Customer Reviews

Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

McCracken is a writer destined to explode in popularity sometime soon. She's the real thing, a writer to the bone, with a voice that invades your sleep and characters who become more real than the people in your own house. At her best delineating the interior life of children and eccentrics, McCracken's stories have a timeless quality - you'd never mistake them as part of some ephemeral trend. She writes beautifully but invisibly, a rare talent these days. Every story in this collection is a polished gem, but "June" and "Here's Your Hat..." are signature pieces (and you'll not soon forget the latter's final line). I've given The Giant's House as a gift more than once and found it was passed on down the line, reader to reader, new fan to new fan. McCracken was one of Granta's picks for the best new young American writers. She shines above the majority of the other picks. Buy the book. Read the stories at breakfast and before bed. Then, when Oprah is singing her praises, you can say, "I knew about her way back when."

I picked this book up on a whim. I'd never heard of McCracken, but I liked the title. What a wonderful surprise!
I read a lot of short story collections, but I have to admit that I usually approach them with a sense of duty, not anticipation. (For me, reading short stories is like eating broccoli; I do it because I think I ought to, not because it's fun). But "Here's Your Hat.." is a joyous exception. THis collection is as readable and compelling as the best of novels.
McCracken's writing is beautiful --artistic but understated-- and her stories are like nothing else I've read. Funny and tragic at the same time. She has a taste for the bizarre; her characters range from the slightly odd to the downright freakish, but she somehow maintains complete believability. In general, I am turned off by "endearingly quirky" characters because they usually seem so contrived (think of that movie, "Benny and Joon" and you'll know what I mean). But McCracken is such a talented writer that she can make you feel a powerful affinity with even the most outlandish person.
I especially enjoyed "It's Bad Luck to Die", and the title story (both these pieces have final lines that will take your breath away) but all the stories in this book are excellent.
In short, if you don't read this collection, you're missing out. And if McCracken's two novels turn out to be as good as her short stories, I think I may have a new favorite author.

I love Elizabeth McCracken. When I read this line in "Some Have Entertained Angels Unaware," I knew that I would follow its writer anywhere she wanted to take me: "Dad was thin then - maybe still is - and as chinless and gloomy as a clarinet." McCracken is a wonder, with characters, with language, and with the twisting roads of a story. I can feel only grateful that she is a writer and that we get to read what she puts on the page.

I was in the mood for short stories this time around and I picked up Elizabeth McCracken's Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry because the premise seemed interesting. I love dark, surrealistic short stories and I couldn't wait to give this a whirl. This collection is so much more than I had expected! The prose is absolutely gorgeous and I was enthralled and riveted by her words and oddball situations from beginning to end. Some stories haunted me and others touched me with their poignancy. There are no words to describe this collection. The stories that I loved the most were "It's Bad Luck to Die," "The Bar of Our Recent Unhappiness," "Some Have Entertained Angels, Unaware," and "What We Know About the Lost Aztec Children." The aforementioned stories captivated me and I read most of them more than once. Are you in the bargain for a surreal and poignant short fiction collection? I suggest you give McCracken's Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry a whirl. You won't regret it! I will definitely read more stuff by Elizabeth McCracken.

Each story is a world in itself...all unique and intricate. I was drawn in to each story so perfectly by Elizabeth. I almost thought these were nonfiction. When I finished the book, I wanted so much more from her. Later I found The Giant's House, and I still want more! She is just so personable and communicates well in her writing.

I randomly bought Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett, which is amazing. I love both Patchett's and McCracken's writing style. I read a book about american women authors, which consisted of interviews. It turns out that Ann and Elizabeth were friends and they met at a writers' colony. So if you get a chance, check out Ann's books too!

I first encountered one of McCrackens' short stories in the 2011 Best American Short Stories series, a piece titled, Property. It was an absolutely beautiful story certainly worthy of being included in the prestigious anthology. I ordered Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry shortly after and was not disappointed. This collection oozes with quirky character, unique perspective, and has a dash of magic that is hard to pin down but is present in all good fiction.

Had I just read the first two stories--the first is about a tattooed woman; the second, about a child raised by a house full of strangers--I would have found them entertaining, but probably not memorable, but in this collection the author does a curious thing. She goes back over the same themes again and again, and each time there is new depth.

They become more personal, more real, more urgent. In "Secretary of State" that young child in the second story (now in completely different circumstances) becomes alienated from her mother's family over the father's mental collapse. And in "The Goings On of the World" we see another side of the single woman who spends extended time living with strangers by claiming to be their distant relative. The tattooed woman is also reprised by an armless mother.

This is great contemporary writing. Fiction that pulls you in and sends you out the other side a little different person. Elizabeth McCracken was a librarian before becoming a full-time writer. Now you can check her out.

- John Lehman, [...]

I was drawn to THE GIANT'S HOUSE because of its marvelous cover. I read the first paragraph while still in the bookstore. I was knocked out by the straightforwardness of the language. Reminded me of my mother's relatives in Brookville, Pa. I had withdrawal when I finished, so I quickly scooped up HERE'S YOUR HAT. . . Loved it, too. What a shocker I had when I came to the end of the story "Secretary of State." The narrator says she goes from being a "Savitz" to being a "Barron." Well, darned if I'm not a Savitz. Not a common name, so I'd like to know how to get ahold of E. McCracken. I love her work. I sure hope we're related. Bobbie Savitz, Portland, Oregon

Well, as a previous reviewer has said, I'm hooked. I've read "The Giant's House," I've read, "Niagara Falls," and then, there is this truly unforgettable collection of characters... and they are truly a collection.

What McCracken is selling here is the kind of figurines you'd order from an 800 number and store for posterity on a handsome pine display shelf. Except these "figurines" are sculpted in words, some of the most beautiful, haunting, captivating words you can imagine. And they're all set in stories, each one a limited-edition display piece of cutting wit and honest, hopeful humanity.

I'd say Elizabeth McCracken is, along with Lorrie Moore, my favourite "emerging" fictioneer, and I am breathlessly awaiting her next entry. Frankly, I'd happily read her shopping lists while I'm waiting, desperately soaking up as many of her fabulous words as I can.

I read the first story - "It's bad Luck to Die" and thought I'd look forward to the rest of this book -- but when I read the next story ("Angels Unawares") and confronted the humorous(?) attempt to describe a dog that had brutalized kittens, I closed the book and brought it back to the library. There's already too much of that kind of suffering in the world -- why try to play it for a laugh????