Customer Reviews

Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shakespeare's Kitchen is an anthology of thirteen interconnected short stories, seven of which have previously appeared in "The New Yorker", about the yearning for friendship and the development - and loss - of closeness. Author and award-winner Lore Segal reveals the world of Ilka Weisz, who has accepted a junior position at a Connecticut think tank at the cost of departing her beloved circle of New York friends. As she comes to know her new acquaintances through a series of memorable dinner parties, afternoon picnics, and Sunday brunches, she experiences the outsider's loneliness among people as well the delight of cultivating familiar companionship, the wonderment of love, and the shock or even bizarre behavior in the wake of losing a fellow human being to death. An emotional saga of interpersonal relationships as a barometer of the human condition.

I feel like I missed the boat. When I started this book I was charmed by the witty writing, and astute observations Segal presents about relationships and how we move through life. That said, something happened halfway through and I found myself nearly numb with apathy. Frankly, I struggled to finish. Clearly I'm in the minority, and I have absolutely no quips with the author's gift for writing. I just found myself reading about cold snobby intellectuals feeling, well, cold.

I bought this book because a reviewer for the New York Times loved it, and because I enjoyed the writer's other books. The writing was very good and some of the insights impressive. I enjoyed the main character and would have liked to learn even more about her, but I grew tired of the background characters. They were always the same, no matter what was going on around them. One, Eliza, was especially tiresome and meanspirited. Yes, a tragedy had happened to her, but I never figured out how it had affected her beyond the barest details.

A wonderful collection of conversations among friends, lovers, co-workers and family about the dyanmics the life, love, loss and relationships. Although sprinkled with humor, Ms. Segal sucessfully gives the reader lessons on how we are each changed by the relationships we have and the people we love. An "adventure' into the loves, losses and daily routines of her characters.

An enjoyable book. Highly recommended.

Shakespeare's Kitchen is a collection of thirteen interconnected short stories. The theme that runs throughout the collection is one of human need. A need to be loved, to have friendships and to belong to someone or something. Is there a plot? No, not really. At times, I felt as though I was watching a bad episode of Seinfeld. I did not enjoy the protagonist, Ilka Weisz, and did not see much in her emotional growth. My main turnoff to Ilka come fairly early in the book. In the second short story, An Absence of Cousins, we clearly see her loneliness and her need to belong; however, she is rude and dismissive of secondary character, Gertie Gruner, who is just looking for the same. The secondary characters were just that. I could find no relevance for their inclusion in the stories and would have preferred them to be absent altogether.

Ms. Segal's writing style was okay. There were several times where I felt that the writing faltered - sentences just did not 'roll' off the tip of my tongue and I found the banter (intellectual or not) that occurred between the characters irritating. She did have some insights about how one navigates through life; however, not enough to hold my interest.

I would recommend to those who have read Lore Segal in the past.

Lore Segal is one of those uber-cerebral obscure writers beloved in literary circles but almost utterly unknown to the masses, even when this much-anticipated novel was shortlisted for the 2008 Pulitzer.

What began as an ongoing series of short stories in The New Yorker about an east coast academic chronicling her years spent at a Connecticut think tank and mingling in that rarefied atmosphere finally evolved into a novel, broken into thick chunks of time spanning several decades. The stories center around Ilka, the protagonist, and the many days and evenings she spends with the institute's director, Leslie Shakespeare, and his wife Eliza. Philosophy, literature, minor academic intrigues and rivalries are drilled down to the banal, proving that no matter how smart you and the people you surround yourself with are, life plays out pretty much the same way for us all: you talk, drink, eat, gossip, love, betray and die.

It's an interesting exercise in minutiae, I think, and the dialogue is compelling. It took a little while to get going in a particular direction, but when it did I was intrigued, particularly by the way things develop between Ilka and the Shakespeares. It's very much a minimalist, snapshot take on things so if the reader looks for a fully-fleshed out cast of characters they will likely be disappointed. I didn't develop any particular affection for any of the characters, but I don't think that was the author's intent anyway. I did enjoy it. The skill is definitely in the detail and observation of day-to-day existence in this little society of intellectuals who end up being just people, after all.

This is the best book I have read this summer. It is a perfect mix of good writing, wit, and captivating plot. Segal had me laughing out loud quite a few times but also had me contemplating her words long after I finished a chapter. Don't let the "short story" part scare you off. All are interrelated and reads like a complete novel. Highly reccomended.

Often, the impressively depressing characters of this book deliver anything but happiness or humor to the reader. I am not receptive to such continually depressing story telling; but, enjoyed the characters' doldrums as Segal included a looming tale of intricate love between two of the main characters - where neither party seems to know nor acknowledge love of the other.

Although claimed to be a string of short stories, this is a chronological interconnected group of stories focusing mainly on the life of Ilka whose work as a teacher for foreign students at Concordance University leads to many uncommon events.

Small town U.S.A. hosts the campus for Concordance. The faculty, like most people, seem plainly regular. But, like anyone, they become eccentrically weird as the reader begins to learn more about their nuances and idiosyncracies. But, this faculty is no less professorially bizarre than any other faculty.

Having studied in an atmosphere (and time) like that of this book, I endeavored to see if her professor Cohn was like my English humbugging Professor Knight. Yeah, kind of. Same for the other professors and administrators of this novel.

Viennese-born Ilka manages to find lovers and husbands among the town's fray. She raises a daughter whose impressionable youth is molded in the naive town, and ultimately leads a discrete and less-than-honorable lifestyle during the last 70 or more pages of the book. Small town U.S.A. has good people do bad things - this is not something monopolized by the urban dwellers.

Written in 2007, this book has chapters which read like cuttings of e-mails. Plots move at accelerated paces with ADHD-like descriptions. The last 20 pages literally encompass 10-15 years of Ilka's life, if not more. I am getting used to this format of writing, but still need more time to reflect upon whether it is truly great literature. At present, I receive this like my parents accepted rock and roll - maybe a bit better - but still hold onto classic structure and may not be open enough for this conceptual style of writing.

As a story teller, Segal is first class. As a writer, she is well above average. No wonder this finished in the running for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction

I thought this book was weird and didn't flow. The sentence structure make it difficult to read, but not in an artistic way. It was annoying. There were elements of the story that I liked but overall didn't really enjoy this book. I bought it because it was nominated for awards, but don't really get it.

This book is astoundingly well written, but the Introduction is possibly the best of all. Segal's theme being, how do people meet others? Become assimilated into an established community? I particularly loved her illustration of people attaining intimacy, and what happens to that intimacy over time, whether it remains strong or not. There is a kicker at the end that had me going back and re-reading the final pages referenced in other reviews, to see how I had missed a crucial point. And saw it was hidden there all the time. The humor also is especially keen.