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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exquisite stories, February 9, 2005
Tom Saunders has tuned into the deep dark secrets of our world, of happiness and sadness, and has articulated them in the stories collected in "Brother, what strange place is this?".
The title story with the brother Griffin jumping out of a window only to survive and end up in an institution for the insane addresses the title question in an emotional and philosophical way, but really, all the stories in this collection are studies of the same question.
"Aerobatics" is the one that most got to me, the one I can't forget: A father tells his daughter about the time, when he was a boy, that he came home from school to see to his mother crying, "breaking her heart". He explains that up until that moment he was happy and then "suddenly I was landed with this knowledge about my mother...I wasn't prepared for what I saw...I wasn't prepared for a world where that sort of sadness was possible."
You have to be prepared to read this collection. You won't be, of course. Like the little boy who is suddenly faced with the shock of his mother in tears, one can never be prepared to face the depth of the world's sadness (for the boy) or strangeness (for the brother, Griffin).
Yes, I recommend this collection of stories. Tom Saunders is a sensitive and intelligent writer who is concerned with the truth of the human condition.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rare quality. , December 29, 2004
A Compeling Exploration
Tom Saunders' collection is the work of a true artist.
His writing leads you through a range of human interaction and emotion. In stories like THE RED TRAIN, Saunders tackles subjects that are delicate, controversial at best and with great sensitivity lays it out for the reader to advance conclusions. Without pretense or presumption he offers the reader the opportunity to explore. A true gift Brother, What Strange Place Is This? is a remarkable collection by a remarkable writer.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bob Arter is a happy reader, December 28, 2004
After decades of minimalism, modernism, postmodernism, and batty maunderings, Saunders' careful, credible storytelling is as an oasis to the parched mind. My own personal favorite in this varied collection, The Calle de Obra Pia, will sit you down on a piano bench next to a man who is hopelessly in love. You may like him--and this is true of all of Saunders' characters--or you may not, but I tell you that you will care about him, you will know him, you will very likely find in him yourself.
And this is the truth that infects Saunders' stories, and draws the reader into them: he does not write about Everyman; instead, he continues to show us variations on the species. None is wholly good nor entirely sympathetic. Each is as imperfect, as yearning, and as capable of greatness in small spaces as are you, as am I.
This collection is clean air. Do yourself a favor.
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