Ladies and Gentlemen

These short stories by Adam Ross may not appeal to everyone. Most of them are dark and sad. The first one broke my heart but I can't say why without spoilers. But if you can get past the darkness, they are an interesting look at singular events in the lives of different people. A lonely professor who wants to make his mark in the world but has a tendency to play it safe, a young couple comparing their own relationship to another's and thinking things aren't as bad as they thought, two brothers who have always been at odds and one trying to get the upper hand.
Ross is an amazing, insightful writer. You may not love the characters or the choices they make but they will leave an impact on you. I'm looking forward to reading Mr. Peanut, a show more book I never got to last year, but now I want to see what Ross can do in a novel.
my rating 4/5 show less

These stories offer the characters a number of moral dilemmas: A lawyer who realizes he unwittingly helped his restaurant manager brother get away with stealing a large amount of cash from his employer; an overworked, harried woman contemplating a fling; a professor who thinks he knows where a fugitive murderer is hiding.

Other characters have no choices – the unemployed man who is tricked into appearing in a reality show thinking it was a job interview; a witness to animal abuse, witnesses to a college death – or maybe suicide.

The stories are tight and polished but ultimately leave me cold. It might be the overall aura of callousness and mistrust between characters – especially between the sexes. Or it might be a total and show more consistent absence of humor which would serve to humanize things just a little. show less

I read "Mr Peanut" so I looked forward to reading this new collection of short stories. Ross shows the dark side in these stories but they are incredibly creative and unique. I enjoyed the ambiguity of the endings because that is how life is. There was not a lot of humor but that was not what these stories are about. I measure a book by how I feel when I finish it. This one ended way too quickly. Ross is a talented writer and I look forward to reading his future output. I recommend him to all readers.

I normally don't care too much for short stories but I loved Adam Ross's Mr. Peanut so much that I had to pick up his collection of short stories. These stories were haunting like Mr. Peanut. They reminded me of Twilight Zone episodes because most of them ended with a dark moral and seemed eerie. I enjoyed most of them but was left wanting more. I thought some of them ended too abruptly.

I may just not be a short story person and I also think I had my hopes up way too high for this collection after reading Mr. Peanut. I think that's why I felt unsatisfied these stories. I think they were good, just not as good as Mr. Peanut. If you haven't read either, read this one first so your expectations aren't over the top like mine were.

An excellent book, reminiscent of Raymond Carver's seminal collection about how we live and love. Almost every character could narrate their own novel - and I can't wait for Ross's next one.

Ordinarily I don't read short stories as a genre of choice, but my son gave Ladies and Gentlemen a rave review, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The characters in each story are well-drawn, and the plots are straight-forward and captivating. There is an underlying theme of doubt/mistrust/deception throughout, whether it be of the character himself or of others around them.

Not as amazing as Mr. Peanut but still worth reading.