Customer Reviews

Tell Me: 30 Stories

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

 

 

Robison's style of writing short stories is to plunk you down in the middle of a scene to give you a momentary glimpse in the life of others. However, nothing really monumental happens during these glimpses, and the story just ends at some arbitrary comment by one of the characters, leaving you wonder what her point was. This style works when there's conflict and you're left wondering what happens next, but Robison doesn't build any.

However, her writing is very pleasing strictly from an aesthetic sense, she describes people and places well, and does a fairly okay job of character development, but there's not much motivation because as I said, there's no conflict or suspense or hint at plot.

These are all great stories. Mary Robison's Tell Me is a terrific collection of contemporary short stories. They mostly involve women with some sort of artistic bent stuck in a plastic suburban world that somehow suffocates them, yet these women are not miserable or suffering. They simply deal with their lives in an effective way. I enjoyed reading this collection. It's a good one.

classic stories such as "Coach" and "Pretty Ice" and "Yours" are finally together in one volume!