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Funny Once
Michael Chabon once said, "I scan the tables of contents of magazines, looking for Antonya Nelson's name, hoping that she has decided to bless us again." And now she has blessed us again, with a bounty of the stories for which she is so beloved. Her stories are clear-eyed, hard-edged, beautifully formed. In the title story, "Funny Once," a couple held together by bad behavior fall into a lie with their more responsible friends. In "The Village," a woman visits her father at a nursing home, recalling his equanimity at her teenage misdeeds and gaining a new understanding of his own past indiscretions. In another, when a troubled girl in the neighborhood goes missing, a mother worries increasingly about her teenage son's relationship with a bad-news girlfriend. In the novella "Three Wishes," siblings muddle through in the aftermath of their elder brother's too-early departure from the world.
The landscape of this book is the wide open spaces of Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Throughout, there is the pervasive desire to drink to forget, to have sex with the wrong people, to hit the road and figure out later where to stop for the night. These characters are aging, regretting actions both taken and not, inhabiting their extended adolescences as best they can. And in Funny Once , their flawed humanity is made beautiful, perfectly observed by one of America's best short story writers.
The landscape of this book is the wide open spaces of Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Throughout, there is the pervasive desire to drink to forget, to have sex with the wrong people, to hit the road and figure out later where to stop for the night. These characters are aging, regretting actions both taken and not, inhabiting their extended adolescences as best they can. And in Funny Once , their flawed humanity is made beautiful, perfectly observed by one of America's best short story writers.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 4, 2014
24 people are currently reading
1266 people want to read
About the author
Antonya Nelson
44 books100 followersAntonya Nelson is the author of nine books of fiction, including Nothing Right and the novels Talking in Bed, Nobody’s Girl, and Living to Tell. Nelson’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, Redbook, and many other magazines, as well as in anthologies such as Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and The Best American Short Stories. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Grant, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and, recently, the United States Artists Simon Fellowship. She is married to the writer Robert Boswell and lives in New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas, where she holds the Cullen Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
May 14, 2020
seriously??? will mine be the first review of this on goodreads?? that is a lot of pressure.
here's a funny confession: for some reason, i didn't clock that this was a book of short stories, even though antonya nelson pretty much writes short stories exclusively, and when i got to the second piece in the collection, i was trying to wrap my head around "and who are these characters and how do they relate to the characters in the first chapter?"
silly goose.
also silly of me is that i thought i had read many of her books before, but it turns out i had only read one: Nothing Right, and begrudgingly at that. correction: begrudgingly at first, but then blown away. (also, how cute is it that i used to win books through the firstreads program??) but in my head, i had convinced myself that i had read, and loved, many of her books. all of this is to preface the confession that i liked this book a bunch, but i didn't love it-love it as much as the other one i read.
i am a latecomer to the appreciation of the short story as medium. i am also moderately intoxicated. so go easy on me.
i have never read alice munro. as a self-professed lover of canadian lit, this is a huge confession, and a huge oversight in my reading background. but in my head, i equate the style/subject matter of alice munro with that of antonya nelson. which is meant to be deeply complimentary. nelson is nowhere near as well-known, but i feel that she should be. and even though this particular set of stories didn't resonate with me the way my first experience with her did, that is not to say this isn't still a great collection.
antonya nelson writes stories for grown-ups. which, again, is meant to be complimentary. she doesn't waste time with stylistic fireworks or flashy quirks. she writes realistic, even sedate, stories with recognizable characters. they generally feature female protagonists, but the situations are universal and not specifically gendered: love, death, family, missed opportunities, settling… in this collection, there are a lot of may-december relationships and the familial baggage that accompanies such relationships in the form of children from previous marriages, resentful and exhausted parents, and the emotional responsibilities to those not of blood ties, but of this new iteration of the nuclear family. which is maybe why i didn't feel as connected to his collection as i did to the last one i read - just a lack of relatability from my particular vantage point.
but there's still a lot to celebrate here. my very favorite was the last story - more of a novella - in which a fractured family of three (surviving) siblings are faced with the situation of putting their father in a home while also having to contend with their own aimlessness and various personal failures. lots of meat in that story, and some deeply touching scenes.
so! we are going to call this a 3.5 and we are going to say that one or more of you should pick up an antonya nelson book and tell me what you think and we can try to make her as well-known as alice munro, who i will read. someday.
come to my blog!
