Greg Hrbek
Author of Not on fire, but burning
Works by Greg Hrbek
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Hrbek, Greg
- Birthdate
- 1969
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Education
- Vassar College
University of Iowa (Iowa Writers Workshop) - Occupations
- professor
- Organizations
- Skidmore College
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 5
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 182
- Popularity
- #118,785
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 10
- Languages
- 2
I liked Sagittarius so much that I bought the collection. Sagittarius is certainly the best, closely followed by the ending story, Bereavement. Both use speculative elements sparingly to highlight unspeakable but universal human experiences.
Otherwise, I thought the stories were pretty good, and since I'm not a short story reader, that's honestly pretty high praise. I think Hbrek really understands the form: short stories are literary playground to pull out the weird stuff that you can't support for a full novel. Some of them are stuffed full of the sort of luxurious prose that would be too obfuscating to use for more than a dozen pages. Others employ literary hijinks, like non-chronologic storytelling that add a twist and a punch to a 40 page chapter. Hbrek also links his stories -- not just characters, but also themes, to good effect. As a result, there's something very satisfying about finishing the work. It felt like the emotional payoff for finishing a novel -- like I'd really gone through the normal emotional sequence of reading a book, despite the disparate themes, tones and genres. Overall, I'll keep an eye out for Hbrek in the future.
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