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I've never read anything quite like this. Short, quirky stories -- almost as if a leering uncle pulled you aside and started telling them, and by the time you realized where they were going, it was too late to get away, and you stayed, and listened, and freaked out a little bit more with each passing story.
Short stories with proper (for me) level of absurdity and enough meaning (for me), so that I wouldn't define them just as funny cynicism.
This is most definitely a man's book. The simplicity of emotion, the gentle confusion, the way things that make no sense somehow make absolute sense. Keret is a gentle man. His emotions, friendship, love, family, life, all effortless. His writing is effortless. It’s witty and calm, poignant but simple, pleasurable without being overwhelming. The kind of beautiful I imagine men feel when they feel the word “beautiful”. Fear: I felt the fear running through my body, from the hard part of my brain
Maybe this just got too built up for me or something, but... I get it, the tone sounds flippant but it really isn't. That gets kind of samey. Shrug.
This is an utterly fantastic collection. I've long been meaning to read some Keret and am so glad that I've finally gotten here. He's capable of doing one of the most challenging things in writing with surprising ease and agility: humor. And not just a smile, but pure laughter, rising on accident, despite suppression and embarrassment at being in public with a bus full of people who don't speak your language.He gets there through situations. It's not a single sentence that makes you laugh, not a...
If you've been friends with me on Goodreads for long enough, you know that I obsess over the sheer hilarity and flippant style of Israeli writer Etgar Keret. Despite suffering from what may be the most bizarre cover art in the history of literature (please challenge me on this), The Nimrod Flipout is an excellent short story collection full of reality-bending romps.The title story will be familiar to experienced Keret readers: a bunch of young-ish guys stuck in the doldrums of life, and you don'...
honestly, this writing style is not for everyone, but i loved his rapid-fire pacing, the way he slams information into the stories line after line. i even liked the freaky, surreal qualities and undeniable male/dude-ish perspectives. reminded me of people who are good at telling stories at parties.and yes, for anyone who knows about how i spilled nyquil on this book, i did confess to the library, and they said it was ok. they patted me on the back and i cried on their shoulders. like a baby.
2,5Not funny enough, not weird enough,Not creative enough, not innovative enough..Never bad, often too juvenile.Always close, never bullseye.
Within Israeli letters Etgar Keret apparently occupies a sphere of his own. Kind of Raymond Carver like in not only his use of the short story but also in the somberness of tone and subject matter Keret also has definitely learned some things from the schools of magical realism and absurd fiction, and all to his benefit.Keret's stories, while not all equally brilliant are all substantive and intriguing as all hell. Starting from a basic premise and giving it a simple but integral dark twist Kere...
I both did and did not like this book. I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoy viewing abstract/avant-garde art - the premises and twists and turns in these short stories are so off-the-wall they open your mind in different directions, and that's usually a good thing. However, more often than not, these extremely short stories (typically no more than 3 pages long) depend upon some perversion as their hook, which gets boring and predictable. In many cases, a story starts out solidly with an almost t...
Great short stories. Some better than others but My heart has been touched deeply by "Glittery Eyes".
I reviewed this for a class I was in so I thought I'd post my revieweven if it is a little to long:Young Israeli men, their penises, lovers, pets, and business deals are the subjects of this collection of short and very short short stories. Keret speeds through the lives of his lonely characters barely stopping for plot and refusing conclusions but making plenty of space for some phenomenally funny details of Israeli urban life. His characters “puke chopped liver” and encounter a pest control ma...
Very strange but captivating stories brimming with assuredness, slyness, pessimism, and fantasy. No yawners here. Parents shrink in proportion to their son's growth, a man orders a talking fish at a restaurant, a man loves a woman who turns into a soccer-loving guy by night. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, probably even more so than a more recent collection by Keret (The Girl on the Fridge), which I also really liked. I quite appreciated the short short-ness of these stories, which I was a...
I read this at the same time as Aimee Bender's short story collections The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Wilful Creatures. They are both good with the surreal and accessible language but I prefer Etgar Keret's minimalist style (in translation of course). The stories are more varied and much more surprising. I felt like I got Aimee Bender after a few stories and then the language/themes got very predictable. Not sure I need any more of her books. But I am still understanding Keret. I want more....
Shortest shorts of allStories, I mean – not Nair legsFun funny sad weirdReview Haiku for Those with Short Attention Spans