here's a funny confession: for some reason, i didn't clock that this was a book of short stories, even though antonya nelson pretty much writes short stories exclusively, and when i got to the second piece in the collection, i was trying to wrap my head around "and who are these characters and how do they relate to the characters in the first chapter?"
silly goose.
also silly of me is that i thought i had read many of her books before, but it turns out i had only read one: Nothing Right, and begrudgingly at that. correction: begrudgingly at first, but then blown away. (also, how cute is it that i used to win books through the firstreads program??) but in my head, i had convinced myself that i had read, and loved, many of her books. all of this is to preface the confession that i liked this book a bunch, but i didn't love it-love it as much as the other one i read.
i am a latecomer to the appreciation of the short story as medium. i am also moderately intoxicated. so go easy on me.
i have never read alice munro. as a self-professed lover of canadian lit, this is a huge confession, and a huge oversight in my reading background. but in my head, i equate the style/subject matter of alice munro with that of antonya nelson. which is meant to be deeply complimentary. nelson is nowhere near as well-known, but i feel that she should be. and even though this particular set of stories didn't resonate with me the way my first experience with her did, that is not to say this isn't still a great collection.
antonya nelson writes stories for grown-ups. which, again, is meant to be complimentary. she doesn't waste time with stylistic fireworks or flashy quirks. she writes realistic, even sedate, stories with recognizable characters. they generally feature female protagonists, but the situations are universal and not specifically gendered: love, death, family, missed opportunities, settling… in this collection, there are a lot of may-december relationships and the familial baggage that accompanies such relationships in the form of children from previous marriages, resentful and exhausted parents, and the emotional responsibilities to those not of blood ties, but of this new iteration of the nuclear family. which is maybe why i didn't feel as connected to his collection as i did to the last one i read - just a lack of relatability from my particular vantage point.
but there's still a lot to celebrate here. my very favorite was the last story - more of a novella - in which a fractured family of three (surviving) siblings are faced with the situation of putting their father in a home while also having to contend with their own aimlessness and various personal failures. lots of meat in that story, and some deeply touching scenes.
so! we are going to call this a 3.5 and we are going to say that one or more of you should pick up an antonya nelson book and tell me what you think and we can try to make her as well-known as alice munro, who i will read. someday.
come to my blog!
February 21, 2019
Antonya Nelson's short stories are chock-full of good old gals and pathetic men--either selfish
Animation by Guillaume Kurkdjian
womanizers or delicate, disillusioned alcoholics. In this collection of nine stories and one novella, only one story is actually (mostly) positive. And yet each and every story has uplifting moments, all of them refreshingly original.
An ex-stepmother-in-law (yeah, you heard me) comes through to rescue her favorite former stepdaughter-in-law one more time. An at-risk teen girl finds a supportive mentor (and expert culinary instructor) in her father's mistress. The very few bossy women in the mix are admirably self-aware, for example Cara, who recognizes when she has alienated another woman "which was not an uncommon thing to happen after Cara opened her mouth."
In every story the generations clash, sometimes surprisingly gently, and the results are almost always unpredictable. I kept wanting to put the book down, but I couldn't until I'd read the whole darned thing.
p.s.
Be apprised that only one of the tales has anything resembling a resolved ending. The others drop off, peter out, or otherwise end too abruptly. But somehow, the sum total of these non-endings leaves the reader with something that feels a lot like hope.
Animation by Guillaume Kurkdjian
womanizers or delicate, disillusioned alcoholics. In this collection of nine stories and one novella, only one story is actually (mostly) positive. And yet each and every story has uplifting moments, all of them refreshingly original.
An ex-stepmother-in-law (yeah, you heard me) comes through to rescue her favorite former stepdaughter-in-law one more time. An at-risk teen girl finds a supportive mentor (and expert culinary instructor) in her father's mistress. The very few bossy women in the mix are admirably self-aware, for example Cara, who recognizes when she has alienated another woman "which was not an uncommon thing to happen after Cara opened her mouth."
In every story the generations clash, sometimes surprisingly gently, and the results are almost always unpredictable. I kept wanting to put the book down, but I couldn't until I'd read the whole darned thing.
p.s.
Be apprised that only one of the tales has anything resembling a resolved ending. The others drop off, peter out, or otherwise end too abruptly. But somehow, the sum total of these non-endings leaves the reader with something that feels a lot like hope.
