Customer Reviews

Inventing the Abbotts and Other Stories

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

 

 

With her stories of infidelity, divorce, and sexual harassment/assault, author Sue Miller delves into the darker side of love and relationships. In the title story of this book, she describes the desperate attempts of a boy from "the wrong side of the tracks" to reinvent himself as part of a local wealthy family, the Abbotts. He dates the three Abbott daughters in turn, with each relationship ending in a bigger disaster than the last one. (Fans of the movie, take note: this is NOT a love story, and the role of the younger brother--Joaquim Phoenix in the movie--is little more than that of the story's narrator here.) The next two stories, "Tyler and Brina," and "Appropriate Affect," address both the obvious and the more hidden costs of infidelity. Explicit photographs play a role in "Slides" and "Travel," while the stories "What Ernest Says," "Calling," and "The Birds and the Bees" cover even darker sexual subjects. The stories, while engrossing, are somewhat unpolished: the first story, "Inventing the Abbotts," could have easily been a novel on its own, and the final story, "The Quality of Life," seems to end abruptly and awkwardly. At 180 pages, however, this book is a quick read, and the reader is unlikely to feel that his or her time has been wasted.

I bought this book soon after watching the movie that shares its name...And I just have to say that the movie, "Inventing the Abbots", is not near as compelling nor as convincing as Miller's version. Not to mention, that the remaining collection of stories in her book are all astounding! The details she brings to her characters make every story in this book so heartfelt and poignant...It is a must-read for every serious lover of literature! For Miller is a novelist that brings these characters to life with such candor, and explores the frailty of human nature and the darkness that lies somewhere in us all.

I quite liked this. I put this sentence first because I was quite surprised at the negative reviews on this amazon.com page--the stories were quite entertaining, the characters and settings real, the plots weren't too complex. Yes, to some people that may be boring, but gracious, these stories are character studies. Having read one too many (that is, one and a half) Nicholas Sparks books, where the characters are all rugged but gorgeous, independently wealthy, gourmet cooks and flat, flat, flat--how delightful to read about a man in love with a woman who has a 'half frozen face' and can't contain his love to one person, no matter how much he loves her. True and real, and her words are sheer poetry. In "Calling," for instance, is this : She poured herself another cup of coffee and sat down at the table opposite him. She looked out of the apartment window at the dead geranium on her fire escape. A sparrow stood on the rim of the pot and puffed itself up.

I just love that. The geranium is dead. The sparrow "puffed itself up." I'm tired of reading these bestseller novels where you only read what happens and not what characters think and feel. He sat down. She sat down. He wore a grey shirt... blah blah blah. Everything is pretty and wrapped up in a nice little package, and usually coffee and beer are described in words that are not coffee and beer but "brew" and "hot liquid," or the pronunciation of a name is slipped into the book, usually 70 pages in when you've established it in your head already. Sue Miller writes about normal people with amazing insight.

This book is a collection of short stories by the Sue Miller, the author of The Good Mother: A Novel andThe Senator's Wife (Vintage Contemporaries).

There is a very pervasive sexual theme throughout this book - - on the sexuality present in most aspects of our banal, everyday existence. Oftentimes, our motives are pervaded by sexuality when we're least aware of its presence. Good vs. bad motives - - points of view - - shades of gray - - how our sexuality influences what we do - - how others see us - - These are the shared themes of these stories.

