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mattdube's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this collection of mostly very short stories. They share this sense of limits, where the narrator in most of the stories doesn't seem to have an expansive sense of the world (usually) she lives in-- so the stories kind of run up against those limits and then stop, like she's come to the edge of the map and that's all there is-- and maybe that's why the stories are as short as they are? This sort of puts Nors' stories at odds with what I expected, which was something more along the lines of the Keret-type story, which is short enough to breach that wall and step into something much more fantastic; here, the quotidian really is a limit.
The stories themselves have an assured language to them, though it's one that reminds readers that it doesn't know much more than what you see. The shape of the stories is somewhat jagged, deliberately mainoulated, and at least to my eyes, pretty restrained. The story that stood out as the exception to this was the title story, which hinted at a level of violence that drew a lot of attention to itself in a way that I thought was a little false.
Still, a very good collection.
The stories themselves have an assured language to them, though it's one that reminds readers that it doesn't know much more than what you see. The shape of the stories is somewhat jagged, deliberately mainoulated, and at least to my eyes, pretty restrained. The story that stood out as the exception to this was the title story, which hinted at a level of violence that drew a lot of attention to itself in a way that I thought was a little false.
Still, a very good collection.
waxbiplane's review
3.0
I liked a few of these stories a lot, but several were so austere and short as to be wispy and ungetatable. I would read more, though.
craigt1990's review
3.0
I read one or two of these short stories on the train to work. If you only have 15 minutes/ 4 stops, this is a good way to spend that time. The stories focus on mundane scenes and scratch into sharp relief deep human emotions. Throughout the stories we witness how people internalise these emotions, colouring their own perspectives with how they interpret events.
matejannnn's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
p_t_b's review
3.0
Weird, precise, alternately creepy and sparkling short fiction, almost all narrated by emotionally constipated Danish people. Starts slow, tails off a little toward the end into unrelieved dark territory but the stories in the middle third (it's only 80some pages) are really, really good. Will keep an eye out for Nors' name in future, although I hope she lets a little light in.
underbroen's review
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
iancarpenter's review
4.0
Great stuff, great writing, will definitely read more when more is translated. But... in short story form there was a repetition of dark tone that lead you to expect the grim turn of events in the last few paragraphs of each story. And that was almost always delivered on.
amanda_em's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0