As always, I love a good short story. I love how so much is conveyed in so few pages. You get to know the characters, the plot is concise and it usually wraps up satisfactorily. Eugenides is great on incorporating accurate details and unique facts. A very enjoyable read. ( )

Make note of this date in the annals of history. This is the first collection of short stories I have ever been able to read in my entire life. Usually I get a page or two into a short story and slam the book shut with a "Nope! Can't."

But Jeffrey Eugenides, brilliant author of Middlesex and The Marriage Plot, writes short stories that could easily be chapters out of a full-length book.

The one with the two friends, one of which has dementia. (My favorite)
The one with the guy who refuses to take the pills.
The one with the turkey baster.
The one with the clavichord and the Mice 'n' Warm mice.
The one with the timeshare and the dad who can't pee.
The one with the restraining order.
The one with the sexologist.
The one with the artichokes.
The one with the embezzlers.
The one with the arranged marriage.

So now the question is, was this just a fluke or could I easily pick up another book of short stories and read them straight through? Dunno. Time will tell. ( )

A nice collection of short stories written in a course of 20 years. Despite the time span, humanity has not changed much and the common theme for the stories is a life going somewhat wrong - or at least not ideally. Perhaps someone would call it a failure, but in these stories it looks simply humane. Many of the stories is about poverty or career not going as planned, divorce or other problems in love life. In a way the characters are victims of circumstances, but, however, the circumstances are not to blame as the individuals do not make the best choices. The choices are still understandable as they are a very human way to react. The characters could still choose differently, but they fail to take a look at their lives from outside and learn and perhaps change their ways. Or maybe they do, the stories have open ends, which is fitting when describing an event in a person's life. ( )

These stories were really good. Jeffrey Eugenides is an exceptional author. I had a couple of favorites: The Baster and the title story, Fresh Complaint. ( )

C'mon Jeff. The first three stories are great, but the rest I could have done without. Not that they didn't contain moments of joy or revelation, but they just felt rote in a way the others didn't.

The stories are mostly narrated by characters who aren't being honest with themselves. This is a great source of narrative tension and dramatic irony. It can also become formulaic (we get it, you're not as rich/successful as you want to be, and you're sad and stressed) Sometimes the thematic conceits are so obvious it becomes a chore to finish the story. The title story is a good example of this, so is Great Experiment.

By the way, does Jeffery Eugenides, one of Americas most praised writers, still feel at least partially as if he isn't as rich/successful as he wants to be? More likely he is drawing on some past, forgotten feeling, which would account for the staleness of some of the stories. Success is a mixed blessing for writers it often seems.

Anyway he should stick to novels, where themes and motifs can play out in more expansive, multiple ways. His stories are just too one-note.

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