- Paperback: 197 pages
- Publisher: Key Porter Books (Mar 8 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1552630293
- ISBN-13: 978-1552630297
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 13.4 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 240 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #296,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The nine edgy tales gathered in Canadian short story stylist Gartner's debut collection are daringly diverse in presentation, if uneven in execution. Most problematic is the overuse of a tricky second-person narrative voice, employed in no fewer than three tales, including the opening story, "How to Survive in the Bush." Here, the earnestly didactic imperative detracts from the archly humorous underpinnings of a Canadian version of Green Acres involving a city girl and a reclusive aviator. Thankfully, style and content are more happily wedded in the earthy "boys growing," in which a scent-obsessed schoolteacher pursues her still sweet-smelling male students, rejecting men her own age who reek of "wet metal." In the hilarious "The Nature of Pure Evil," the protagonist discovers a novel way to assert herself. After her live-in boyfriend of seven years makes her iron his tuxedo shirt before he heads off to what turns out to be his wedding to another woman, Hedy begins calling in fake bomb threats. Gartner proves herself capable of pyrotechnic bursts of prose in "City of my dreams," which revolves around a woman named Lewis, the programmer for a film festival who retreats to work in a shop that sells food-inspired soap after a disappointed filmmaker self-immolates on her front porch. Finally, in the most ambitious piece, "Odds that, all things considered, she'd someday be happy," a terrorist act gets the four-sided Rashomon treatment, with the victim's mother benefiting the most when she uses her daughter's tragic death as the perfect springboard to a career as a talk-show host. When Gartner doesn't strain too hard at her craft, her undeniably original voice charges her stories with irresistible verve. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Canadian author Gartner, a journalist and editor (Saturday Night and The Georgia Straight magazines), has written nine unique short stories. Some readers will relate to them, while others will despair. Bizarre, often brilliant, these are not success stories. Rather, they are peopled with wacky, alienated characters flummoxed by their own lives. A mentally retarded woman glories in the five-year-old genius nephew in her care after his parents are killed in an accident; a young woman follows her current heartthrob into bush country, then longs for the noisy clamor of urban traffic and the feel of city sidewalks; a daughter learns of her mother's miscarriage 30 years earlier and mentally communes with the unborn fetus. What these stories lack in depth they may make up for in cleverness. For these are clever stories. If this is enough for you, enjoy. For larger fiction collections.DMary G. Szczesiul, Roseville P.L., MI
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant at times,
By sainte-carmen (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: All The Anxious Girls on Earth: Stories (Paperback)
Although slightly uneven, this collection of short stories contains moments of sheer brilliance. If you're a writer, this is well worth checking out. Gartner has a knack for bringing out the obscure and the absurd. If you have an off-beat sense of humour, this book will appeal to you.Well worth a look.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great stuff.,
By Edwart Thumpy - Published on Amazon.com
Please don't listen to the last reviewer. These are really exciting, interesting stories full of turns of phrase that'll just make your hair curl. The most significant thing here is "boys growing," and while nothing else quite matches up to that, this is a solid collection. Recommended for those of us who don't mind a little weirdness.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biased because I like Canucks,
By Sherry K. Sly "her_slyness" - Published on Amazon.com
I just re-read this book recently and felt like putting in my two cents because i just enjoyed it so much ... again. I like Gartner's style a lot. She reminds me of some of my favorite authors, but with a lighter touch. She's got the weirdness of AM Homes without the hopelessness; the edginess of Mary Gaitskill without the relentlessness. She's got the off kilter insight into human nature of Barbara Kingsolver without the granola touches. And Gartner's got the hipness of the whole "Eggars" crowd while not being self-consciously cool.Granted, there's a detached quality to Gartner's style and sometimes there's too much specific detail, but for just sheer originality, and not feeling like you have to hug a puppy to restore your faith in humanity after reading a book -- i highly recommend.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reality and Sarcasm at its best.,
By Erika - Published on Amazon.com
I usually don't like short stories, based on the fact that they usually have to have some sort of meaning behind it. I love ZsuZsi's writing style though.I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who wants to laugh |
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