Customer Reviews

Friendly Fire (Iowa Short Fiction Award)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came across a Kathryn Chetkovich story in the Houghton-Mifflin annual collection of best short stories (1998 edition), and knew I had to get my hands on "Friendly Fire" as soon as I could so I could read more of her writing. And I wasn't disappointed -- all of her stories are beautifully crafted and have an wonderfully understated wryness and insight -- you will be delighted, amused, and often moved by the perfect turns of phrase that Chetcovich finds to illuminate even the smallest incident or observation. Can't wait for more from this writer.

I consider myself a reader and am usually aware of all the new books coming out. I picked this book up having heard nothing about it. I sat and read the first story of this collection and before I was even done the first page I knew Kathryn was a discovery. This is her first book and she has me for whatever else she writes. These stories about real struggle and emotional entanglements of the family. Having grown children I loved reading them. I don't usually write these reviews ; I don't feel competent ; but it is a crime to me that I hadn't heard of this book. FRIENDLY FIRE is so WONDERFUL. When I think of the books out there that receive so much attention. Kathryn is a gem. Support her work and you will not regret it!

I admit having learned about this book only because I was looking up something on Jonathan Franzen, who happens to be Chetkovich's boyfriend since about the time of this publication. Although the amount of publicity for their respective work could not be more disparate, Kathryn Chetkovich is a talented, sensitive and perceptive writer in her own right. So impressed was I by her short but uncannily emotive stories that I would personally fire off a marketing campaign for her if she asked me to. Calling her glimpses of young women's ambivalence towards the ties with family, friendship, love and adulthood "enigmatic" or "mesmerizing" would be trite. But how she nails feelings I thought reserved to myself, moreover, why no one has brought her ability to broader recognition IS a riddle to me.

Her style of accentuating the marginal while letting the essential speak for itself appeared, albeit later, in a few German women authors' stories that I liked in varying degrees (Zsuzsa Bank, Judith Hermann). Likewise, Chetkovich's stories are not all of the same sterling quality to warrant a full five stars--some are just a little too slight--, but 4.5 stars and rising.

"Chetkovich's sprightly prose allows an unusual display of character and situation in a few pages. Refreshingly robust, Chetkovich's stories have heart, action, and resonance. They announce a young writer who knows not only how to probe her characters' lives but also how to make them entertaining." 8/8/98

I read these stories years ago and still can't get them out of my mind. Chetkovich has the rare ability to completely transport a reader in the space of a brief paragraph. Often, she does it with one sentence. All I can say is, "More please."

The work here is so strong, funny, insightful. She seems to only choose her best work for publication. All of it is top flight. This can hardly be said for so much that is printed and puffed up these days. She is great.