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I liked this collection of short stories for precisely the reason many reviewers ding it—the writing. Eisenberg writes with nuance, compassion, and with eyes wide open about friends, families and the places in between. Flaws are exposed as are foibles, secrets (though they aren‘t as secret as people often think), and connections that bind past and present. Eminently quotable and filled with recognizable characters, this is a great collection.

Up next my #doublespin. My first time reading Eisenberg. @sarahbarnes is a fan so I expect I will be too!
@TheAromaofBooks

A short story collection that I enjoyed while I was reading it, but I did not especially love any one particular story.

I feel as though a great joke has been played on the reading public by the book critics of National Public Radio, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. A cruel hoax. ‘Just words — crack them open and they were empty.‘ And, on the audio, ‘stacking the sounds up like wooden blocks.‘ It was like Lauren Groff‘s Florida all over again. I really don‘t care how beautiful the writing is, none of these stories made any sense. HARD PASS. ⭐️⭐️

Signed 1st edition of this gem! Bookshelf win.

I‘m rounding this up to a pick for the excellent writing, however I struggled a bit to get into the stories themselves. I‘ve always thought of Eisenberg as a legendary short story writer and it was definitely worth it to experience her style. This was a @strandbookstore fiction book hookup pick.

Also, it‘s so rainy and gross here in NY today! ☔️

Prisoner? The world is large. You're only a prisoner of your own fears. If you don't like it in the prison of your fears, go somewhere else. Or stay there if you need to. But don't blame me. You obviously expect me to be your solution, as if I were an arcane number of some sort by which you were neatly divisible. Why do you think anybody could be that for you? Why do you think anybody could be that for anybody?

I couldn‘t connect with any of these stories.

These stories!!! Our quest to understand others and ourselves, through relationships and connections across time, within time, across space. And our attempts to use language to make connections, make meaning, and define ourselves, even though language is limited. Your duck is my duck; we are all bound up in this together. This collection was really worth the wait.

So excited for this new collection!

“No one met people in person any longer - you couldn‘t hear what they were saying.”

Really exited to dip into this one. I LOVE her.

Somehow Deborah Eisenberg and I had never met before. An ARC of her next story collection came along with the last #indiespensable box. If you have a chance, please make her acquaintance in September or read some her previous anthologies. Her stories are rather remarkable and surprising. I‘m so glad we met unexpectedly!