Meh. Some of the stories were nice. One I just couldn't get through at all. I feel like overall, they're stories about people dealing with circumstances and realities that they're stuck in. Rather than being characters with ambitions and agency, they're people who act because they're supposed to, and somehow just got stuck in their reality and have been living there so long that they don't know anything else. I guess that itself could be a valid exploration of literature and characters and human experience. It's just not something that I particularly enjoyed. Interesting change of pace. If you haven’t read a book of short stories in a few years (like 10 or more), then you’ll find this one unique, certainly not what you’re expecting. Somehow, short-story writing took a left turn a few years ago. The beginning’s slow, bordering a little too much on sci-fi, but the last short story, “Tenth of December,” helps explain why Saunders’s work became a “New York Times 2013 10 Best Books Book Review” selection.
What do You think about Dieci Dicembre (2013)?
Really bleak but really honest character explorations. Interesting experiments with language.
—mzlaz
Really beautiful short stories. Arguably one of the best books I've read all year. A must.
—owais
