Lettura condotta soprattutto per capire dove va la nuova letteratura americana. Scrittura eccellente, capace di virtuosismi dell'osservazione da lontano, dell'introspezione, del dialogo, messa al servizio di storie per lo più violente che raccontano della perdita del sogno americano. Come ha scritto qualcuno (Christian Raimo), "Means rende grazia al creato, attraverso uno stile iperestetico, qualcosa – forse solo il fatto di esseri umani – ci ha dato la possibilità di sentire, vedere, provare un senso di vitale appartenenza per quel che ci circonda". ( )

Well-executed, skillfully conceived stories, many of which were depressing and took me to places I had no interest in going. The subjects include: A man whose failed marriage is somehow embodied in wrathful, creative and near-continuous knocking coming from the apartment above. A young hobo who kills his older traveling mate. A man whose young son is dying of cystic fibrosis. An armored car robbery gone bad. A man burying his father’s body, without further explanation, at a beach. Teenage prostitution and murder. Spontaneous human combustion (SHB). A neighborhood crucifixion as a teen prank. The best one is “The Botch,” a dazzling bank robbery story.

Technical and word wizardry abound here, capturing the moments that make up a compelling slice-of-life. But almost every story is catching someone at the worst moment of their life – or at the end of it. ( )

I will start off by mentioning that I found this short story collection to be refreshingly unique, gritty and, quite frankly, a bit of a downer. Means is a good story teller. He captures the moment in succinct prose to carry the reader through the story - albeit in a round about manner. All of the 13 stories have a common writing style - bring the reader in at the start in the center of a vortex, swirl outward to provide background and context and then close back where the reader starts, or near enough to the starting point. An interesting full circle approach to story-telling. The stories seem to be set in the upper American Midwest, time period interestingly vague and left up to the reader to pick a time in the past 50 years. The gritty part comes in the subject matter - railway hobos discussing knifing incidents, a crucifixion by teens, armed robberies gone wrong - that, at least for me, shrouded the stories in a blanket representative of a darker, poorer fringe element of society.

I have not read any of Means' previous works, and while I found his writing style to be strong and captivating, the stories came across as snatches of individuals struggling to make ends meet or to understand where life has landed them and I was happy to see the end of these rather grim stories. ( )