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The Caprices
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction in 2003,'The Caprices'is a collection of stories artfully told across the theatre of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. An Anglo-Indian cavalryman, his homeland on the brink of revolution, finds himself in Malaya fighting to protect British interests. Two soldiers lost in the jungle with a Japanese prisoner confront their prejudices toward each other, and the nature of being American. An island witnesses the passing of history from Magellan, to Amelia Earhart, to the dropping of the atomic bomb.
With exquisite lyricism tempered by a journalist's eye for detail, Murray shines light on the tangle of battles created by that conflict, the violent reach across the generations, the shattering reverberations in memory. With this collection, Sabina Murray established herself as a passionate and wise voice of literary fiction.
With exquisite lyricism tempered by a journalist's eye for detail, Murray shines light on the tangle of battles created by that conflict, the violent reach across the generations, the shattering reverberations in memory. With this collection, Sabina Murray established herself as a passionate and wise voice of literary fiction.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 2002
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About the author
Sabina Murray
16 books83 followersSabina Murray was born in 1968 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is of mixed parentage—her mother a Filipina from Manila, her father a former Jesuit scholastic turned anthropologist from Boston. Her parents met in Washington DC, where both were pursuing graduate degrees. At the age of two she moved to Perth with her family, when her father accepted a position at the University of Western Australia. In 1980 the family moved again, this time to Manila, to be closer to her mother’s family. Although Sabina Murray is an American citizen, she did not live again in the United States until she attended college. She feels that she moves easily through the various cultures that have forged her own identity: Australian, Filipino, and American. She now lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her family, where she directs, and teaches in, the Creative Writing Program at Umass.
In 1989, Murray’s novel, Slow Burn, set in the decadent Manila of the mid-eighties, was accepted for publication, when Murray was twenty years old. Later, she attended the University of Texas at Austin where she started work on The Caprices, a short story collection that explores the Pacific Campaign of WWII. In 1999, Murray left Texas for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she had a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. In January, 2002, Murray published The Caprices, which won the PEN Faulkner Award.
Murray’s next novel, A Carnivore’s Inquiry, follows Katherine Shea, a woman of strange appetites, as she moves from man to man ruminating on the nature of cannibalism in western history, literature and art. The book is a dark comedy that is concerned with power and hunger. Forgery is her most recent book, and this looks at authenticity by following Rupert Brigg, who is exploring art and escaping grief in Greece in the early sixties. Both novels were Chicago Tribune Best Books.
Her most recent book, Tales of The New World, a collection of short stories with an interest in explorers, was released by Grove/Black Cat in November, 2011. She is hard at work on a novel that looks at the friendship between the Irish revolutionary Roger Casement and the artist Herbert Ward.
Murray is also a screenwriter and wrote the script for the film Beautiful Country, released in 2005. Beautiful Country follows the story of Binh, a young Amerasian man who comes to the U.S. from Vietnam in search of the father he never knew. Terrence Malick commissioned Murray to write the screenplay.
Murray has been a Michener Fellow at UT Austin, a Bunting fellow at Radcliffe, a Guggenheim Fellow, and has received the PEN/Faulkner Award, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, a Umass Research and Creativity Award, and a Fred Brown Award for The Novel from the University of Pittsburgh. Beautiful Country was nominated for a Golden Bear and the screenplay was nominated for an Amanda Award (the Norwegian Oscars!) and an Independent Spirit Award.
In 1989, Murray’s novel, Slow Burn, set in the decadent Manila of the mid-eighties, was accepted for publication, when Murray was twenty years old. Later, she attended the University of Texas at Austin where she started work on The Caprices, a short story collection that explores the Pacific Campaign of WWII. In 1999, Murray left Texas for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she had a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. In January, 2002, Murray published The Caprices, which won the PEN Faulkner Award.
