Some of the stories were okay, most sounded like stuff you hear in a crowded barroom on a night when the only two girls in the place are waiting in the corner for a cab to take them someplace else.

As a "human being" it is difficult to fully hate characters whom one happens to resemble, so as far as mimesis goes, this book works. ( )

Seth Johnson's collection of short stories is a quick, contemplative exploration of the internal shortcomings we leave hidden. At times bordering on the cliche, but nevertheless all too real, the characters and their situations revolve around the fissures and emptiness within our own lives. The loosely interconnected narratives are quiet, detailing the inner struggles of the characters as they mine their memories and search for reasoning as to why they're present situations. The tonality is dark, somewhat cynical, and ultimately terse. Johnson chronicles these people's lives with beauty and sadness, yet never attempts toward a resolution. My largest criticism is that despite the characters appearing in multiple stories or as POVs, their personalities and nuances are never truly explored. They operate more as stand-ins for ourselves or loose stereotypes of people we undoubtedly know. ( )

I struggled to read this book, but did finish all of the short stories. In general, I just didn’t enjoy it. I had difficulty keeping the recurring and connected characters straight, often realizing in the middle of a story that I was not reading about the character I thought. I’m used to short stories in this kind of format having open-endings, but many of these stories just felt stifled. There is good in the book, but not enough for me. ( )

I had to force myself to read the first few stories of this collection. The writing was poor, contrived and predictable and unfortunately I put it down because I couldn't force myself to read any more of it after the first few stories. ( )

This slim little volume of short stories grew on me once I started recognizing characters from story to story. At first they seemed a little too pretentious and ambiguous. It seemed all the characters were baffled by themselves and each other and there were all these dogs running around. But then the stories became intertwined, and I recognized characters from each of the stories and even liked some of them. Toward the end there weren't so many dogs. (Wondered what the heck happened to sweet Belle. Where was she?) I loved the cat story at the end. I loved the familiarity of the place. Lots of good Kentucky details and horses and booze. In general, I will look forward to more stories by Seth Johnson. This seems a good first start. ( )