May 28, 2014
It’s hard to summarize Nelson’s themes without sounding trite, because these are the same elements one encounters in most modern American fiction: adultery, divorce, failure, grief, second chances. Yet she treats these in a wonderfully matter-of-fact, sardonic way. Nelson is preoccupied with significant age gaps in marriage, and incessantly wonders about the unexpected effects people can have on each other – especially what legacy one’s children will inherit. I also noted that her first and last lines are always well crafted; they’re so good I won’t spoil them for you. For me, the stories of Funny Once follow on perfectly from the wry tales of family drama and loss in suburbia found in
Inappropriate Behavior
(Murray Farish),
Thunderstruck
(Elizabeth McCracken),
White Man’s Problems
(Kevin Morris), and
The Heaven of Animals
(David James Poissant).
I loved the first story, “Literally,” in which a father recalls the dubious circumstances of his wife’s death while trying to protect his son from everyday dangers. “This has been a terrible day,” son Danny says. “Even though nothing exactly bad happened.” Life’s simultaneous awfulness and banality is a mixture Nelson returns to again and again. Albuquerque neighbors puzzle over a teen’s disappearance; going back home to visit her ailing father, a character slips right back into her old habits with her high school boyfriend. Another secretly attends the funeral of the woman who saved her life when she was a rebellious teenager by teaching her how to cook. A pair of middle-aged friends find out they once shared a lover; an alcoholic tells her neighbor’s tragic stories at AA instead of her own.
The title story was another stand-out for me. Phoebe is miserable for no particularly good reason (as she self-diagnoses to her therapist, “I’m terminally unhappy”) and has the drinking habit to go with that angst. However, a casual lie to her bohemian neighbors and a near-accident remind her of the good thing she has going in her twenty-year relationship with Ben. “People are generally good,” he insists – a helpful reminder for us all, even if “Life was so little like a science experiment and so much like a cluttered drawer where you tossed things just to get them out of sight.” In other words, arbitrary, but essentially benevolent.
(Apropos of nothing, I was charmed by these lines from Rochelle in “Winter in Yalta”: “‘All I want to do is read,’ she’d confessed in her thirties. ‘I’d rather read than anything else, even sex. Even eating. Is that terrible?’ This was rhetorical; Rochelle had already made peace with loving literature. It was her religious practice.”)
My main quibble is that the final short story, “Three Wishes,”which should have been billed as a novella (as in the case of Nelson’s 2006 collection, Some Fun: Stories and a Novella), didn’t really belong. Because I wasn’t expecting something of this length (there were no page numbers listed in the table of contents of my e-ARC), I just kept wishing for it to end. Which is a shame, because it’s a lovely, macabre story that starts with three siblings (whose surname, appropriately, is pronounced “panic”) delivering their father to a nursing home – taped to his armchair in the bed of a truck. Instead of an eleven-part, 100-page story, this one should have ended with the first section’s cracking last line (spot the New Testament allusion in “Papa? Please, please forgive us.”). Then this book would have been a perfectly respectable story collection of about 200 pages, and Nelson might have later chosen to develop the Panik family story into a novel of its own.
I’ve had a great run of contemporary American short stories lately. I used to shy away from short stories because I didn’t think they were worth the emotional investment, but recently I’ve decided I really like the rhythm of picking up a set of characters, a storyline and a voice and then, after 20 or so pages, following an epiphany or an aporia (or utter confusion), trading them in for a whole new scenario. Short stories are also generally the perfect length for reading over a quick meal or car ride.
I can’t believe I’d never encountered Antonya Nelson before. Now that I’m partial to her style and subject matter, I’m open to recommendations of what else I should read by her. Anyone a fan?
I loved the first story, “Literally,” in which a father recalls the dubious circumstances of his wife’s death while trying to protect his son from everyday dangers. “This has been a terrible day,” son Danny says. “Even though nothing exactly bad happened.” Life’s simultaneous awfulness and banality is a mixture Nelson returns to again and again. Albuquerque neighbors puzzle over a teen’s disappearance; going back home to visit her ailing father, a character slips right back into her old habits with her high school boyfriend. Another secretly attends the funeral of the woman who saved her life when she was a rebellious teenager by teaching her how to cook. A pair of middle-aged friends find out they once shared a lover; an alcoholic tells her neighbor’s tragic stories at AA instead of her own.
