I haven't read anything by this guy before, never heard his name, but there are apparently quite a few posts on this sub about other books by him. Nothing about this one though.
It's a short story collection. One of the stories is VERY short. Two pages.
I would say "strangely effective" sums up most of the ones I've read so far. I haven't finished the book, but I can see that I'm going to, which doesn't happen often with fiction. His writing is easy to love. Is all writing at least partly a way of flirting with the reader? Hmm, saith the Lord. And it was hmm.
Love is the right word, though. His writing sticks to you the way meat and potatoes should and never do. He's good at changing it up, giving you a new perspective, a new "so THIS is what the story's about" and then doing it again a few pages later, until you've piled up reasons to think it over like stuffed animals on a bed: too many, and also never enough.
No insights, fortunately or unfortunately. But he's not an atmosphericist, like McCarthy, either; his focus is on the relationships between people, not on the critical absurdity of life. He treats them carefully, too. He seems to love them all, strange as that may be. It's a very attractive pose.
by tolkienfan2759