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Eugene Stein

Auteur de Straitjacket & Tie

2 oeuvres 63 utilisateurs 2 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Comprend les noms: Eugene P. Stein

Œuvres de Eugene Stein

Straitjacket & Tie (1994) 48 exemplaires
Touch & Go (1997) 15 exemplaires

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You'll probably scratch your heads when I tell you how I chose this book. I liked the cover, I've always liked short stories, and I liked that Stein is a family name for me! I'm pretty sure only a few people have ever heard of this author. Okay. So I found the book at my used book store over a year ago, and it's been sitting on my shelf. I took it to work just in case I forgot to bring my current read with me - which I did, in fact, forget. So, by default, I started this book at lunch two days ago and finished it before I got home from work tonight. It was a quick and engaging read.

I ended up really liking most of the stories. There were only two that did not appeal to me, but, oddly enough, one of those was a story ("The Triumph of the Prague Workers' Council") especially enjoyed by others (per Amazon's reviews). My favorite story was one called "The Grandma Golem" which was like a cross between the writing of Sholom Aleichem and Stephen King. No kidding! This was one I'd rather not explain but have you read directly. My second favorite story was called "Hard Bargains" about a young white female Jewish reporter who ended up in a black ghetto while trying to fight off racial stereotyping. I found this story really believable and somewhat sad. I thought all of the stories were well written and different enough to keep me interested. They were kind of funny, a little pathetic, and most had an interesting twist.
… (plus d'informations)
1 voter
Signalé
SqueakyChu | Apr 16, 2009 |
Lida loaned this to me. It's about this nice Jewish boy, Bert, who's older brother, Philip, is schizophrenic. Philip has his first real break with reality when Bert is 16, Philip comes back from college to stay at his parents house. The strain of living with him wears heavily on everyone else particularly Bert, who shares a room with him. The novel follows Bert through the next ten years (more or less) as he finishes high school, leaves for Princeton, graduates, finds a job in the Sewers department, goes to graduate school at Columbia for his MBA, graduates, and gets a real job. Bert tries to work out the kinks of his sexual personae (he's gay but sometimes attracted to women) deal with space aliens that only he, some kids, substance abusers, and crazy people can see, contend with the shrill, screaming, Jane Alley who yells into the airshaft each night, and wonder if he isn't crazy himself. There are lots of interesting x and wonder if aliens, Ribsy, has a bad substance abuse problem, as does Philip and Patrick, Bert's first male lover. Reading it you keep wondering how much is based on reality: does the author have a schizophrenic brother who wrote the poems, who is the famous writer based on (Elie Wiesel is my guess) that kind of thing. I liked a great deal about the book, but didn't enjoy it as much as I might have done, just because it was so random. I don't mind invisible space visitors who trail green slime and wear Norma Kamali, I encourage that, but there are four years when Bert is at college that we know almost nothing about. I want the Is dotted and the Ts crossed. I want all the details.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Kaethe | May 27, 2008 |

Statistiques

Œuvres
2
Membres
63
Popularité
#268,028
Évaluation
4.1
Critiques
2
ISBN
5

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