The title story was another stand-out for me. Phoebe is miserable for no particularly good reason (as she self-diagnoses to her therapist, “I’m terminally unhappy”) and has the drinking habit to go with that angst. However, a casual lie to her bohemian neighbors and a near-accident remind her of the good thing she has going in her twenty-year relationship with Ben. “People are generally good,” he insists – a helpful reminder for us all, even if “Life was so little like a science experiment and so much like a cluttered drawer where you tossed things just to get them out of sight.” In other words, arbitrary, but essentially benevolent.
(Apropos of nothing, I was charmed by these lines from Rochelle in “Winter in Yalta”: “‘All I want to do is read,’ she’d confessed in her thirties. ‘I’d rather read than anything else, even sex. Even eating. Is that terrible?’ This was rhetorical; Rochelle had already made peace with loving literature. It was her religious practice.”)
My main quibble is that the final short story, “Three Wishes,”which should have been billed as a novella (as in the case of Nelson’s 2006 collection, Some Fun: Stories and a Novella), didn’t really belong. Because I wasn’t expecting something of this length (there were no page numbers listed in the table of contents of my e-ARC), I just kept wishing for it to end. Which is a shame, because it’s a lovely, macabre story that starts with three siblings (whose surname, appropriately, is pronounced “panic”) delivering their father to a nursing home – taped to his armchair in the bed of a truck. Instead of an eleven-part, 100-page story, this one should have ended with the first section’s cracking last line (spot the New Testament allusion in “Papa? Please, please forgive us.”). Then this book would have been a perfectly respectable story collection of about 200 pages, and Nelson might have later chosen to develop the Panik family story into a novel of its own.
I’ve had a great run of contemporary American short stories lately. I used to shy away from short stories because I didn’t think they were worth the emotional investment, but recently I’ve decided I really like the rhythm of picking up a set of characters, a storyline and a voice and then, after 20 or so pages, following an epiphany or an aporia (or utter confusion), trading them in for a whole new scenario. Short stories are also generally the perfect length for reading over a quick meal or car ride.
I can’t believe I’d never encountered Antonya Nelson before. Now that I’m partial to her style and subject matter, I’m open to recommendations of what else I should read by her. Anyone a fan?
May 19, 2014
3.5 The first thing that stuck me about all these stories is that they all could be true. The characters in each story either is looking toward the past, trying to relive their past or desperately trying to hold on to the people they had been. The characters have such an air od desperation, many seem stuck, unable to move beyond a set point.
One that I liked very much was "The Visage" a very poignant story between a father and daughter. It was, however, the novella, "Three Wishes" that had special meaning for me, struck a chord deep within myself. A brother and his two sisters must put their father, who suffers from dementia, into a nursing home. All the reactions of the characters are so real, the feelings of the father, so bitter, the emotions are all spot on. How hard it is to move forward, to keep what is left of the family together.
Nelson's prose is frank, vivid and hard hitting. A very memorable grouping of stories.
One that I liked very much was "The Visage" a very poignant story between a father and daughter. It was, however, the novella, "Three Wishes" that had special meaning for me, struck a chord deep within myself. A brother and his two sisters must put their father, who suffers from dementia, into a nursing home. All the reactions of the characters are so real, the feelings of the father, so bitter, the emotions are all spot on. How hard it is to move forward, to keep what is left of the family together.
Nelson's prose is frank, vivid and hard hitting. A very memorable grouping of stories.
December 30, 2017
I love Antonya Nelson's writing. The Last two completely blew me away. These stories were longer; long enough to let me stay with the characters long enough to feel I knew them.
Another favorite is Winter in Yalta: Here's a great line: "Without children, without spouse, here was where Rochelle's love was poured (into her rescue dogs...this one named Sylvia Plath)--becasue love had volume, and needed a container, a way not to be wasted.
And this one, from "Chapter 2":
"Maybe you can tell me why I've chosen to live with a porno addict?" he'd then said.
"Same reason I live with a morbidly obese woman? It's good to have somebody else's bad habits around to put your own in perspective."
"Agreed. Also to compare and contrast. To get a little clarity."
"I should have known doctors wouldn't think of AA as a dating opportunity. In fact the opposite."
There's something so wonderfully snide about her characters...but they are also funny and clueless and better than real. They are real with hilarious attitude.
Okay, one more example from "Three Wishes."
Sensitivity in men was beginning to infuriate her. Was this the beginning of menopause, the disappearance of those syrupy hormones responsible for tears and sympathy and compassion, the end of love? Was this the next step on her journey, further scorn for softness, sissies, sentimental fools?