Murray’s next novel, A Carnivore’s Inquiry, follows Katherine Shea, a woman of strange appetites, as she moves from man to man ruminating on the nature of cannibalism in western history, literature and art. The book is a dark comedy that is concerned with power and hunger. Forgery is her most recent book, and this looks at authenticity by following Rupert Brigg, who is exploring art and escaping grief in Greece in the early sixties. Both novels were Chicago Tribune Best Books.
Her most recent book, Tales of The New World, a collection of short stories with an interest in explorers, was released by Grove/Black Cat in November, 2011. She is hard at work on a novel that looks at the friendship between the Irish revolutionary Roger Casement and the artist Herbert Ward.
Murray is also a screenwriter and wrote the script for the film Beautiful Country, released in 2005. Beautiful Country follows the story of Binh, a young Amerasian man who comes to the U.S. from Vietnam in search of the father he never knew. Terrence Malick commissioned Murray to write the screenplay.
Murray has been a Michener Fellow at UT Austin, a Bunting fellow at Radcliffe, a Guggenheim Fellow, and has received the PEN/Faulkner Award, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, a Umass Research and Creativity Award, and a Fred Brown Award for The Novel from the University of Pittsburgh. Beautiful Country was nominated for a Golden Bear and the screenplay was nominated for an Amanda Award (the Norwegian Oscars!) and an Independent Spirit Award.
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January 28, 2023
Η Sabina Murray, μισή Αμερικανίδα-μισή Φιλιππινέζα, κυκλοφόρησε τη συγκεκριμένη συλλογή το 2002 κ παρόλο που πήρε ένα μεγάλο λογοτεχνικό βραβείο στην Αμερική έχει περάσει απαρατήρητη. Πολύ κακώς θα πρόσθετα, αφού το Caprices δεν μπορεί παρά να αφήσει τον αναγνώστη εντυπωσιασμένο. Έχοντας ζήσει κ η ίδια στις Φιλιππίνες (όπως κ στην Αυστραλία κ τις ΗΠΑ) εστιάζει σε αυτό το συγκεκριμένο κομμάτι του πλανήτη που φαίνεται να κατέχει καλά, κ παρουσιάζει 9 πολύ καλές έως εξαιρετικές ιστορίες (με μια αρνητική εξαίρεση) γύρω απ'όσα συνέβησαν στην ευρύτερη περιοχή του Ειρηνικού Ωκεανού κατά τη διάρκεια του Β'ΠΠ.
Κ είναι πράγματι περίεργο πως γίνεται μια τόσο νεαρή γυναίκα (ήταν 34χρ.τότε) να μπορεί να περιγράψει τόσο ζωντανά μια τόσο σκληρή κ κυρίως αλλιώτικη εποχή, πόσο μάλλον όταν οι αφηγητές της είναι στις περισσότερες περιπτώσεις άντρες κάθε ηλικία κ φυλής, οι οποίοι ζωντανεύουν μέσα σε ελάχιστες σελίδες. Με δύο εξαιρέσεις στο τέλος, τα διηγήματα είναι πυκνογραμμένα κ πλούσια σε βάθος κ παρόλο που έχουν πολλά κοινά το ένα με το άλλο (οι αφηγητές είναι σε πολλές περιπτώσεις αιχμάλωτοι πολέμου), οι φωνές των ηρώων της είναι ξεχωριστές κ φτιαγμένες με ωραίες λεπτομέρειες. Για παράδειγμα, ο Αγγλο-Ινδός Harry του Order of Precedence (απ’τις κορυφαίες στιγμές της συλλογής) είναι ένας ανασφαλής, ευγενικός νεαρός που μπλέχθηκε στο πόλεμο χωρίς ουσιαστικά να ανήκει εκεί γιατί ναι μεν ήθελε να διώξει τους Ιάπωνες, αλλά θα έπρεπε να το κάνει στο πλάι των Άγγλων που επίσης ήθελε να διώξει απ΄την Ινδία. Αντιθέτως, ο Ολλανδός έμπορος του Folly ενδιαφέρεται μόνο να σώσει την κόρη του κ την εγγονή του κ αναγκάζεται να λάβει πολύ δραστικά μέτρα για να το καταφέρει.