Having very much enjoyed the film version of "Inventing the Abbots", starring Joaquin Phoenix, Liv Tyler, and Billy Crudup, I was intrigued by this collection of short stories by Sue Miller, an author who was foreign to me up until this point. I purchased the book in the hopes that these stories would be absorbing and entertaining as the movie I'd seen. Inventing the Abbots, I've found, makes just as good of a story as it does a film. I cannot tell you which version I prefer, because they both tackle the same premise in completely different ways. Both involve two brothers from a poor family and their love/hate relationships with the Abbot sisters-- the daughters of one of the wealthier men in town. While the movie beefs up the role of the narrator/younger brother and makes love (mainly the tortured type) a central theme, the literary work is more focused on the resentment and anger that can come with the youth, and the releasing of that hostility that can come with growing up. Both interpretations are interesting takes on a basic, uncomplicated storyline. The stories that followed failed to be even half as good as "Inventing the Abbots". While Miller's ability to characterize and set a scene is incredible, the actual content, the PLOT, of her works were... uninteresting. Had her pieces been, say, five pages, it would have been fine. But, her stories were usually ten, fifteen, even twenty pages... sometimes more. My feeling was that if she insisted on writing such long stories, she should establish a more solid conflict. All of the characters in her stories were hurting, they were vulnerable, they were REAL, but they were also boring. My other complaint was that with every story, it looked as though she was going to define a message, a POINT, but she copped out at the end of each work. "Inventing the Abbots" was about mistakes made during one's youth, it was about anger that can only be soothed by time. I honestly can't tell you what the other stories were about-- I found myself drilling my brain, trying to figure out what she was trying to teach me. Maybe I'm wrong. I am, after all, too young to identify with many of the situations she sets up. A lot of her works in this collection deal with middle-aged women and men who are coping with broken hearts and children they can't connect with. "Inventing the Abbots" is the only story that is about young people-- and when I say young, I mean college age, I don't mean junior high. So, I'm not condemning the writer, I'm saying these works didn't do anything for me. I'll be incredibly interested to see if anyone else has an opinion about this book, but to anyone who sees this review and this one alone, I will leave you with this:

She is, no question, an amazingly talented author, but her short stories, except for "Inventing the Abbots" (which is REALLY good), left something to be desired in my own mind because, frankly, nothing happened and I didn't understand any of the symbolism, if there was any... I'm not sure.

Miller is a wonderful writer. Her prose is fluid, her characters believable, and her themes--jealousy, loss, estrangement--are eternal. But, judging from the uneven quality of these stories, it is clear that the short story is not Miller's ideal medium.

The two best stories in this collection were the title story, Inventing the Abbotts, and Appropriate Affect. These were the stories that really shone. They were tightly-structured, played out their themes to the end, and neatly resolved a central conflict. In the manner of all good short stories, these two ended with a nearly audible "click." The rest of the stories, while thematically interesting, tended to fizzle rather than click. (Miller seems to have particular problems with stories involving sexual themes. These just ground to an unceremonious halt, as if Miller herself didn't know what she was trying to say.)

Miller definitely deserves accolades for her writing, and for her honest look at the darker side of human relationships. If these are qualities you admire in an author, then this collection will appeal to you. If you prefer a well-structured plot and an ending that packs a punch, you will only be disappointed.

The item arrived quickly. Service was excellent. The product unfornately was not what I was quite expecting. It does however make for an interesting read. I think it may be the first time I prefer watching the movie over reading the story.

This collection of novelist Sue Miller's short stories, some pre-dating any of her longer fiction, are a mixed lot and all tend toward explorations of love's more dismal hemisphere. Be forewarned, if you read this anthology you cross into frequently depressing territory. Only the title story about a now middle-aged man's recounting of his older brother's affairs with three sisters in the 1950's, carries any real weight or lingers in the memory. Fans of Miller's novels, like the masterful suburban tragedy, Family Pictures, or the dark morality play, Lost In The Forest, might like to read this simply to round-out their experience with this author, but for those who appreciate how much can be done with the short story art form might be mildly disappointed, as was I.

I am glad I picked this up off a sale table & didn't pay a lot of money for it. I have not read any of her other books, but this one was a waste of my time. The title story was the best one and it went downhill from there. The stories were disappointing &/or disgusting &/or irritating. I kept waiting for something more to them and they fell flat. Perhaps there was a hidden meaning? Well, it was too well hidden! This book went into my recycling bin and the waste mgmt. people took it away!

Maybe a bit predicatable, but an interesting look at middle America.