John Kulka

Second time I have read this. Two of the better short stories ever written, Gusev, and Ward N. 6, are included in the collection. His description of the Russian country side and its people are clean and sharp. He wrote what he knew and that was peasants and the gentry. In some stories you could see the revolution coming though I don't think that was his point. I am glad he didn't have to live through it. Who were the writers who wrote about the daily lives under the Soviet system?

Overall, this is one of the stronger anthologies I have read in a while. Most of the stories are quite good and there were only a couple of duds. I felt "Surfacing" by Lauren Groff was a standout and close seconds go to Sharon May's "The Wizard of Khao-I-Dang" and Raza Sultana Khan's "Alms." As usual in this kind of anthology, lots of unhappy American people treating each other horribly and for whatever reason, there was a disturbing amount of women allowing themselves to be treated like show more dirt by really gross men (one has to wonder, do we really hate each other, and ourselves, that much?). I think that is why I liked the stories by Groff, May and Khan as they took me outside of that tired realm, and did it extremely well. On a whole, the writing skill in this collection was outstanding, but some of these authors just have to create better stories and characters readers can actually care about. But I recognize these are pieces created in academia and evaluated in that light, many are awesome beginnings - and I'm sure I will see some of these talented folks again soon. show less

This is a book I've been keeping to take off and on to coffee shops, since it's small and more portable than some others. I picked it up again about a month ago and began skipping through, selecting stories with interesting titles to read. After a bit of time I found there were stories I'd read several years ago, some I enjoyed now and some not so much.

Some stories are darker than what I'm in the mood for at present, but well over half of them were good for my state of mind, whether I was show more reading them for the first or for the second time. So all and all, a very good experience.

And it reminded me once again that a book doesn't have to be brand new to be a good read. show less