Customer Reviews

How Animals Mate: Stories (Sewanee Writers')

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

 

 

It becomes easy to float through books of contemporary short stories, but every once in a while you'll come across a book like this one that will jar you out of any notions of complacency. Mueller's collection is multifarious, beautiful, frightening, distrubing and gives more hope for the state of fiction than any collection since Ken Kalfus' "Thirst" or George Saunder's "Civilwarland in Bad Decline". This is a brilliant collection, worthy of accolades and most certainly the attention of readers.

These stories span a range of human experience that is staggering. Mueller is compassionate in his scrutiny. He deftly, vividly conjures worlds and inner lives with language that is sharp and sparkling, smart and fully engaging. I've never read a story collection that didn't have one or two (or more) pieces fall flat--until now. This is a solid, stunning book.

In an ongoing attempt to retrace my Amazon purchase history and review every book not yet reviewed, I find this excellent collection by Daniel Mueller languishing in purgatory. Why? Is it the brutal subject matter? The refusal to blink at life as it is lived by the most unhappy and emotionally misfortunate amongst us? Is it the strong writing?

I'm distressed to think that this remains Mueller's sole collection in nearly ten years. It is easily as powerful as many more ballyhooed debut story collections published in that time, and I hope we will soon see its mate. (Yes, I said "mate.")

I was fortunate enough to see a galley print of the book before it went to final press! Mueller is a GENIUS! Scary, but a Genius. I have not had the opportunity to glance at a mind like this in a while! The book will make you laugh, cringe and ge grateful that you don't live in minnesota!

Daniel Mueller is astoundingly good at what he does. The title story is moving and arresting and beautiful and sad and quite nearly perfect. And it doesn't go downhill from there. Anyone with an eye towards where the short story is today as a genre should read this book. It's wonderful!

I could only get through a couple of the stories in this book. Each sentance was so long and convoluted that it became a turnoff to me. I've read a lot of short story fiction of this type, but this one wasn't that great.