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Read The Fahrenheit Twins (2005)

The Fahrenheit Twins (2005)

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Genre
Rating
3.7 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
1841956732 (ISBN13: 9781841956732)
Language
English
Publisher
canongate books

The Fahrenheit Twins (2005) - Plot & Excerpts

The first short story really got my imagination going, it was about a homeless man, hinting at a past but not revealing it to you, later the homeless man finds out he and others are wearing t-shirts that contain information about their lives, yet this is told using symbols and he is unable to decipher them, the ending indicates him feeling a sense of belonging. Overall this story is frustrating as it leaves the reader with so many unanswered questions!I found that most of the short stories were frustrating, leaving me with so many unanswered questions. Some of the stories were very harsh for my liking, containing unlikeable characters, some seemed rather abrupt but overall I had to remind myself that it would be highly unlikely for me to love all 17 of the short stories. I really enjoyed the final short story about the Fahrenheit twins, there innocence and how their own personal reality had come about, giving them a unique outlook overall. There were some stories that I enjoyed reading, some that simply frustrated me and one or two that I didn't fully understand which left me confused!A fabulous mix up of shorts! I will be keeping my eyes pealed for more books by Faber in the future...he never fails to disappoint and I find it simply amazing how diverse his stories are, they seem to vary a great deal unlike so many other authors out there that seem to write essentially the same books over and over with differing details!!

The good bits about this:The writing is brilliant, the characters all fascinating - even the ones who are strange or sick and the imagination is beyond description.'The Eyes of the Soul,'Serious Swimmers' and 'Explaining Coconuts'are only a few examples - you get to the end and know that that is where the story should stop, even if it could have gone on further.The bad bits:It's advertised as a collection of short stories, but many of them start off, pull you along for a number of pages and then simply stop, like vivid dreams interupted by an alarm clock.I was left with a feeling that some of them were sketches from longer works that he hadn't bothered to finish, or exercises in mood setting. Around half of the stories ae like this. You are lead to identify with the characters, get involved with the action that is happening to them and then find yourself turning the page to read the title of the next one.

What do You think about The Fahrenheit Twins (2005)?

This is not a book I would have started had I known that it consisted of short stories as opposed to being a novel. Having said that I'm v glad I did. A number of the stories read as if they were just a chapter of another book leaving me wanting to know what happens next, e.g. The Safehouse. Some of the stories seemed complete in themselves, e.g. Vanilla-Bright Like Eminem and others were somewhere in between I guess. I feel like the stories at the start and the end if the book were the strongest, those at the start particularly. The Safehouse is probably the one that I most want to know about - what happens next, t-shirt questions etc etc. There is lovely writing in this book and I'll definitely be picking one of Michel Faber's full length books to put on my To-Read list.
—Aoife

A rather readable batch of stories written in an edgy yet extremely cosy style, i.e. a shoo-in for Canongate. The writer is an Aussie of Dutch origin living in the Highlands who writes largely about Scottish characters, so my shelving him in the general European section is mostly biological pedantry. If you want a masterclass in how to win literary awards in this country look no further than these pieces, among them the weirdly spooky ‘All Black’ and ‘The Eyes of the Soul,’ the contemporary slices ‘The Smallness of the Action’ and ‘The Safehouse’ and darker digressions ‘Someone to Kiss it Better’ and ‘Finesse.’ The collection is consistently strong and never falls into a repetitive voice, partly due to the concision and warmth of each story. His ability to utilise the same voice and style without becoming dull is a rare commodity nowadays so Faber easily knocks most literary collections into a cocked hat. The title piece is the longest and least interesting story in the collection, though ‘Explaining Coconuts’ also pushes the dullness levels at times despite the coco-perversion. OK. I liked the collection. There are some beautous pearls in here.
—MJ Nicholls

Ho comprato questa raccolta di racconti sulla scia del mio personale gradimento de “Il petalo cremisi e il bianco”, ma non vi ho ritrovato lo stesso piacere di lettura. Lo stile è completamente diverso e verrebbe quasi da dire che non sia stato scritto dallo stesso autore. Tuttavia, il mutamento di registro non sarebbe di per sé negativo, se l’efficacia espressiva rimanesse la stessa. Il problema è che così non è. Resta, questo sì, l’evidente predilezione dello scrittore per il lasciare in sospeso la risoluzione degli eventi proposti dalla storia. Vi si trova, senza dubbio, una raffinata capacità di creare un’atmosfera di ansiosa attesa a partire dalle più disparate situazioni di avvio dei racconti. Si conferma l’ottima proprietà del linguaggio usato. Ma, ahimè, ci si trova catapultati in ambiti che si percepiscono come totalmente “asettici” e “impersonali”, persino quando si parla di fatti che “commuoverebbero anche i sassi”. Un’operazione di “straniamento” a livelli tali che persino Bertolt Brecht non è stato in grado di ottenere, pur volendolo deliberatamente.
—Arwen56

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