Customer Reviews

The Prisoner Pear: Stories from the Lake

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

 

 

I don't read a lot of short stories, but this book grabbed me from the first page. Each story takes place in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego and is prefaced with an entry from the local police blotter. The stories span a wide variety of relationships and conditions, but the glue that holds it all together is Elissa Rust's excellent writing. Her use of detail transports you to the scene without ever weighing down the prose. This book is a delight to the senses. In particular, I enjoyed Iris and Megan Imagine Alternatives which is about two teenage girls who meet in an eating disorder clinic and Moon Over Water which is equal parts beautiful and haunting.

Elissa has crafted an imaginative and insightful book. She's a gifted writer. I loved the characters in The Prisoner Pear and thought the short story format was terrific. You can just pick up the book and have a satisfying read in minutes. The police blotter is a terrific thread to hold the stories together. I look forward to her next work.

Although the epigraph for each story is an item from the local police blotter, the stories in this book are moody, evocative, and based more in relationships than action. Some have a touch of magical realism. They remind me of stories by Peter Cameron, or Lorrie Moore without the hilarity. Most of the narrators seem to be observing, from a distance and without total comprehension, even when it's their own lives they're observing. I enjoyed the delicate balance and good writing, and the local color (I live in Portland), but there's no story in the book that I would rush out and make my friends read right away.

Good but not great - like one of a thousand other indictments of suburbia of the whited-sepulchre-in-a-gilded-cage variety.