Review of my book in Reader's Favorite. It got a 5.
Reviewed By Jon Michael Miller for Readers’ Favorite
Macular Degeneration and Other Stories by Robin Vigfusson is an engrossing collection of 24 stories, any of which can easily be read in one sitting. They are delightful and thought-provoking in their reality and unabashed directness. Although the title suggests the aging process, the subjects, settings, and ideas are widely varied, but each one deals with the realism of our daily experience, past, and present. It may be a college girl reacting to a senior community; a mom watching her daughter’s standup comedy routine; a mom dealing with her teen daughter having her boyfriend’s name tattooed on her butt; a dreadful Thanksgiving dinner; or schoolkids of the 50s dealing with global destruction. My favorite is the touching tale of a woman responding to online obits of her old high school friends.
Robin Vigfusson is a terrific writer with startling, spot-on metaphors that made me sit up straight: “whimsical wallpaper as pale as ruined hope”; “her skin changed colors like a mood ring”; “blond highlights in her hair like sunlight in a forest”; “tension collected like humidity.” These stories are like sharp ironic glimpses into other peoples’ private lives, each one illuminating our own. It’s a great book to carry around for those idle moments—lunchtime or the doctor’s office: a mom teaches her 10-year-old to drive with disastrous results; a group of girls in the '50s exposed to the “seedy side of life.” Each story is a gleaming gem of exposed reality, straight to our unexpressed vision of families and neighbors. Macular Degeneration and Other Stories by Robin Vigfusson is exquisitely written, deeply conceived, and not to be missed.
Macular Degeneration and Other Stories by Robin Vigfusson is an engrossing collection of 24 stories, any of which can easily be read in one sitting. They are delightful and thought-provoking in their reality and unabashed directness. Although the title suggests the aging process, the subjects, settings, and ideas are widely varied, but each one deals with the realism of our daily experience, past, and present. It may be a college girl reacting to a senior community; a mom watching her daughter’s standup comedy routine; a mom dealing with her teen daughter having her boyfriend’s name tattooed on her butt; a dreadful Thanksgiving dinner; or schoolkids of the 50s dealing with global destruction. My favorite is the touching tale of a woman responding to online obits of her old high school friends.
Robin Vigfusson is a terrific writer with startling, spot-on metaphors that made me sit up straight: “whimsical wallpaper as pale as ruined hope”; “her skin changed colors like a mood ring”; “blond highlights in her hair like sunlight in a forest”; “tension collected like humidity.” These stories are like sharp ironic glimpses into other peoples’ private lives, each one illuminating our own. It’s a great book to carry around for those idle moments—lunchtime or the doctor’s office: a mom teaches her 10-year-old to drive with disastrous results; a group of girls in the '50s exposed to the “seedy side of life.” Each story is a gleaming gem of exposed reality, straight to our unexpressed vision of families and neighbors. Macular Degeneration and Other Stories by Robin Vigfusson is exquisitely written, deeply conceived, and not to be missed.
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