A Model World And Other Stories (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
A series of short stories great for the train commute. The 'wtf' factor for each story is pretty high and you have to really think about what is going on or what the author is trying to say. I really liked this book for a number of reasons. As people, we have expectations for ourselves and for other people, but at the same time, we also have expectations of what other people want and attribute various motives/rationale for their actions and behaviors as well. We also do and say a lot of ridiculous things for no apparent reason and people are, despite it all, pretty irrational beings. The context the characters are put in frames the kitschiness of our lives (through the eyes of the narrator and 2ndary characters) frame the lens of how we ourselves view our own lives and people in it in a way that is surprising and interesting. In each story, there is definitely "wth" factor; we wonder 'what is wrong with these people, why do they continue on the path that they do, what are they trying to accomplish?' --- but after giving it some thought and trying to figure out what is going on and why things happen the way they are and why they think they way they do, there are a lot of underlying, recurring themes that make some sense given the world we live in. Mainly, the futility of our pursuits, the notion of the absurd and the ridiculous, and to a very small extent, the themes in the anti-enlightenment school of thought that have long passed are revisited.Great author, great usage of english contemporary prose. If I don't OD on the recurrent theme of jewish culture in his work, I will def read more of his books. He is the second author I've read that made me regret destroying the stuff I used to write and not pursuing the written word. It is pretty fitting in the context of the stories in this book. Definitely recommend for anyone who likes to read and really think.
Finished reading A Model World and Other Stories (1991) the other night on the way home. A Model World is a small collection of short stories by Michael Chabon. This is the earliest of his works that I’ve read and it’s entertaining, but I prefer his later novels: The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000) and The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007) both of which are excellent.A Model World is broken up into two parts: “A Model World”, 6 independent stories and “The Lost World”, 5 stories about Nathan Shapiro (aged 10 to 16, depending on the story). The stories were all good, but not as engrossing as I’d hoped. Perhaps I was just in the mood for a novel; I enjoyed the added depth provided by the 5 connected stories.The stories in A Model World are all mainstream fiction; there’s not a fantasy, science fiction or even mystery story in the bunch. They’re just isolated episodes from the lives of some ordinary people. In “Smoke” a perhaps past his prime baseball pitcher goes to the funeral of a catcher he used to play with, in “Blumenthal on the Air” a man is living in Paris with his Iranian wife of convenience, and the stories about Nathan are glimpses into his life as his parents divorce and eventually remarry.The strangest story in the bunch is probably “A Model World”. The story is a first person narrative, as are some of the others, but in this case the narrator (Smith) is not the main character (Levine). Smith and Levine are graduate students at a university; Smith is studying physics and Levine is working on his dissertation in meteorological engineering. A chance discovery at a book shop leads them into an unusual dinner party with the head of Levine’s dissertation committee and his wife.Overall I’d say the stories are entertaining, and the book as a whole was enjoyable, but I don’t think I’d have missed it if I hadn’t read it.
What do You think about A Model World And Other Stories (2005)?
After reading this, I can tell this is one of Chabon's earlier works. They are interesting stories (particularly the final Lost World section, as well as "Smoke" and "Millionaires") but they don't have the same depth of character as some of his later. They feel like the kind of stories a man in his twenties writes about his contemporaries. They are good in their own way. The "Lost World" set of stories feels much more personal since it is about a teenage boy dealing with his parent's divorce. Worth a quick read, especially the above mentioned stories. Just don't expect what you got from Kavalier and Clay.
—Stephanie W
I wasn't anywhere near as enamoured by this short story collection as I was by Kavalier and Clay. I felt that most of the stories in the first half of the book, under the heading "A Model World", were laden with characterising facts but never really went anywhere or connected emotionally at all. The story about the baseball player is perhaps the best in this portion of the book. The latter half, under "The Lost World", were stories surrounding the character of Nathan Shapiro. While it was interesting to watch his progression throughout the stories, the fact that they were each used as separate short stories and published in multiple publications hampers this feel of continuity and instead seems just to give a recurring name of a character to each of the stories.
—Conor Bateman
When I read the copyright date on this book - which let me know that it was Chabon's second book, and his first collection of short stories - I was doubtful enough that I would like it to leave it languishing on my shelf, renewing it so it wouldn't incur library fines, for a month and a half. His later novels delight me, but the Mysteries of Pittsburgh was so irritating that I wish I could have the time spent reading it back. The stories in the first section of the book, "A Model World," are of mixed quality, domestic in their apparent simplicity but urbane in the odd social tensions that frustrate the same sort of irritating characters that made me want to throw my (the library's) copy of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh at a wall. It's in the second section, "The Lost World," a collection of linked stories, that the grace of Chabon's later work begins to appear. They form a tender bildungsroman in which Nathan Shapiro observes the decay of his parents' marriage and experiences perplexing romantic feelings of his own, without the uncomfortable awkwardness that makes some coming of age stories so painful to read.
—Meredith
