Twilight of the Superheroes: Stories

I love the way these stories seem to ramble, but slowly unfold, until towards the end you see the whole picture. First I was involved with the vividly drawn characters in these stories, then before I knew it I was engrossed. I liked them all, but favorites included the title story about the effects of the 9/11 World Trade disaster on disparate yet connected people; Some Other, Better Otto about a dysfunctional grown family; and Like It Or Not. But descriptions don’t do them justice.

Every critique I've seen of this book refers in some way to 9/11, which isn't terribly unexpected. While Eisenberg seems to dance around that date without directly addressing it, it's still clearly the dominant theme of each of her stories, chronicling worlds that have been oh-so-slightly tilted off their axes.

So maybe the fact that I was so unaffected by her stories has more to do with a certain weariness towards that particular date as some sort of crucial indicator that the world has forever changed, rather than just another milepost in the ever-evolving parade of inanity that comprises human existence.

For the most part, I couldn't manage to gear myself up enough to care or be interested by her plots or characters. It's almost as show more though she only cared about telling a story as a means of talking about her feelings on the transition from a pre-9/11 to a post-9/11 world. show less

Short stories. Excellent. Oddly, the first one, which provides the title, is the weakest. It feels contrived. All the others are wonderful, with keen insights and excellent writing.

There was very little here for me to cling to. Mostly opaque and inaccessible apart from that one story about Otto and his family that was quite moving. Not my favorite collection of short stories.

Eisenberg's short stories deal with complicated families at various stages of their cycles, with the underlying threat of historical events like 9/11 or the Gulf War. Quite an interesting collection of stories.

well-written stories, but I work hard to read them and feel I've still missed part of what eisenberg is trying to say

Stunning: The stories in this book are absolutely stunning. I want to know more about every single character. I care about them and hope that during my lifetime Ms. Eisernberg writes more stories with these characters. They are real, yet each one represents something. Amazing.