She'd always been accused of being cold; how much chillier could she expect to become? Woman: begun as mammal, moved through amphibious stages, landed eventually a leathery reptile, rolling dispassionate eyes from a rocky perch.
Another favorite is Winter in Yalta: Here's a great line: "Without children, without spouse, here was where Rochelle's love was poured (into her rescue dogs...this one named Sylvia Plath)--becasue love had volume, and needed a container, a way not to be wasted.
And this one, from "Chapter 2":
"Maybe you can tell me why I've chosen to live with a porno addict?" he'd then said.
"Same reason I live with a morbidly obese woman? It's good to have somebody else's bad habits around to put your own in perspective."
"Agreed. Also to compare and contrast. To get a little clarity."
"I should have known doctors wouldn't think of AA as a dating opportunity. In fact the opposite."
There's something so wonderfully snide about her characters...but they are also funny and clueless and better than real. They are real with hilarious attitude.
Okay, one more example from "Three Wishes."
Sensitivity in men was beginning to infuriate her. Was this the beginning of menopause, the disappearance of those syrupy hormones responsible for tears and sympathy and compassion, the end of love? Was this the next step on her journey, further scorn for softness, sissies, sentimental fools?
She'd always been accused of being cold; how much chillier could she expect to become? Woman: begun as mammal, moved through amphibious stages, landed eventually a leathery reptile, rolling dispassionate eyes from a rocky perch.
March 7, 2014
Poignant. Exquisite.
April 22, 2014
Short stories are often some of the best books because you really get right to the point. Some writers are really good at writing short stories because they know how to give the characters depth at the same time they are bringing the story to a peak.
Funny Once was a little misleading to me, mainly because it really is not funny, not even once. There is a lot of time building up to a story, fleshing out characters, giving backstories, and then it is over. I kept thinking there was a punch line that I kept missing. Or maybe this was a creative piece and the words were supposed to sink in later, they didn't.
I gave it an extra star because there was thought put into the characters and the outline of the stories, but it just didn't work out in my favor. Sorry!
Funny Once was a little misleading to me, mainly because it really is not funny, not even once. There is a lot of time building up to a story, fleshing out characters, giving backstories, and then it is over. I kept thinking there was a punch line that I kept missing. Or maybe this was a creative piece and the words were supposed to sink in later, they didn't.
I gave it an extra star because there was thought put into the characters and the outline of the stories, but it just didn't work out in my favor. Sorry!
May 10, 2014
“Funny Once”, by Antonya Nelson, is nine good short stories and a FABULOUS novella. I would give this book 10 stars if I could, because of that last novella called “Three Wishes”. But I’ll get to that in a minute (it’s the last story of the book).
I was so happy to start reading Antonya Nelson’s new short story collection to find the first story set in Houston! I’ve long been a fan of Nelson’s work and believe she is a premier short story writer, so I’ve long hoped that she would use our shared “home” as a setting for more of her stories, and she has. Her descriptions of Houston aren’t always positive – but they’re true!
The first offering, “Literally” is a poignant snapshot of a family in recovery and a father trying to keep it together. The second story “Soldier’s Joy” asks what might happen if you actually MARRIED that handsome older Professor you fantasized about in college?
“iff” provides beautifully rendered denizens of an old and shabby Albuquerque neighborhood as they contemplate a teen-aged runaway. In “First Husband”, as in several of these stories, families are often comprised of an “Ex. Former. Step” – Nelson has a pitch-perfect grasp on the modern family dynamics of blended families and how once you’ve blended something, you can’t really “un-blend” it.
In “Winter in Yalta”, two middle-aged women, Cara and Rochelle, best friends since college, are sharing a weekend toot in NYC and find that they are still connected yet divided by the memory of a man they both once loved.
One of my favorites in the short collection was “The There There” which starts with a mother and her two sons discussing the best way to get away with murder. In just a few pages, Nelson tells us the story of this mother and these sons over the years and depicts how often sons grow away from their mothers when they marry. “Chapter Two” begins with a naked lady at the door and seems to be a comedy – until it’s not.
Many of the stories deal with substance abuse and/or have both functional and dysfunctional alcoholics as characters. I thought Nelson’s treatment of these characters was unique and highly realistic.
