Customer Reviews

In the Walled City

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I absolutely loved O'Nan's "A Prayer for the Dying," so naturally I had to go back to his first book to see where he began. Although I managed to find a copy...

The twelve stories included in this collection are interesting. O'Nan shows a talent for giving us the same story through different perspectives, and his language is beautiful at times, but the collection seems to be a mixed bag. The two stories that I would consider rather weak are "Mr. Wu Thinks" and "The Third of July." It seems in these two stories mainly that O'Nan gives us something but doesn't really lead it into a pleasing direction. I kept wishing these two stories would go somewhere interesting. Both do manage to give us a lot of insight into their characters, but the ten other stories in the collection are superb and do a much better job of delving into the darkness of the human spirit.

I would actively search for this collection of stories. O'Nan almost had a perfect collection of stories on his hand, but even so, the vast majority of these stories are excellent and worth the purchase.

I like short stories, and I think Stewart O'Nan is a great writer. So predictably, I guess, I would rank this collection, IN THE WALLED CITY, among the best I've ever read. O'Nan's writing borders on elegant, and his understanding of the feelings of loss and uncertainty as well as his ability to convey, with a subtle intensity, those feelings through his characters is, in my opinion, unmatched.

Among the twelve stories are "The Third of July" about a widowed lady who, along with her eccentric handy man, both of whom are grieving their own issues, are trying to maintain a worn out golf course; "The Doctor's Sickness" showing the progressive dementia of a physician; and the amazing "Finding Amy" about a little girl lost in the woods in winter, which became the foundation for O'Nan's astounding novel, "SNOW ANGELS".

O'Nan's perfect-pitch ear for the nuances of human sadness is astounding. I can't recommend this book highly enough to those who love short stories.