There haven’t been many books that I adored as much as I did this one. Weird and uncomfortable. Beautiful and meaningful. Everything was wrapped together perfectly tied with a little bow.

A story among stories. Meanings hidden behind words.
I recommend this book to people with age of 13+ because of the certain usage with words and just the plot in general. I found this book a bit boring in the beginning, because I didn't understand what the author was trying to show. It gets way more interesting when you know what's happening, and why...

This one is considerably bleaker than The Color Master, but still has that dreamy, dark fairy tale vibe that drew me in so effectively in that collection.

The reason why it didn't work so well for me is the fact that the symbolism is much more heavy-handed and clumsy, and the slight absurdity of magical realism feels less natural and smoothly blended in than it does in Aimee Bender's later work.

In short, it's an extremely engaging and quite unsettling little treat, written with Bender's usual superlative skill with words, but not necessarily her best creation.

An heiress secretly auditioning men; a wife whose husband returns from the war zone with no lips; a woman who gives birth to her mother; a mermaid going to high school; two mutant girls – one with an ice hand dripping healing water, and the other with a fire hand lighting cigarettes after school hours; an orphan with a knack for finding lost things; an old couple who dreamt the same dreams. And life in between.

This short story collection was sold to me as a gallery of interesting women and some of the stories in it were indeed interesting, really atmospheric, and weird, which made them seem too short. There was only one I didn’t like and didn’t see the point of it, but all-in-all, this was a really captivating read.

You're going to like it or not. There seems like there's only a small middleground, which is (ironically) where I stand.

There were very strong stories mixed with "snappy, chic, in-your-face, over-the-top" stories that were about "pain" and "human ugliness" and such, but I saw a lot of flash and pop phrases in a forced surreal world. A woman giving birth to her mother. A librarian having sex with every man she sees out of grief. A woman in love with a man only because of his hunchback and leaves him when she finds out it's fake. Some of it felt too much like the writer kept pushing, "no, just suspend your belief. No, it's terrific, just think about it..."

However, with that said, there are a few gems that make me contemplate buying the book or, at the very least, reading them again. "Fugue" was one of her more ambitious pieces and was interesting to follow along. I also really liked the story of the boy who had a knack of finding things. When she doesn't try so hard to be so out-of-the-ordinary, she can keep an audience and can really make a good portrait of beauty and sorrow in humanity.

เล่มนี้เราว่าแปลไม่ค่อยดี ดูขาดๆเกินๆ
บางเรื่องเราค่อนข้างชอบมากๆ แต่บางเรื่องก็เฉยมากๆ แต่ก็มีบางความรู้สึกที่หนังสือเล่มนี้มอบให้นั้นก็คือ แรงบันดาลใจอะไรบางอย่างที่เราได้รับจากหนังสือเล่มนี้

I love Aimee Bender's weird little stories. The only one that escaped me was Dreaming in Polish.

An interesting collection of short stories that I read during intervals between other books.

รวมเรื่องสั้นที่แปลกประหลาดทั้งพล็อตและวิธีเล่าเรื่อง คือสมาธิต้องดีมากเพราะเรื่องไม่ได้ดำเนินไปตามครรลองปกติ จึงไม่แปลกที่คนอ่านสมาธิสั้นอย่างนี่จะอ่านรู้เรื่องบ้างไม่รู้เรื่องบ้าง

เรื่องที่อ่านรู้เรื่องและสนุกกับมันคือ

(1)
เพื่อนชายกลายเป็นวานร
- เหมือนเรื่องย้อนวิวัฒนาการของเอคุนิที่เพิ่งอ่าน

จะตามติดชิดใกล้
- มีกลิ่นมุราคามิ เวอร์ชั่นฮาร์ดคอร์

(2)
ห้องสมุดหรรษา
- บรรณารักษ์เพิ่งเสียพ่อ จึงระบายด้วยการซั่มหนุ่มทุกคนที่เดินมาเคาน์เตอร์ ปิดด้วยซีนเพดานนางฟ้า

(3)
เขียวใสแสง มรกต
- ชอบรสนิยมของตัวละคร และพล็อตเรื่อง

จาก 16 เรื่องเราชอบแค่นี้แหละ ถ้านี่คือเล่มที่เด็ดสุดของเอมี่ เราน่าจะจูนกันยากละ เห็นเม้นท์ฝรั่งเอาเทียบกับงานเขียนของ Miranda July แต่เราไม่เคยอ่าน ถ้าเอาใกล้เคียงก็น่าจะ Get in Trouble ของ Kelly Link มะ เพียงแต่เล่มนั้นอ่านรู้เรื่อง จึงสนุกกับโลกของผู้เขียนกว่ามาก

ว่าแล้วก็อยากอ่านงานเคลลี่อีกจัง

I read this book because my friend Imogen Binnie told me that she loves (LOVES!) Amy Bender. Imogen has good taste in books, so I thought, How Could This Be Bad? I requested it from the library. I had a sense of déjà vu reading this book; I have read one (or more) of the stories in one of their previously-published incarnations. So in that case, it was like an old friend and a friend of a friend, plus I read it in one of my favorite places (the bathtub), and the point I'm making is that this book really had everything going for it from the starting point.

OK, but the actual book! This is a collection of short stories that show off Aimee Bender's extraordinary imagination. There are funny parts, but mostly you feel a little hollow, fragile, like you were just slapped by your ex-best friend on an important day. There are magical happenings - not like a dragon or a dungeon, but like a hole through the gut. There are many instances where you, the reader, must suspend disbelief entirely to make it to the next page. The characters are a party mix of lovable and unimaginably irritating. There is a humanity in all of this, but it is not from planet Earth. The humanity here is surreal, complicated, sort of sick, and removed from limitations of reality. The stories stick to crevasses of your brain and you could try to use a toothpick, but you will probably never pick them all out. These stories stay with you. I think my favorite (it's hard to pick) is The Healer, about two girls in an isolated town. One has a crackling hand of ice, the other has a burning hand of fire. When they hold hands, both hands are perfectly normal hands, but if they aren't in contact, the elemental form returns. They used to be friends, then they stopped. (thinking back, that is probably why this is my fave) The ice-hand girl volunteers at the hospital as a healer, the fire-hand girl becomes destructive, their lives are intertwined, and then, well, you know you should really read this.

Was absolutely captivated by the first half of these stories; those in the second half were hit or miss for me. Some seemed half-baked or trailed off before the concepts could be fully realized, which I didn't always necessarily mind.

Favorite stories: What You Left in the Ditch, Marzipan, Quiet Please, Dreaming in Polish.

I want to review this later but first—umm, Aimee Bender and I share an alma mater?! (Or at least the university at which she workshopped.) Ahhh I had no idea!

Pre-review, just-finished inclination: 4.5/5