Now to the novella, “Three Wishes”, just a shade over 100 pages. I knew I was going to love it from the first page as three siblings carry their father off to a nursing home duct-taped to his Lay-z-boy in the bed of their pickup truck!
The highest praise I can give a writer, is to compare him or her to Anne Tyler. Nelson’s “Three Wishes” is populated with Tyler-esque characters and situations, like sad sack, Hugh, and flighty, Stacy, with her seizure-prone dog. I fell in love with Hugh’s quirky sisters and his sensitive nephew. I wanted to meet these people. I wanted to have a drink with them in their regular bar, Ugly’s. I just gobbled up this story as if I was starving – and yet tried to make it last like a favorite meal. This story is worth the price of the book. This story is the one I’ll read over and over again.
Bonus: Nelson uses the word “grody” which I haven’t seen in print, ever, yet have used all my life!
I was so happy to start reading Antonya Nelson’s new short story collection to find the first story set in Houston! I’ve long been a fan of Nelson’s work and believe she is a premier short story writer, so I’ve long hoped that she would use our shared “home” as a setting for more of her stories, and she has. Her descriptions of Houston aren’t always positive – but they’re true!
The first offering, “Literally” is a poignant snapshot of a family in recovery and a father trying to keep it together. The second story “Soldier’s Joy” asks what might happen if you actually MARRIED that handsome older Professor you fantasized about in college?
“iff” provides beautifully rendered denizens of an old and shabby Albuquerque neighborhood as they contemplate a teen-aged runaway. In “First Husband”, as in several of these stories, families are often comprised of an “Ex. Former. Step” – Nelson has a pitch-perfect grasp on the modern family dynamics of blended families and how once you’ve blended something, you can’t really “un-blend” it.
In “Winter in Yalta”, two middle-aged women, Cara and Rochelle, best friends since college, are sharing a weekend toot in NYC and find that they are still connected yet divided by the memory of a man they both once loved.
One of my favorites in the short collection was “The There There” which starts with a mother and her two sons discussing the best way to get away with murder. In just a few pages, Nelson tells us the story of this mother and these sons over the years and depicts how often sons grow away from their mothers when they marry. “Chapter Two” begins with a naked lady at the door and seems to be a comedy – until it’s not.
Many of the stories deal with substance abuse and/or have both functional and dysfunctional alcoholics as characters. I thought Nelson’s treatment of these characters was unique and highly realistic.
Now to the novella, “Three Wishes”, just a shade over 100 pages. I knew I was going to love it from the first page as three siblings carry their father off to a nursing home duct-taped to his Lay-z-boy in the bed of their pickup truck!
The highest praise I can give a writer, is to compare him or her to Anne Tyler. Nelson’s “Three Wishes” is populated with Tyler-esque characters and situations, like sad sack, Hugh, and flighty, Stacy, with her seizure-prone dog. I fell in love with Hugh’s quirky sisters and his sensitive nephew. I wanted to meet these people. I wanted to have a drink with them in their regular bar, Ugly’s. I just gobbled up this story as if I was starving – and yet tried to make it last like a favorite meal. This story is worth the price of the book. This story is the one I’ll read over and over again.
Bonus: Nelson uses the word “grody” which I haven’t seen in print, ever, yet have used all my life!
June 24, 2014
This collection consists of nine stories and a novella (in my opinion). If it's over 100 pages, I don't consider it a short story.
Similar to my reaction to The Other Language by Francesca Marciano, I almost gave up on this one after a couple of stories. But they grew on me because of the exact characterization, genuine surprises, and great writing.
When I finish a short story collection, I reflect on the stories before sharing my comments here. Some stories stay with me. Some stories I recall easily when I see the title. Occasionally, I need to read the first few sentences to be reminded of what the story was about. With this collection, I had to skim several pages into several stories to remember what they were about. For one, I had to skim to the end.
That's not necessarily a criticism. You’ve seen reviews that criticize a short story for not being about anything. (To me, that’s never true.) I wouldn’t be surprised if this collection suffered the same criticism.
They are about many things:
- adultery and hopeless adultery (some people cheat as a transition into another relationship; others do it knowing it’s going nowhere)
- aging parents
- former boyfriends
- female friendships and trust
- mothering
and characters who are:
- divorced or separated
- enablers
- not happy with life when there’s really nothing wrong with it
- significantly stunted
- stuck in the past
- unable to let go of children who are growing up
The collection is definitely character-driven rather than plot-driven. Some of the stories begin at their endings. I don’t need to know what happens next. I enjoyed the journey to that point.
