Soooooo…...we are taking a brief break from “The Irish Blatherings” for a standard Diner Review, Book Review. I am reading more books this year in an effort to be a better person. I mean, you got to try something, right? Anyway… I really like a good short story. But frankly, the New Yorker prints a good one every week and a great one about once a month and I cannot keep up with those so it is rare that I buy a collection of short stories. This one popped up in a nice review in The New York Times.
Like it or not, the times still has the best consistent book coverage. Everything Amazon does is by algorithm now and I really like a good book review. Anyway, I bought it and it sat on my shelf but in my new, reading disciplined mode I finally go to it and I was pleased to do so. While writing this I am slightly distracted as my Billikens are down by 7 with 8 minutes left against Duquesne. They keep turning the ball over… now down 9. But I digress.
This was a really good book. It is a series of 8 short stories, all from the perspective of 20 something males. They are all in urban or suburban environments in a country…
Preparing for war,
At War,
Post War.
A country where it is unnaturally cold in the summer and unnaturally hot in the winter and unnaturally hot in the summer.
Where even in the midst of war on the other side of the world… there appear to be no great jobs, even as factories reopen.
A country where everyone “supports our troops” and flies the flag… though no one appears certain about where the battle is or what it is for.
The men are struggling to find their place and they all run into old associates from high school and there is much comparing of notes and taking stock. There are frustrated relationships and undercurrents of possible violence but… every story is so tightly written that they all seem kind of like page turners with you wondering what is going to happen next.
This guy… this Said Sayrafiezadeh (there is an umlaut in the first name...over the i, I think. Why would I read a book by this guy? because he has an unstoppable control of the language and excellent timing and pacing in his stories… which tend be sedentary… but…(hard to explain)...beautiful. I would like to say the stories are about winners and losers but it is more a series which instead of being about winners and losers, is about people who are barely holding on...and losers.Spend the money and get out and buy this one. He teaches in New York and I think he is going to write a lot of good things. I will go pick up his first book “When Skateboards Will Be Free” and I will report.
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