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Loading... You Are Not a Stranger Here: Stories (original 2002; edition 2002)by Adam Haslett
Work InformationYou Are Not a Stranger Here: Stories by Adam Haslett (Author) (2002)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Reading Hastlett's short stories brought out many emotions and many of them were pretty raw and intense. This collection touches on the subjects of mental illness and isolation in a very direct manner without sugarcoating them. For me it was a great experience reading this collection but I can see why some people might find the material pretty heavy. Besides the material presented, I really enjoyed the writing and the flow of the text. ( ) I found Haslett's stories grimly pleasant. They straddle the line between realism and the bizarre. Haslett's characters are quiet, and unassuming, yet bound to the complexities of destiny and fate. Death is omnipresent, usually lurking off-stage readying itself to pounce on characters already waiting for his arrival. Haslett knows the perfect moment to pull the curtain and leave us, of course, crying over the fate of his broken characters. I enjoyed this well-written collection of stories dealing with difficult topics of the heart and mind. I was bothered, however, by the fact that about half of the stories dealt with gay men/boys coming to terms with their identity while the other half dealt with mental illness as though the two were the same thing. Not! I was so surprised not to love this book. Haslett tends to go for sudden endings or last minute surprise twists that (in my opinion) don't work--the only ending I liked was that of "Devotion." "Notes to my Biographer" was brilliant right up to that final sentence. I wish he had put more thought into choosing titles, too. no reviews | add a review
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In his bestselling and lavishly praised first book of stories, Adam Haslett explores lives that appear shuttered by loss and discovers entire worlds hidden inside them. The impact is at once harrowing and thrilling. An elderly inventor, burning with manic creativity, tries to reconcile with his estranged gay son. A bereaved boy draws a thuggish classmate into a relationship of escalating guilt and violence. A genteel middle-aged woman, a long-time resident of a psychiatric hospital, becomes the confidante of a lovelorn teenaged volunteer. Told with Chekhovian restraint and compassion, and conveying both the sorrow of life and the courage with which people rise to meet it, You Are Not a Stranger Here is a triumph of storytelling. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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