Customer Reviews

Like You'd Understand, Anyway (Vintage Contemporaries)

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This is the book that made me a Jim Shepard fan. Time Magazine, in its "Best Of" for 2007, called it off-beat. I like to think of the stories as very human. You probably know next to nothing about Hadrian, Cosmonauts or executioners living during the French Revolution- and I know even less. But what makes these stories stand out is the combination of sympathetic, conflicted characterizations, vivid imagery and flashes of humor. Shepard isn't a best-selling author by any means- when I borrowed his second collection,"Love and Hydrogen," from the Library it turned out no one else had- but for anyone looking for involving, energetic storytelling should give this book a chance.

In most of the short stories in "Like You'd Understand, Anyway," Jim Shepard examines families. We get family relationships from ancient Greece to present-day Texas through the eyes of a least-favorite son, a son yearning for a father, a troubled brother whose brother is even more troubled, and unsteady husbands. They are families in which, as the title suggests, understandings are less than perfect. Indeed, in many ways they are stories of isolation and estrangement within the family. Other stories are about obsessed explorers.
Be advised that the weakest story is the first, which takes place at Chernobyl. The second story, the shortest in the book, hits home hard. From there, the book is continually fascinating.
Shepard is easy to read. Stories of great subtlety seem effortlessly written. Shepard presents characters we soon feel we know. Indeed, through his stories it is the reader who ends up understanding quite a bit.

This is a great short story collection. The stories range from the nuclear fallout at Chernobel to hunting the Yeti (the abominable snowman of the Himalayan region). Shepard handles each story with a sort of care that no matter the topic each piece finds a way to shine. I highly recommend the story, "Courtesy for Beginners." It's moving and disturbing, just the sort of story that exemplifies Shepard's ability to craft the kinds of stories that leave us unhinged.

This collection of short stories is thoroughly absorbing, transporting the reader across time and space. The details of the stories put the reader firmly into the settings, with strongly portrayed characters that the reader can't help but empathize with, even when they aren't the most sympathetic. Most of these stories focus on the disastrous consequences of human hubris and folly, from the Chernobyl disaster to the French Revolution, and provide compelling insights into the people involved in these events.