Bit of a mixed bag. Some beautiful stories mixed with some very sinister ones. Some very short and some longer. His style and prose is more eclectic here but still retains the flow that I've come to love about his writing since I read 'If Nobody Speaks...'

Each story stand really well on its own, and McGregor is an expert in using experimental forms to tell a story. And, the best thing of all, the way he uses experimental forms (every sentence starts with the same two words, the story consists of footnotes to an unknown text, story written in the 2nd person, the story is three lines long, etc,...) makes it not irritating to read, which can be the case with experimental prose.

I passionately love McGrgeor's writing - he's a prose poet of the highest talent; he writes with beauty, wit, compassion and deep insight. All of these qualities are apparent in this volume of short stories and poems; some of them easy and accessible, others downright odd but no less brilliant for that. If there's a unifying theme here, for me it's about the lenses we view events and life through and how those shift over time. Whatever the unifying theme, McGregor remains for me one of the finest writers around.

Well, he's no Alice Munro. I got about halfway through and just got bored with it. There were moments of insight, but it was mostly just dull.

Hmmm, while I appreciate the spirit of experimentation--and it's nice to know what I, as a writer, can get away with--I couldn't help but think: David Foster Wallace did this sort of thing much better. At times I was also reminded of Georges Perec--but again, what's the point? What IS a story. McGregor joins the ranks of those who seek to expand the definition--but would I want to re-read this book? Was there anything profound? Not really. Would I show this to a student just for drill? Absolutely. Were the stories at times, completely inaccessible? Yes. I appreciate art for art's sake but look forward to the next book on my nightstand.

These stories make up a true collection, one of place. Perhaps because much of it is set in the fens, at times I was reminded of Graham Swift's [b:Waterland|148639|Waterland|Graham Swift|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172197538s/148639.jpg|856962] and that I want to reread that novel one day. Only two of the stories have recurring characters, but it's as if each story needs the other to achieve that unifying impression of place, and that alone was impressive. (The sum being much greater than its parts?)

Some of the stories are brilliant, but none reached the high bar set by his novels. A few of the very short pieces worked for me; most didn't. A few of the stories have speculative elements. A few of the forms are inventive and with a couple of these I felt impatient, even a touch bored, but I was won over, partly, by their effective endings.

The place-names under the title of each story and the Memorial Stone 'roll-call' at the end might've meant more to me if I knew more about these villages and parishes, and what must be their vanishing landscapes and ways of life.