In her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood describes a future after humanity had been almost entirely wiped out by a plague. Jimmy, aka Snowman, lives...
Continue »
It is clear, reading this book, that Lahiri has been reading a lot of Alice Munro. This book embraces the freedom Munro's later books embrace. She is more comfortable now with "telling," with long expository stretches that help the scenes pay off more strongly, and which ground the work in the historical imperatives that amplify its power to illuminate the lives of these characters.
I look forward to what's next for Lahiri. This book is a major step forward.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(25 of 34 readers found this comment helpful)
I have read this book twice now. I have the hardback and the paperback set. I prefer the paperback set for its portability. I like the hardback for the way you can see everything all together, and get a sense of the proportions in the architecture.
Some people say this book is five unintegrated books. This isn't true. The first book speaks to the fifth, the second to the third, the third to the fourth, all to the fifth.
The emotional and thematic center of the book is the third. The bludgeoning in the fourth is read through the filter of the third. The first and fifth serve to raise doubts, about literature and humanity. Their cumulative power includes the way the book resists singular meaning. But there is surely much that this book means as it addresses power, evil, literature, sexuality, the infirmities of storytelling, death, and love.
I was reminded in this book of the work of Tolstoy in War and Peace, of his expansive and moral vision.
This really is a great book. It requires work. The work rewards the effort.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(29 of 37 readers found this comment helpful)
Blew me away. Seriously. I had not expected a book from a small publisher to compare favorably with the Andre Dubus or Alice Munro or Jhumpa Lahiri collections I love. But In the Devil's Territory does.
The first thing to notice about the book is the way the author is very, very bold about form. The opening story (San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Party) is a first person, single motion story about a single character, and covers a very short span of time. The second story (A Day Meant to Do Less, also in Best American Mystery Stories 2008) is from two points of view and covers seventy years in overlapping accounts. The third story (A Love Story) is a thematically driven story about love that spans forty years. The fourth story (Goodbye Hills Hello Night) is a meditation on a single night of violence by a near-illiterate narrator. The fifth story (The Navy Man) is a reversal of Chekhov's The Lady and the Dog, with the Florida Keys as Yalta and Washington, D.C. as Moscow.
The final story (In the Devil's Territory) is something new altogether. It spans fifty years and is set in East Berlin and West Palm Beach, Florida. It ends with the most amazing closing line I think I've ever read. "We can't be held responsible, but we are very sorry." I think this line stands in not just for the story, and not just for the book, but also for a way of seeing the human condition. It is straightforward and sad how we fail each other.
A lot of the short story collections I read seem kind of slight to me. They don't aspire to very much. They are sort of navel gazing. This is a book that is very outward looking even when it looks inward. It feels big, like a novel. All the pieces weirdly fit together to make something bigger than the stories. The stories themselves are pretty big.
It has been a long time since a book has affected me so much like this one has. I can't get it out of my head. I hope it can find the large audience it deserves. I can't recommend it enough.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(42 of 44 readers found this comment helpful)
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
nathanreads has commented on (3) products.
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
nathanreads, January 7, 2009
It is clear, reading this book, that Lahiri has been reading a lot of Alice Munro. This book embraces the freedom Munro's later books embrace. She is more comfortable now with "telling," with long expository stretches that help the scenes pay off more strongly, and which ground the work in the historical imperatives that amplify its power to illuminate the lives of these characters.I look forward to what's next for Lahiri. This book is a major step forward.
(25 of 34 readers found this comment helpful)
2666 (3-Volume Boxed Set) by Roberto Bolano
nathanreads, January 7, 2009
I have read this book twice now. I have the hardback and the paperback set. I prefer the paperback set for its portability. I like the hardback for the way you can see everything all together, and get a sense of the proportions in the architecture.Some people say this book is five unintegrated books. This isn't true. The first book speaks to the fifth, the second to the third, the third to the fourth, all to the fifth.
The emotional and thematic center of the book is the third. The bludgeoning in the fourth is read through the filter of the third. The first and fifth serve to raise doubts, about literature and humanity. Their cumulative power includes the way the book resists singular meaning. But there is surely much that this book means as it addresses power, evil, literature, sexuality, the infirmities of storytelling, death, and love.
I was reminded in this book of the work of Tolstoy in War and Peace, of his expansive and moral vision.
This really is a great book. It requires work. The work rewards the effort.
(29 of 37 readers found this comment helpful)
In the Devil's Territory: Stories by Kyle Minor
nathanreads, January 7, 2009
Blew me away. Seriously. I had not expected a book from a small publisher to compare favorably with the Andre Dubus or Alice Munro or Jhumpa Lahiri collections I love. But In the Devil's Territory does.The first thing to notice about the book is the way the author is very, very bold about form. The opening story (San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Party) is a first person, single motion story about a single character, and covers a very short span of time. The second story (A Day Meant to Do Less, also in Best American Mystery Stories 2008) is from two points of view and covers seventy years in overlapping accounts. The third story (A Love Story) is a thematically driven story about love that spans forty years. The fourth story (Goodbye Hills Hello Night) is a meditation on a single night of violence by a near-illiterate narrator. The fifth story (The Navy Man) is a reversal of Chekhov's The Lady and the Dog, with the Florida Keys as Yalta and Washington, D.C. as Moscow.
The final story (In the Devil's Territory) is something new altogether. It spans fifty years and is set in East Berlin and West Palm Beach, Florida. It ends with the most amazing closing line I think I've ever read. "We can't be held responsible, but we are very sorry." I think this line stands in not just for the story, and not just for the book, but also for a way of seeing the human condition. It is straightforward and sad how we fail each other.
A lot of the short story collections I read seem kind of slight to me. They don't aspire to very much. They are sort of navel gazing. This is a book that is very outward looking even when it looks inward. It feels big, like a novel. All the pieces weirdly fit together to make something bigger than the stories. The stories themselves are pretty big.
It has been a long time since a book has affected me so much like this one has. I can't get it out of my head. I hope it can find the large audience it deserves. I can't recommend it enough.
(42 of 44 readers found this comment helpful)