Sharp. Very much one time, one place, and one quirky mind. ( )

I liked Grace Paley a great deal years ago; I still do, but now--being an old broad myself--find elisions in these stories. ( )

I was just going to give this four stars to balance my GR quota but whatever. At least half of these are in the ten most affecting stories I've ever read. ( )

Well, I was surprised by this one. I love short stories. Somewhere, somehow I heard about Grace Paley. That she was a special teller of short stories. I obtained a copy of this collection with great expectations. The GR rating of 4 added to those expectations. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as expected. Yes, Grace Paley is a unique teller of short stories. Some of her stories are so short that they are over before you have gotten to know a character or what the story might be about. I simply couldn’t find much to enjoy. The one aspect of her stories I did like was the repeat appearance of the character Faith across multiple stories. Unfortunately, except for Faith, I didn't feel like I got to know anyone. When the writer is also an artist, the art can accentuate the story. But sometimes there is just the art, and it has nothing to do with the story. That is Grace Paley for me, at least in this collection. I can recognize the art for what it is. I can even appreciate the art to some degree. The art, however, did not help the stories. ( )

The only reason I didn’t give up on this collection halfway through the first tale is because I had to do a joint presentation on the author as part of my MA degree.

Checking other reviews, I see I’m of a minority who can’t stand these type of stories. I did expect to like this collection more than the author’s first book of shorts – which I wasn’t impressed by – but turned out that this one was even less appealing.

Here and there my interest was caught, hence my rating it two stars instead of one, but on the whole I was either bored, irritated, or both. I especially hate how, in about half the tales, there’re no quotation marks for dialogue.

Plots are virtually non-existent. Each story more or less revolves around people chatting about political matters, which is of no interest to me whatsoever. If it’s not political, it’s just commonplace gossip. In short, it comes across as the author’s way of expressing her opinions through lacklustre characters.

Speaking of characters, there are too many per story for it to be possible to feel any sympathy for any of them, never mind getting to know them. ( )