this is the hardest book review i’ve had to write yet.
#25. The Apocalypse Reader. Edited by Justin Taylor. Short Fiction Collection.
i desperately wanted to like this book, both because it is a collection of great writers both seasoned and relatively new, giving their original takes on the apocalypse, which is interesting in and of itself, and just because i adore good short fiction. there are 34 stories in total by 35 different authors, all dealing in their own ways with “the apocalypse” and if i have complained before about an uneven collection, then boy was i complaining before i even knew what to complain about it. this is the most uneven collection i have ever read, some of it just awesome and mind blowing and hilarious and some of it so dull and underwhelming that a few times i gave up and didn’t complete a story (unheard of for me – i always trudge through!). however, i want more collections, i want to support both the short story form and the vision of what this collection is about. so i’m torn about this review.
i suppose the real truth of it is: 2 stars for the half of it i didn’t like and 4 stars for the half of it i did like? hmm…split the difference and give it 3 stars? jeez. i hate this. 3 seems too high. maybe i have to admit that my expectations were too high? is that part of the problem here?
pieces by the following artists were awesome: Jared Hohl, Matthew Derby, Shelley Jackson, Adam Nemett, Brian Evenson, Robert Bradley, Josip Novakovich, Allison Whittenberg, Justin Taylor, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Tao Lin, Elliot David, Colette Phair, Michael Moorcock, Jeff Goldberg, Jocye Carole Oates. I desperately want to add Dennis Cooper to this list with The Ash Gray Proclamation, and he had me for the first 15 pages, but i couldn’t hold on for the last 10 or so, it just got too ridiculous, which was perhaps the point, but somewhere my enjoyment was lost.
the piece by Jeff Goldberg, These Zombies Are Not A Metaphor, was my favorite as it was hilarious and inventive and just utterly enjoyable. second runners up include An Accounting by Brian Evenson, The Last Man by Adam Nemett, and Fraise, Menthe. Et Poivre 1978 by Jared Hohl.
the ones i didn’t mention were either passable or borderline unreadable and i’m sad to say that this included several VERY famous writers and even some that whether famous or not, i’ve been a fan of, for quite some time. very disappointing.
the problem i suppose with any review, be it movie, book, or album, is that so much of it is based on personal tastes. i’ve always tried to make it known that my reviews are very personal, which means that it is just one girl’s silly opinion and it may not work for everyone. but at the same time, with this book, i couldn’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone, which is the mark of a genuinely good book, right? jeez. a simple book review shouldn’t be so difficult…
Okay, 3.0 stars – with the stipulation that there are many 4 star pieces in there, but that for me, there are also a lot of 1 and 2 star pieces, so read at your own risk. if anyone has read this book, i would welcome comments about which stories worked for them, particularly if you have an argument as to why a story i didn’t list was a favorite of yours.
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Kelly,
Thanks for writing about my book. Obviously, I wish you’d enjoyed all the stories, but I’m happy that the work of the youngest writers in the book seemed to please you the best.
re Dennis Cooper- if you’d like to give his piece another try (and I really think you should) I’d recommend considering it as a satire. There’s a kinship, I think, between Dennis’s piece and Steve Aylett’s “Gigantic,” though since Steve’s name is notably absent from your list maybe this is not the best advice to be giving you. How about Swift’s “Modest Proposal”?
Sorry to go on like this, but I really do think “Ash Gray” is a powerful and important piece of literature. I’d be glad to talk more about it with you, or about anything else in the book, if you’d like. Again, thanks for your time and attention.
Yours,
Justin Taylor
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Justin,
thank you so much for your comment.
i have to say i was shocked and pleased (and a little frightened) to see your comment. it is both amazing and scary (thus the frightened part) to realize that not only are some people finding (and more amazingly reading) my blog, but that those people would be so legitimate as to be the owners/editors/ writers/etc. of books i review. i have to say i feel a bit daunted.
i’m glad you didn’t take offense to what i tried to do, which was write a very truthful review, that also tried to insure the understanding that it was also a very personal review. i cannot imagine the challenge of putting together such a collection, especially when faced with pieces by such legends as Poe, Hawthorne, Lovecraft, etc., so i commend you for your effort.
as to Cooper’s piece. i will definitely give it another try. i think i was treating it as satire, but that it just ran a bit thin by the end and i became frustrated by it, early on it was one of my favorite pieces. i’ll give it another try and let you know if anything comes of it. i did like Aylett’s piece, but for me, not the strongest of the bunch, which as i said previously, i found many of them to be VERY strong, so it was intense competition to get listed.
i hadn’t thought of the fact that many of the writers i picked would be considered the young “upstarts” of the bunch. i can’t decide if that is encouraging or not. i like to think it is, and that it signals that i like the direction that short fiction is headed these days, but i was a bit disappointed in myself that i didn’t respond more to some of the more classic pieces. i’ll have to think about that a little. it may say more about me, than about your collection or about the writers and their pieces.
again, thanks for reading, and for commenting. i hope you’ll keep reading, despite the mixed review!
best,
kelly
ps – if you’d like to continue this, or any other conversation outside of the blogosphere (and thus the prying eyes of my hundreds of devoted readers, okay fine, my two devoted readers) please feel free to email me directly.
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