The Fun Parts: Stories

You won't find inspiring stories of heroes overcoming obstacles to attain undreamed successes here. That's just as well -- these are funny, entertaining, and insightful stories. Lipsyte gives us a lighthearted if defeated world, with its anti-heroes somehow claiming our empathy.

Much of the world of these stories is populated by people for whom the world is just unconquerable. It's not because they have played the game and couldn't quite win, but because they really just couldn't find their way into the game at all.

One example is the protagonist of The Worm in Philly. He's a down-and-outer with a big idea, writing a children's book about the boxer Marvin Hagler. There's nothing disastrous about the idea -- it's too ludicrous to be a show more disaster. He knows nothing about Hagler that he hasn't learned by a quick trip to the library, before meeting his prospective agent. He pitches his idea. We know it's going nowhere. The only question is why an agent would agree to meet with him. It's not that it's a bad idea -- it doesn't even rise high enough to be a bad idea. The agent isn't even there to listen to it. It isn't a crushing defeat for the would-be writer -- after all, he was never in the game anyway.

Many of Lipsyte's characters are like this. People without an admission ticket. He tells his stories with empathy and humor. We all know what it's like not to be admitted to the game. It kind of makes us all the brothers we wished we never had. show less

I devoured this book, I had to stay up and finish it because I just could not put it down. Each story captured my attention, and had me feeling all these...*feelings*. You know its good writing when the author can have you laughing out loud one moment and then furrowing your brow in the seriousness of the turn of events. Just absolutely rich, gooey, intoxicating writing. Yum.

Starts with some very sad, but brilliant short stories. Then it moves to the very funny stuff. The story about the male doula may be the funniest short story I have ever read.

This is the first time I’ve read Lipsyte so I was not prepared for the number of flaws his characters have. Usually, a flawed character makes a story more realistic but in the book ‘The Fun Parts’ I feel like his characters are just a little too flawed and I kept wondering why these characters are able to stay in a normal society and wondering why they weren’t just locked up in an institution. It was because of this that I found the book hard to read and I had to struggle through just to finish. I actually started reading this as soon as I’ve gotten but just took me just until this month to actually finish

This does not mean the book was a complete disaster as I did actually enjoy the first couple of stories. The first three show more stores; ‘The Climber Room’, ‘The Dungeon Master’ and ‘The Deniers’ were very good and I found myself wishing for longer stories with these characters. I feel most of the stories started abruptly and also ended abruptly and I was left slightly confused on some of them.
This book will not be on my bookshelf very long and I think I will be donating it to the local library. show less

Sam Lipsyte may not be for everyone, but if you get into his lunacy, then you will really like these stories. His books deal with people on the edge and he has this great combination of humor and pathos. Very creative. His novel "The Ask" should be your introduction him. A good author to try.

A begrudging four stars. Lots of fun to read, but weirdly insubstantial--couldn't remember a thing about it two days after I finished. A kind of brilliant distillation of contemporary fiction: smart, funny, fast, fatally ironic, cute, pathetic, unthreatening, sleek, slick, facile, assembled from clever components.

This is the first time I’ve read Lipsyte so I was not prepared for the number of flaws his characters have. Usually, a flawed character makes a story more realistic but in the book ‘The Fun Parts’ I feel like his characters are just a little too flawed and I kept wondering why these characters are able to stay in a normal society and wondering why they weren’t just locked up in an institution. It was because of this that I found the book hard to read and I had to struggle through just to finish. I actually started reading this as soon as I’ve gotten but just took me just until this month to actually finish

This does not mean the book was a complete disaster as I did actually enjoy the first couple of stories. The first three show more stores; ‘The Climber Room’, ‘The Dungeon Master’ and ‘The Deniers’ were very good and I found myself wishing for longer stories with these characters. I feel most of the stories started abruptly and also ended abruptly and I was left slightly confused on some of them.
This book will not be on my bookshelf very long and I think I will be donating it to the local library. show less