I wonder if I almost gave up on this book because I were being too judgmental of the characters, snobbish even. Maybe I should remind myself that I haven’t always acted smartly and that one weekend or one month in a life is only part of the picture, a temporary part in an ever-changing picture.
Similar to my reaction to The Other Language by Francesca Marciano, I almost gave up on this one after a couple of stories. But they grew on me because of the exact characterization, genuine surprises, and great writing.
When I finish a short story collection, I reflect on the stories before sharing my comments here. Some stories stay with me. Some stories I recall easily when I see the title. Occasionally, I need to read the first few sentences to be reminded of what the story was about. With this collection, I had to skim several pages into several stories to remember what they were about. For one, I had to skim to the end.
That's not necessarily a criticism. You’ve seen reviews that criticize a short story for not being about anything. (To me, that’s never true.) I wouldn’t be surprised if this collection suffered the same criticism.
They are about many things:
- adultery and hopeless adultery (some people cheat as a transition into another relationship; others do it knowing it’s going nowhere)
- aging parents
- former boyfriends
- female friendships and trust
- mothering
and characters who are:
- divorced or separated
- enablers
- not happy with life when there’s really nothing wrong with it
- significantly stunted
- stuck in the past
- unable to let go of children who are growing up
The collection is definitely character-driven rather than plot-driven. Some of the stories begin at their endings. I don’t need to know what happens next. I enjoyed the journey to that point.
I wonder if I almost gave up on this book because I were being too judgmental of the characters, snobbish even. Maybe I should remind myself that I haven’t always acted smartly and that one weekend or one month in a life is only part of the picture, a temporary part in an ever-changing picture.
July 17, 2014
I've loved many of Nelson's short stories and I waited for this collection with great anticipation. I wasn't disappointed. The characters are quirky and alive, the situations fresh, honest and real. The language, lovely. Such sharp work.
There is much discussion in literary fiction on the "stick", if you will, of the landing. The conclusion of a story. How firm does it have to be? How solid and set in stone? Can a story be open-ended? And that was something that came up into my mind time and time again as I read these stories.
The subtle ending is an art form. Often, in literary fiction, the ending is just the first step of change for the character, not THE change. There is a hint of where the character will go, what the character will do, and when it's written well, it suffices. It makes the reader feel satisfied.
And that, to me, was the one strike against the collection. All of the endings were subtle, but some were so subtle as to be nonexistent. I found myself wondering if the author simply got tired of the story. And that's a problem. So on several of the stories, I backtracked, returned to the middle, and read forward again, trying to discern where I missed a definite downstroke, an ending. When I couldn't discern it, even on the third or fourth times through, I had to accept that the ending wasn't there. And that, to me, just doesn't work. The reader has to have some sense of satisfaction.
The novella in the book, the final piece in the story, was amazing. And the ending there...breathtaking. So I know Nelson can indeed "stick" a landing. I wanted to see that more firmly throughout.
So I stayed with four stars. It's all there, but some of the endings. The writing that is there is beautiful.
There is much discussion in literary fiction on the "stick", if you will, of the landing. The conclusion of a story. How firm does it have to be? How solid and set in stone? Can a story be open-ended? And that was something that came up into my mind time and time again as I read these stories.
The subtle ending is an art form. Often, in literary fiction, the ending is just the first step of change for the character, not THE change. There is a hint of where the character will go, what the character will do, and when it's written well, it suffices. It makes the reader feel satisfied.
And that, to me, was the one strike against the collection. All of the endings were subtle, but some were so subtle as to be nonexistent. I found myself wondering if the author simply got tired of the story. And that's a problem. So on several of the stories, I backtracked, returned to the middle, and read forward again, trying to discern where I missed a definite downstroke, an ending. When I couldn't discern it, even on the third or fourth times through, I had to accept that the ending wasn't there. And that, to me, just doesn't work. The reader has to have some sense of satisfaction.
The novella in the book, the final piece in the story, was amazing. And the ending there...breathtaking. So I know Nelson can indeed "stick" a landing. I wanted to see that more firmly throughout.
So I stayed with four stars. It's all there, but some of the endings. The writing that is there is beautiful.
June 1, 2024
Did someone mention a collection of short stories about adults in their 40s-50s living a life under the shadow of their adolescent regrets?
