McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories

Wow, I'm glad I won this book in a contest, because if I'd paid for it, I'd feel ripped off. The stories are very much a mixed bag. I really enjoyed the stories by China Mieville, Daniel Handler, and Jason Roberts. I thought the stories by Margaret Atwood, Ayelet Waldman, Heidi Julavits, Poppy Z. Brite, and Joyce Carol Oates were okay. The stories by Stephen King, Jonathan Letham, and Charles D'Ambrosio were boring. The stories by Steve Erikson, Roddy Doyle, and Peter Straub just left me confused. David Mitchell's story was so bad I nearly gave up on the book.

Look, if you're gonna make me, I have to confess that the only reason I own, read, and will keep this book is because it's the only publication of an early short story version of [Lisey's Story] from Uncle Stevie. Yes, Atwood's first-person tale of a monster is a little interesting. And Oates' story about a guy going bat-shit crazy on a tiny island is readable. Oh, yeah, Roddy Doyle's story about a creepy kid ghost who won't go away is pretty, well, creepy. Sadly, Straub's entry tries a little too hard to be clever. And Just don't know what to say about Steve Erickson - but that's probably what he's going for. Nope, this is a King book.

5 bones for the King story,
2 bones for the rest of the book.
Highly Recommended for the King show more collector, otherwise, not so much. show less

Lots of great authors in this collection! I enjoyed reading "Lisey and the Madman" by Stephen King, and being able to see this piece of what would later become the book "Lisey's Story", King's favorite of the novels he has written! "7C" by Jason Roberts is indeed weird, which is apropos as the blurb above the beginning states that it won an award for "Weird Short Story"! It's so weird in fact, that I didn't even really understand it! Does that qualify as "astonishing"? Well, judge for yourself!

McSweeny’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories is more or less a snoozefest, ranging from the lackluster with potential (D’Ambrossio, Mieville- I know many love the Mieville but I found it to have inconsistent pacing and a glaring lack of tension) to the entirely unenthralling (Handler, Brite, Letham), from the tedious (Doyle, Erickson) to the unfinished (Straub), and, of course, the predictable (Julavits, Waldman). The stories from the heavy-hitters (Atwood, King, Mitchell, Oates) are all engaging and enjoyable, but the real star of this collection is Jason Roberts’ incredibly inventive 7c. And something must be said for the wide variety in this collection in terms of subgenre- no two stories are the same brand of suspense, show more and, in this way, Michael Chabon is successful in his project of challenging what exactly ‘genre’ means. Too bad 2/3rds of this collection turned out to be astonishingly boring. show less

this book was my bible all summer of 2006. i felt small and incomplete without it. i discovered these people: ayelet waldman, kelly link, jason roberts, and poppy z. brite. the atwood, d'ambrosio, and oates are gorgeous, as well. now, when i look at the book on my shelf, i feel warm.

i think i'm searching for these stories all over the place - the fabulous, the surreal, the ghosty-headed - but still literary. still full of something else entirely.

this book was my bible all summer of 2006. i felt small and incomplete without it. i discovered these people: ayelet waldman, kelly link, jason roberts, and poppy z. brite. the atwood, d'ambrosio, and oates are gorgeous, as well. now, when i look at the book on my shelf, i feel warm.

i think i'm searching for these stories all over the place - the fabulous, the surreal, the ghosty-headed - but still literary. still full of something else entirely.

I bought this short story collection for a never-before-published new story by Stephen King, but ultimately, I was disappointed by the caliber of all the stories in the anthology, including King’s. Either the short story form has lost all meaning for me, or these great authors – such as Margaret Atwood, Peter Straub, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Lethem and King – are merely phoning it in.