Ευτυχώς η Murray, αυτές τις χωρίς αμφιβολία σκοτεινές ιστορίες τις χειρίζεται με μεγάλη ακρίβεια, αποφεύγοντας γραμμικές αφηγήσεις κ λοιπές ευκολίες κ φροντίζει να δίνει ολοκληρωμένες εικόνες με εύστοχη πρόζα. Όταν δε, πειραματίζεται λίγο το αποτέλεσμα είναι εντυπωσιακό. Τρανταχτό παράδειγμα η ομώνυμη ιστορία, η οποία πέρα απ’το πολύ ωραίο storyline κρύβει μέσα της μια αγάπη για το horror που εκδηλώνεται με ανατριχιαστικό τρόπο στις τελευταίες σελίδες. Εξίσου καλά λειτουργεί κ η ιδιαίτερη family saga του Intramuros που με μικρά κ σύντομα κεφάλαια διανύει την ιστορία μιας οικογένειας κ εδώ η Murray για πρώτη φορά επιδεικνύει πως κατέχει το έξυπνο χιούμορ.
Το καλύτερο όμως διήγημα κατά τη γνώμη μου είναι το Colossus που το αφηγείται ένας 80χρ. άντρας που θυμάται τις δικές του περιπέτειες στον πόλεμο (υπήρξε κι αυτός αιχμάλωτος). Ξεκινάει με μια πανέμορφη εικόνα:
“There on the gutter the icicle hung down like an incisor. The afternoon sun shot through it, then flung the shattered light over the back wall of the porch. A steady drip muted by dead leaves on the step kept time with Jim’s heart. And this taptap reminded him of something that he had once heard, but could not remember. The tide was low and despite the chill the odor of brackish rot was clear from the bay, while from the opposite side of the island, Jim could hear the waves exploding on the beach”.
Ο ήρωας καθώς προσπαθεί να θυμηθεί που είχε ακούσει πάλι αυτό το ρυθμικό ταπ-ταπ, φαίνεται να είναι ο μοναδικός στην πόλη του που αδιαφορεί για το τυφώνα που πλησιάζει. Μαζί με το ομώνυμο διήγημα κ το τελευταίο που αφηγείται με υπέροχο τρόπο τη στιγμή που πέφτει η ατομική βόμβα στη Χιροσίμα (οι δύο τελευταίες σελίδες είναι ανατριχιαστικές), είναι οι καλύτερες στιγμές της συλλογής.
Η μοναδική ιστορία που δεν λειτουργεί καλά, είναι το Walkabout που μου φάνηκε τελείως βαρετό κ οι όποιοι συμβολισμοί του γύρω απ΄τα πνευματικά πιστεύω των ιθαγενών της Αυστραλίας με άφησαν αδιάφορο. Δεν νομίζω όμως πως αυτό το στραβοπάτημα φτάνει για να αφαιρέσει κανείς κάτι από αυτό το εντυπωσιακό πραγματικά αποτέλεσμα. Όσοι εξακολουθούν να βρίσκουν κάποιο ενδιαφέρον στη συγκεκριμένη περίοδο κ ενδιαφέρονται για war fiction, όσοι βαρέθηκαν να διαβάζουν τις κλισέ προσεγγίσεις του πολέμου κάτω από ένα πέπλο νοσταλγίας που υποτίθεται αναδεικνύει τη δύναμη του άνθρωπου στις δύσκολες στιγμές, το Caprices είναι ιδανική επιλογή.
Υ.Γ. Εδώ υπάρχει σε pdf η ομώνυμη ιστορία που ανοίγει το βιβλίο.
http://www.nereview.com/files/2015/01...
