Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
I really loved this. The epigraph is by Gloria Steinem ("If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?"), and every story in the book has a quiet feminist sensibility to it. I heard McCorkle read back in February, and I'm interested in reading more of her work.Favorite quotes:"This fear of nothingness is why many people stay put even when unhappy and disillusioned, daily sidestepping the problems and debris. It is why they ask the four questions again and again as they seek their own answer
The strength of a short story collection is how many stories you remember afterwards. For me there were two stand outs "PS" and "Intervention." The author's writing is solid, though some times the subject matter seemed a bit repetitive with the well-to-do wife (middle aged or older) pondering her life post-divorce, during marriage, or otherwise. One story had an interesting take from three different POVs (a young girl, a middle aged woman embarking on an affair, and an older woman) but still man...
The thing with short story collections is that unless you're familiar with the author, you have to be careful because you're not going to know what you're getting into. My favorite short story author is Flannery O'Connor. That woman can do no wrong with the short story. They're so dementedly elegant that you can't put them down. But she is only one of a very few whose short stories I like. The rest . . . meh.This is one of the meh. I'd never heard of Jill McCorkle before I snagged this book at B...
I don’t read a lot of short story collections but I always enjoy Jill McCorkle’s short stories. These were good and detailed. I wanted more of each one they were so well written. She has a new novel out called Hieroglyphs. Looking forward to reading it especially since one of the characters is named after a person I went to high school and college.
I enjoyed the first few stories in this collection, but I soon found that all of the narrators blended together. It felt like I was reading about the same woman-same thoughts, same reactions, same choice of words-who was somehow shoved into different life circumstances every dozen pages or so. There were some bright points in here for sure, and if you enjoy McCorkle's writing style you should enjoy all of the stories, but I prefer my short story collections to have a bit more variety than what I...
I can appreciate that this author is a good writer, but I just don't think books of short stories are my thing. These stories are fine, but because I only met the characters briefly, I just couldn't get invested enough.
Years ago, a friend gave me another of McCorkle’s short story collections and I remember enjoying it. I picked up several more of her books when I saw Kindle versions on sale. I read this over several months, usually picking up between library books coming in. I like the author’s writing and dark wit, although I don’t recall much about the stories themselves beyond the final three or four that I read over the last few nights. Will be interested to see if her novel, Ferris Beach (which I also hav...
I took a class with Jill McCorkle (at the past Tennessee Williams Fest just a couple months ago) before I really read anything by her, and I immediately fell in love with her as a teacher and a person -- she's got this great vibe about her. I got a chance to speak with her when I found her alone waiting to go into a panel on the last day of the Fest and she couldn't have been more gracious.These stories remind me of something, yet it escapes me what that something is. And while they might not be...
I loved this. I liked some stories more than others, but I liked them all so much! What a wonderful collection of short stories. I can't wait to read more by her.
Two stars is generous for how much I hated this book. Eleven short story collection of "women and love and complications therin"-should have known by the description on the back that the writing would be choppy. Stories were random. I knew within the first story I wasn't going to enjoy this, but I suffered through a few more before throwing down the book before reading the final two. No recommendation here.
An Amy Hempel blurb is probably the easiest way to get me to read a book. With that in mind--and, of course, the possibly-incorrect idea that all writers are narcissists likely to heap praise onto work they feel they can project the best qualities of their talent onto--I go into the book expecting something like Hempel.In a way, I did sort of get something like Hempel, but only Hempel-like. Somewhat funny, a little clever, a decent documentation of humanity's absurd loneliness. However, it's unf...
I've read this book several times over the past decade and am now at the point where I feel I can gain nothing more from it. There's a good amount of humour and poignant quotes, but ultimately the stories are a little too pedestrian and repetitive. Almost every story centres around a middle-aged lady who feels bitter over a broken familial relationship. The stories are well-written and offer a down-to-earth perspective on life, but none of the stories are remarkable enough to make it worthy of a...
