Molly Antopol

If you read a literary short story every day for a few weeks in a row, they all start to sound the same. So I haven't been excited about short stories for a while, and I put off reading this collection for a long time. But when I finally sat down with it, it turned out to be just brilliant -- beautifully written stories with interesting characters. Several of the stories are set in Israel, and the milieu makes them feel fresher, and gives the collection different stakes than if it were another collection set in New York or middle America. Loved it -- easily one of the best books I read in 2014.… (more)

I know my opinion is an unpopular one, but for me this was a really disappointing collection. I have been looking forward to reading The UnAmericans for quite some time. The reviews I read made it sound as if written specifically for me.

Antopol's writing skills are irreproachable. Each sentence is very well crafted, and I admire well-crafted prose. She also clearly benefited from what I assume was a Workman's Circle preschool and a nice Birthright trip. But the stories themselves seem clunky and old-fashioned (and not in a good way.) Everything is viewed from a very lefty lens. The book is populated with dissidents whose fervor is now out of style, gritty kibbutzim, and earnest best generation types struggling with evolving definitions of what it means to be a Jew. Even as I write this I am confused as to why I didn't like the book. Depressed Jews at a crossroads? That's my jam! Bring on your Chabon, your Franzen, your Safran-Foer, your Bellow and Roth. But Antopol's depressed Jews don't rail at the heavens or live in-your-face iconoclastic lives. These depressed Jews whine, abdicate responsibility for creating a worthwhile life, or resign themselves to "leave me alone to sit in the dark" martyrdom. I know plenty of real people like that, and they are no bargain. I read to escape them, not to analyze them.

I have some other beefs. Some of the stories felt derivative of things I had read before, and even of one another. Additionally the stories are really slow moving. I don't need car chases, but its nice when something happens in a story.

Antopol is a good writer, and I would be interested to see what she writes next. I hope by then she learns to be interesting, to be audacious. It would be nice if she took on some of the things that give people wings, or even the things they kick against that tether then spreadeagled to the ground. Meticulously chronicling bitter resignation and social obsolescence is not what lures me as a reader.… (more)