Κ είναι πράγματι περίεργο πως γίνεται μια τόσο νεαρή γυναίκα (ήταν 34χρ.τότε) να μπορεί να περιγράψει τόσο ζωντανά μια τόσο σκληρή κ κυρίως αλλιώτικη εποχή, πόσο μάλλον όταν οι αφηγητές της είναι στις περισσότερες περιπτώσεις άντρες κάθε ηλικία κ φυλής, οι οποίοι ζωντανεύουν μέσα σε ελάχιστες σελίδες. Με δύο εξαιρέσεις στο τέλος, τα διηγήματα είναι πυκνογραμμένα κ πλούσια σε βάθος κ παρόλο που έχουν πολλά κοινά το ένα με το άλλο (οι αφηγητές είναι σε πολλές περιπτώσεις αιχμάλωτοι πολέμου), οι φωνές των ηρώων της είναι ξεχωριστές κ φτιαγμένες με ωραίες λεπτομέρειες. Για παράδειγμα, ο Αγγλο-Ινδός Harry του Order of Precedence (απ’τις κορυφαίες στιγμές της συλλογής) είναι ένας ανασφαλής, ευγενικός νεαρός που μπλέχθηκε στο πόλεμο χωρίς ουσιαστικά να ανήκει εκεί γιατί ναι μεν ήθελε να διώξει τους Ιάπωνες, αλλά θα έπρεπε να το κάνει στο πλάι των Άγγλων που επίσης ήθελε να διώξει απ΄την Ινδία. Αντιθέτως, ο Ολλανδός έμπορος του Folly ενδιαφέρεται μόνο να σώσει την κόρη του κ την εγγονή του κ αναγκάζεται να λάβει πολύ δραστικά μέτρα για να το καταφέρει.
Ευτυχώς η Murray, αυτές τις χωρίς αμφιβολία σκοτεινές ιστορίες τις χειρίζεται με μεγάλη ακρίβεια, αποφεύγοντας γραμμικές αφηγήσεις κ λοιπές ευκολίες κ φροντίζει να δίνει ολοκληρωμένες εικόνες με εύστοχη πρόζα. Όταν δε, πειραματίζεται λίγο το αποτέλεσμα είναι εντυπωσιακό. Τρανταχτό παράδειγμα η ομώνυμη ιστορία, η οποία πέρα απ’το πολύ ωραίο storyline κρύβει μέσα της μια αγάπη για το horror που εκδηλώνεται με ανατριχιαστικό τρόπο στις τελευταίες σελίδες. Εξίσου καλά λειτουργεί κ η ιδιαίτερη family saga του Intramuros που με μικρά κ σύντομα κεφάλαια διανύει την ιστορία μιας οικογένειας κ εδώ η Murray για πρώτη φορά επιδεικνύει πως κατέχει το έξυπνο χιούμορ.
Το καλύτερο όμως διήγημα κατά τη γνώμη μου είναι το Colossus που το αφηγείται ένας 80χρ. άντρας που θυμάται τις δικές του περιπέτειες στον πόλεμο (υπήρξε κι αυτός αιχμάλωτος). Ξεκινάει με μια πανέμορφη εικόνα:
“There on the gutter the icicle hung down like an incisor. The afternoon sun shot through it, then flung the shattered light over the back wall of the porch. A steady drip muted by dead leaves on the step kept time with Jim’s heart. And this taptap reminded him of something that he had once heard, but could not remember. The tide was low and despite the chill the odor of brackish rot was clear from the bay, while from the opposite side of the island, Jim could hear the waves exploding on the beach”.
Ο ήρωας καθώς προσπαθεί να θυμηθεί που είχε ακούσει πάλι αυτό το ρυθμικό ταπ-ταπ, φαίνεται να είναι ο μοναδικός στην πόλη του που αδιαφορεί για το τυφώνα που πλησιάζει. Μαζί με το ομώνυμο διήγημα κ το τελευταίο που αφηγείται με υπέροχο τρόπο τη στιγμή που πέφτει η ατομική βόμβα στη Χιροσίμα (οι δύο τελευταίες σελίδες είναι ανατριχιαστικές), είναι οι καλύτερες στιγμές της συλλογής.
