I am in awe of Lydia Millet's creativity. Alas I am not talented enough to describe the wonderfulness of this book. On the surface, it is a collection of short stories, each featuring an animal and a famous person. Underneath it is about life, the universe, and everything. It made me laugh, it made me think, it made me question my values. Apparently the book was greatly lauded when it first came out, and that put many readers off. Reading it later, after all the fuss is over, is a better experience. Definitely worth reading a few of the stories at least to see if it connects for you. Never mind the formula of springing stories to life using real life factoids about celebrities and animals. Some have found that formula gimmicky, I think it was contriving, and didn't really mind it. My problem is that I feel the stories, or at least most of them, are lacking in depth. A great example is the final story in the book, "Walking Bird", which left me wondering "Is this it?", I never really understood what was the point of writing it. Other than "Sir Henry", there was not a single story in the book that left me wondering what happened next. I never really felt a connection with any of the characters, and didn't feel like I would be interested in reading their complete stories. Other than the underlying animal-celebrity connection shared by all stories, I found this collection very disjointed and plain.The book is very easy to read, all stories are pretty short and you can probably be done with it in a few hours. It was a Pulitzer Prize finalist too, so there's obviously going to be a lot of people that disagree with my review.
What do You think about Çaresizlik Kuyusu (2000)?
enjoyable short stories with a very particular theme.
—Radwahafez
anthology of short stories, liked them all a lot
—V1C7OR14
