to the message.

If you liked the title story you'll probably like the collection. Not one of those has-only-one-good-story-in-it-and-the-rest-are-duds books. It's quality stuff.

Four stars.

This is one book that by some stroke of luck I plucked from the shelf at the library. I am a fan of short stories, and usually favor simple ones, Raymond Carver comes to mind. The stories in this collection were poignant, heart-warming tales of family and love. I had never heard of this author before finding this book, but I will certainly look for something else that he has written.