Η μοναδική ιστορία που δεν λειτουργεί καλά, είναι το Walkabout που μου φάνηκε τελείως βαρετό κ οι όποιοι συμβολισμοί του γύρω απ΄τα πνευματικά πιστεύω των ιθαγενών της Αυστραλίας με άφησαν αδιάφορο. Δεν νομίζω όμως πως αυτό το στραβοπάτημα φτάνει για να αφαιρέσει κανείς κάτι από αυτό το εντυπωσιακό πραγματικά αποτέλεσμα. Όσοι εξακολουθούν να βρίσκουν κάποιο ενδιαφέρον στη συγκεκριμένη περίοδο κ ενδιαφέρονται για war fiction, όσοι βαρέθηκαν να διαβάζουν τις κλισέ προσεγγίσεις του πολέμου κάτω από ένα πέπλο νοσταλγίας που υποτίθεται αναδεικνύει τη δύναμη του άνθρωπου στις δύσκολες στιγμές, το Caprices είναι ιδανική επιλογή.
Υ.Γ. Εδώ υπάρχει σε pdf η ομώνυμη ιστορία που ανοίγει το βιβλίο.
http://www.nereview.com/files/2015/01...
November 21, 2008
I enjoyed and learned a lot from this collection. I was particularly impressed with Murray's use of research within her fiction. She made the Pacific come alive for me in a way I haven't experienced before, and she created wholly memorable characters. Most specifically, I will always remember little Trinidad, Jose, and Mrs. Garcia from the first story. They're the kind of characters that I will find myself thinking of a year from now and will have to try to remember where I know them from. Also, last week Sabina came to the fiction class we read this collection in because she won an award at our University, and she is one of the funniest and most genuine authors I have ever met in person. I'm really looking forward to reading more of her work!
April 11, 2017
This book was not what I expected at all. A description of the first story caught my attention, but I was unaware until I started it, that it was a collection of short stories that explores the lesser-known Pacific theatre of World War II, with special focus on the Phillippines. Sabina Murray had wonderful character development and lyrical writing. I hadn't known much about the Phillipines and the Pacific from WWII. This was her debut book from 2007. The writing is good enough for me to seek out other works.
April 2, 2012
The stories in this collection - told variously by characters such as POWs (Indian and American), Filipino civilians caught in the conflagration, Amelia Earhart and numerous displaced persons of that time, animate and brought to life the humanly shared experiences of war albeit from different perspectives. The tales also spoke of the capriciousness of life and the fate of those caught in the midst of war against the larger narratives (myths?) of history where portents and posterity tend to dominate official narratives. Reading them as s series brought on a strange sense of poignancy and even nostalgia for a place and time I never knew, where dying seemed so much alive and vivid than the placid normalcy of peacetime living. Murray's unaffected and descriptive prose brought to life images and places that are stark yet real in their complexity, creating a sense of presently felt immediacy to what war felt like.
At some level, I felt such stories to be necessary reading even if only to counteract the degree to which we have become inured to the images and reports of war in faraway places like Iraq and Afghanistan; we can hardly connect at a human level with what living IN war feels like. This volume also brought to mind Peter Englund's The Beauty and the Sorrow, a collection of biographical accounts of disparate civilians living through the First World War. There is something tenuous yet significant in reading such accounts (even if they may be fictionalized imaginations or composite accounts) that draw on the real. It is as if through such literary encounters we memorialize and pay our respects to those much like ourselves who happened to have lived in those fraught times, whom in all other respects could well have been us, and thus in a strange way we assert the value of ordinary lives having been in the world.
