Sweet Land Stories

For the first time that I can remember, I loved every single selection in a collection like this. Short fiction is so often hit or miss with me, and even when I greatly enjoy some of the stories, others usually feel flat and pointless. There are only five stories in the collection, and each one is a gem. Three of the five are told in the first person. The most powerful of the lot is "Walter John Harmon", a first person narrative from inside the head of a member of a religious cult founded by a former mechanic who survived a cyclone that engulfed the repair shop where he worked. It is downright terrifying to note how the healthy skepticism of the seemingly rational narrator gradually turns to cautious acceptance of the cult's lifestyle show more requirements, and ultimately morphs him into a true believer and incipient fanatic. In "A House on the Plains", the narrator is a young man whose mother is up to something, the nature of which gradually and subtly becomes horribly clear. It's a tiny little novel, and I rate it right up there with Tom Tryon's [The Other] for the way pieces fall in place to suggest and then reveal a picture you don't want to see but can't look away from. "Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden" is a touching portrait of a disillusioned FBI agent who does what he can unofficially to rectify a sad situation created by a disturbed young woman with a grudge against her father and a bureaucratic system that sees nothing in human terms. Highly recommended.
Reviewed December 2015 show less

I picked up this volume of short stories, hoping to read more about American life in smaller towns or even the countryside, but that did not entirely work out. True, these are stories about people in places all over the US, and not always in the big cities. But the title, Sweet land stories, should not be taken literally. It's use is ironic, hinting at some of the grotesk characters appearing in these stories. The stories did not interest me much, and some, like "Baby Wilson" even quite irritated me. Perhaps the most interesting was "Walter John Harmon" about a religious community, and how the spiritual leader elopes with the wife of one of the congregation. While reading, I wondered whether the baby, in the last story "Child, dead, in show more the rose garden" could be the "Baby Wilson" of that other story, but I wasn't very interested to reread and figure out. show less

I've long been a fan of Doctorow's. I remember reading Ragtime almost 25 years ago when the movie came out (wow, was I really that young when I read it?!?). So, it was a treat to read this new collection of his short stories. It's a slim volume, only five stories. But of the five, two have already won awards for best short fiction and two have been included in best of anthologies (according to the blurb on the cover). This doesn't surprise me as they're uniformly well written with well drawn characters--one of the things I think is hardest to accomplish in the short story format--realistic dialogue, and heavy themes. They're not light, easy reads. Bad, bad things happen, there are evil people in the stories, and there are people who show more simply suffer the evil done to them and persevere.

Of the stories, I think "Jolene: A Life" and "Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden" will stay with me the longest. The first because it's the story of a young woman who suffers much and still retains a glimmer of hope in her life, and the second because it says so much about the abuse of power in the highest political circles.

If you're already a fan of either Doctorow or the short story format, I strongly recommend this book. If you've never read Doctorow, this would be a good place to start. My favorite of his books is World's Fair, and this one hasn't usurped its place in my affections, but it is a great example of his work. show less

Doctorow is a real storyteller. In this collection he masterfully presents a range of characters each of which fails in life, due to a lack of intelligence, bad luck, poor background etc. These are the losers of the American Dream. The story of Jolene is heartwrenching in its inevitability.

Collection of short stories; A House on the Plains was the first story and was one of those short stories that you want to be a whole book so that it will keep going. The story of Mama and Earle travelling from Chicago to La Ville after the death of Mama's husband to "start anew" in different city is not the story you expect. And even once you figure out what is going on the ending still throws you for a loop which is why I wanted the story to continue.
Having finished the second story: Baby Wilson I was going to say I thought it started off fairly slow, but perhaps that was just b/c I had wanted the previous story to continue. My favorite part of this story was the ending, and not b/c I wanted it to, rather because unlike many short show more stories this one continues on after the "main" story to let you know what happened afterward to the main characters.
Though Jolene: a Life was an engaging story, I found it far fetched and therefore did not find it to be one of the most memorable stories in the collections as some readers have. She meets a new man around every corner who sexually, physically and/or emotionally abuses her. No one is as unlucky as Jolene. I just didn't buy it.
Walter John Harmon was the surprise story for me. I did not think I would find a story about a cult so intriguing...to quote: "It is in the nature of a miracle that Walter John Harmon has in his effortless way drawn so many of us to his prophecy. And that wee have given everything we possess--not to him, to the Demand that comes through him. We are not idiots. We are not cult victims." But again I was thrown for a loop at the ending and was glad I stuck this story out. Mr. Doctorow's writing is so detailed, especially in a story like this, I feel as though I am part of it and that is why I enjoyed this book.
Lastly, Child, Dead, In the Rose Garden was the perfect way to end this collection of short stories. It was exactly as the tite states, a story of a child found dead in the Rose Garden of the White House. The story focus' primarily on the lead FBI investigator Molloy and his actions and reactions when the incident is swept under the rug b/c it involves a personal friend of the president.
I'm really looking forward to selecting one of the author books after finding his short stories so compelling. show less

Unbelievably bleak but riveting Doctorow here relates short stories of heart ache and pain. The title is ironic in that the stories are anything but sweet.

Five varied and interesting stories, written in Doctorow's clear and fluid style.