Customer Reviews

Simplify

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Short story collections are nearly impossible to review, especially in anything under several hundred words. (How do you comment generally on a book that contains twelve different stories that vary in plot, theme, quality, etc.?) Still, there are a few observations that one can make about Tod Goldberg's Simplify. The stories are sharp and insightful, many of them dealing with issues emerging from childhood. The writing is often funny, even when it's painful, and always to the point, with keen dialogue and a strong voice. Finally, the stories on the whole are powerful, provocative and a pleasure to read. The title entry, in particular, is a minor masterpiece.

This collection of short stories will keep you awake thinking, or fearing your dreams, for days. Filled with characters you just might know, Simplify is precisely deep enough to still be fun. A great combination of humor and insight runs through these varied glimpses into the contradictions, chaos, and slapstick of life.

This is a collection of twelve short stories.

*Each story is dark and the majority of them revolve around death.
*Each story delivers either a deep life lesson or a view of another person's life that will leave you pondering things that you have probably never thought of.

I am amazed at how well the author, Tod Goldberg, understands and is able to portray other people's thoughts and feelings. He tells the story of a messed up child, a suicidal man, a wealthy man with an empty life, a child growing into an adult, a dead child, and the brother of a killer. These are just some of the people that Mr. Goldberg takes the shape of.

Each story is written in a unique fashion. Within the first page, you will be sucked in by the unfolding of a foreign life that each story promises.

Some of the other reviews label it as sinister or evil. I didn't see it as either. Sorrowful? Maybe. Dark? Definitely. Sinister or evil? Not so much.

I'm not a big short story fan. I like stories that I can sink my teeth into for a period of time. I am the kind of person that never wants a good story to end. That being said, I loved this book. The stories allowed me to step into someone else's existence.

The stories make you dig deep and think.

I greatly enjoyed this book. Tod Goldberg writes in a witty, smart way. The stories in "Simplify" are often impressionistic. They deal with the emotional life of the character in a very intimate way, but Goldberg manages to remain always sincere, which is not always easy. His writing is very simple, in a way that is reminiscent of Hemingway, only with less wine and tipping of waiters.
I also liked how Goldberg's universe is drenched in American pop culture: a coffee-drinking Jesus vs. a beer-drinking devil, a bleeding picture of Elvis... I would highly recommend it to Europeans who want to understand the US a bit better.

The stories creep up on you and take hold of you....I was so glad when each new short story was just as good as the last one. I love this author!

Picked up this volume of short stories in anticipation of hearing Tod Goldberg speak and was not disappointed one bit.

My favorite story is probably Simplify, the title story, though I really feel that every piece has that same kind of disturbing yet vital pulse. I don't know if I would describe this collection of stories as humorous or fun, though there might be a vein of very black humor underlying some of them. I think it's more like a very dexterous yet raw exploration of what would seem to be ordinary lives and situations, but that are in fact anything but.

Overall, the tone is incredible. Goldberg, I feel at least, really flirts on the edge of normality and sanity. I felt alternately sorry for and disturbed by his characters, even while I identified with them and could understand their emotional/mental responses, even as the stories themselves spiral into some jarring extremes.

I was looking for something to add to my summer reading list and boy did I find it. I couldn't put this down. Surreal, disturbing, insightful, brilliant, grounded. Each vignette transports you instantly to the lives of the characters. I was both drawn to and repulsed by each of the main characters. Tod Goldberg is effing brilliant.

Reading--and especially enjoying--short stories is unusual for me. I bought the book because I read Tod Goldberg's blog regularly and decided to take a chance. I'm glad I did.

Simplify is a collection of good, readable stories, mostly describing the fine line between sanity and not.

I loved it, but I'm not sure how to describe it.