At some level, I felt such stories to be necessary reading even if only to counteract the degree to which we have become inured to the images and reports of war in faraway places like Iraq and Afghanistan; we can hardly connect at a human level with what living IN war feels like. This volume also brought to mind Peter Englund's The Beauty and the Sorrow, a collection of biographical accounts of disparate civilians living through the First World War. There is something tenuous yet significant in reading such accounts (even if they may be fictionalized imaginations or composite accounts) that draw on the real. It is as if through such literary encounters we memorialize and pay our respects to those much like ourselves who happened to have lived in those fraught times, whom in all other respects could well have been us, and thus in a strange way we assert the value of ordinary lives having been in the world.
July 29, 2021
A very good collection of short stories taking place in the South Pacific during WWII. Most of the stories dealt with the very psychological trauma that people experience in war. Some of the better stories were: "Walkabout" the story of a man who survived a Japanese forced labor camp, "Guinea" about two men that had been sent out as scouts before their squad was wiped out by a Japanese attack and their struggle to survive and "Folly" about a well to do man and his daughter and an attraction between the daughter and a native man who visited them and the ultimate consequences of the mans reaction.
February 15, 2008
This novel is really more of a series of short stories set in World War II. Each story is set in the Pacific theater. The stories illustrate the emotional devastation, disorientation, and depression associated with war. There are several stories that show how tragic and powerful experience war is.
April 11, 2022
This is a collection of 9 short stories on WWII in Southeast Asia, dubbed "Co-Prosperity Sphere" by the Japanese conqueror. I learned about the term co-prosperity sphere in school but this is the first time I see this term used outside textbooks. Most of the stories are about soldiers. Others are about civilians who encounter soldiers in one way or the other. Out of the 9 stories, four are set in the Philippines, one is set in Malaysia, one in Papua New Guinea, one in Thailand, one in Indonesia, one in Saipan. (Many of the countries/regions had other names in WWII time.) Protagonists are mostly of the Allied forces, but she also wrote from points of view of Japanese soldiers. Many stories followed the protagonists beyond the war and depicted their struggle with PTSD. The stories are all sad. Some ended abruptly, I guess in an attempt to leave an impact on readers.
I didn't have much prior knowledge about what went on in these countries during WWII, so the stories were informative and eye-opening to me. I get a sense that people in the Philippines really didn't like it when MacArthur retreated and deserted them. Protagonists generally had low opinion of him. The stories are very well written, with a lot of interesting details on the culture, so despite the gloomy content I am still interested to read along. War is a sad and horrible thing. The atrocities depicted in the stories would have continued if not for the nuclear bomb. But the nuclear bombing is also sad and horrible. One of the short stories addressed it in a gentle way.
I didn't have much prior knowledge about what went on in these countries during WWII, so the stories were informative and eye-opening to me. I get a sense that people in the Philippines really didn't like it when MacArthur retreated and deserted them. Protagonists generally had low opinion of him. The stories are very well written, with a lot of interesting details on the culture, so despite the gloomy content I am still interested to read along. War is a sad and horrible thing. The atrocities depicted in the stories would have continued if not for the nuclear bomb. But the nuclear bombing is also sad and horrible. One of the short stories addressed it in a gentle way.
August 18, 2017
I agree with many reviewers that this is a part of history (the Pacific area during WW ii) that has been neglected in fiction so for that alone this book was unique.
On top of that Murray writes beautifully. Sentence by sentence is stunning.
However, I just couldn't follow many of the stories. I don't think that this was poor narrative skills on the part of Murray but simply an overload of carnage. Virtually every story recounts such atrocities, even though with beautiful language, that my mind just shut down.
So really my rating is four stars for beautiful writing and two stars for the ability to hold my interest.
I will give this one another go because Murray is quite the writer and deserves a second read. I can't say I am looking forward to it.
On top of that Murray writes beautifully. Sentence by sentence is stunning.
However, I just couldn't follow many of the stories. I don't think that this was poor narrative skills on the part of Murray but simply an overload of carnage. Virtually every story recounts such atrocities, even though with beautiful language, that my mind just shut down.
So really my rating is four stars for beautiful writing and two stars for the ability to hold my interest.
I will give this one another go because Murray is quite the writer and deserves a second read. I can't say I am looking forward to it.
April 25, 2023
Any book that's about the Pacific Theater of WWII is an automatic 4 stars to me, it really has to earn the negatives (looking at you Flanagan). This one was exquisite because it encompasses pretty much all the people that actively participated in this part of the war - there are Filipinos and Americans and Japanese, there are Indians, there are Australians, the Indonesians and the Dutch. The Burmese were roped into a war they didn't want to be part of but they were stuck walking the Bataan Death March anyway. But the 5 stars are because of how the book ends - with Enola Gay and her payload poised on top of Hiroshima. It's perfect for the end of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2022
Good collection of WWII stories set in the Pacific.
September 9, 2023
My favorites in the collection: “Walkabout,” “Intramuros,” and “Yamashita’s Gold”
December 10, 2017
This collection of short stories explores the lesser-known Pacific theatre of World War II, with special focus on the Philippines. Told from a wide array of viewpoints, the author skillfully navigates among various characters and settings. The final story, "Position," closes with a very moving riff on the idea of counting to three and having all combatants put down their weapons. Of course, sadly, this still has yet to occur, despite two "World Wars" that people believed would mark the end of war. War as we once knew it has indeed ended, but now our battles are more fragmented, nebulous, and seem to go on with no beginning or end in sight. We fight ideas instead of physical armies, ideologies instead of battalions. It may seem more noble to declare war on terrorism, but since we can't seem to figure out who exactly the generals are in such an amorphous appellation, we are destined to keep fighting with no hope of clarity, understanding, or peace.
January 9, 2008
This is a really good collection. Murray is pretty under-the-radar, I don't know anything about her, but I often see this book in remainder bins and overstock shelves, so if you see it its well worth the dollar or two its gonna cost you.
The stories are beautiful, especially how they handle the landscape of the Philippines, and give great insight into the effects of war on people and place. Especially considering that Murray didn't fight in the war, her ability to render the thoughts and actions of soldiers is impressive.
The stories are beautiful, especially how they handle the landscape of the Philippines, and give great insight into the effects of war on people and place. Especially considering that Murray didn't fight in the war, her ability to render the thoughts and actions of soldiers is impressive.
February 27, 2013
I'm just not a fan of short stories. I'm never satisfied with the endings. All of these stories are set in the Pacific theater during World War II. Sure, I learned about it in high school, but I don't really remember any of the details. Each story revolved around a different person and country. It would have been helpful to have a brief history lesson before reading the book. The writing is fantastic and some stories are quite interesting.
July 24, 2008
I don't remember reading much about the Pacific Islander perspective of WWII. This book -- I know I use the word a lot -- is quite beautiful, solid, stupefying, harsh. That it was written by a 24-year-old contemporary woman makes it also bothersome and disgusting, in a completely admirable way. Won the PEN/Faulkner in, I believe, 2002.
June 24, 2007
I may be a bit biased here--I think I liked it partly because I tried so hard to like it. I went in thinking "OK, Pen/Faulkner award for a debut effort, it must be obvious." I still enjoyed it though.
August 8, 2014
A really fantastic book of short stories, most brutal and probably hard for some to read. But, considering the subject matter--the war in the Pacific--Murray's attempt to find humanity in a situation in which all sides see nothing but the hand of a capricious God is quite astounding.
October 14, 2007
Short stories stunning for bringing the Pacific theater of World War II to light. Murray is fan of Goya, hence the title, and her interest in the tragedies of war meets the painter's.
January 26, 2010
Loved the war vignettes!!
August 29, 2011
Pen/Faulkner Award - 2002
Want to read
July 29, 201103 pen/faulkner award
August 31, 2011
An absolutely amazing accomplishment - a series of short stories fleshing out the myriad experiences of WWII in the pacific.
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