I could go on about how each story beautifully captures the awkward sense of being both lost and firm in your beliefs – the strange oxymoronic feeling of being both unsure and so sure of yourself that comes with adulthood. When facing their own struggles and desires, each character here is portrayed to be an overgrown version of their teenage / young adult selves somehow unable to move on from fleeting but emotionally significant moments in their lives.
I hope to be as graceful as Louis Mercer when I die. Demented, and probably emotionally abandoned by my own family from my overbearing desire to love, but still graceful and big-hearted enough to have at least touched a person with a troubled life.
I could go on about how each story beautifully captures the awkward sense of being both lost and firm in your beliefs – the strange oxymoronic feeling of being both unsure and so sure of yourself that comes with adulthood. When facing their own struggles and desires, each character here is portrayed to be an overgrown version of their teenage / young adult selves somehow unable to move on from fleeting but emotionally significant moments in their lives.
I hope to be as graceful as Louis Mercer when I die. Demented, and probably emotionally abandoned by my own family from my overbearing desire to love, but still graceful and big-hearted enough to have at least touched a person with a troubled life.
February 26, 2015
I usually love Antonya Nelson's books, and this one is no exception. She writes -- she wonderfully writes -- incisive portraits of families, focused on women who are wives and mothers, friends and neighbors. Her stories are so intimate: They crawl right into people's lives, into the feelings that people wouldn't want to admit to having, the second-guessing, the jealousies, the uncertainties. And those feelings reach beyond the middle-class white women at the heart of Nelson's work. Plus, her writing really is a thing of beauty. It's not flashy or sparkly; it doesn't read like capital-W Writing; it just gets right up close with perfectly chosen words.
April 2, 2014
Review forthcoming in Bust Magazine. BUT.
With Alice Munro enjoying her well-deserved retirement, I'm ready to hand Antonya Nelson her crown. No duds here. Her seventh collection, and maybe her best.
With Alice Munro enjoying her well-deserved retirement, I'm ready to hand Antonya Nelson her crown. No duds here. Her seventh collection, and maybe her best.
October 20, 2022
I like some Antonya Nelson collections a whole lot, but this one is for some reason impossible for me to get into.
August 30, 2017
I'm not a big reader of short stories. In the past when I read a collection of short stories by the same author all at once, I found myself getting fatigued by book's end by the writer's schtick -- e.g. the sentimentality of O. Henry stories, or the repetitious police procedural aspects in Ian Rankin's collection of shorts about his Scottish detective protagonist, John Rebus.
This, however, was satisfying. Nelson has collected in this volume a variety of short stories that reveal human (i.e., Americans') foibles and vulnerability without wearing out a motif or plot device.
I've always considered short stories to be a sort of literary affectation, as if nothing of real value can be conveyed in the short form. I now have to reconsider that attitude.
Of course, I did spread the reading of "Funny Once" out over more days than I actually needed to consume the pages. Maybe that's part of good pacing by the reader when it comes to a book of short stories? - to let the echoes from one or two stories die out before taking on more.
This, however, was satisfying. Nelson has collected in this volume a variety of short stories that reveal human (i.e., Americans') foibles and vulnerability without wearing out a motif or plot device.
I've always considered short stories to be a sort of literary affectation, as if nothing of real value can be conveyed in the short form. I now have to reconsider that attitude.
Of course, I did spread the reading of "Funny Once" out over more days than I actually needed to consume the pages. Maybe that's part of good pacing by the reader when it comes to a book of short stories? - to let the echoes from one or two stories die out before taking on more.
August 10, 2024
Overarching themes of age gapped relationships, atypical family dynamics with good character development
Literally
1/5 — poorly developed and written and hated hated hated the relationship with the housekeeper
Soldiers joy
4/5 — good coming home and gaining clarity story
IFF
4/5 — bad case of boy mom
First Husband
4/5 — explores familial ties in a new way
The Village
5/5 — I gotta embrace whimsy more!
Winter in Yalta
4/5 — I miss my best friend
The There There
4/5 — why I can never marry a nice guy
Chapter 2
3/5 — interesting from an addicts perspective the preposterousness of others
Funny once
5/5 — really liked the characters
Three Wishes
4/5 — almost a small novel ringing in at 100 pages
Literally
1/5 — poorly developed and written and hated hated hated the relationship with the housekeeper
Soldiers joy
4/5 — good coming home and gaining clarity story
IFF
4/5 — bad case of boy mom
First Husband
4/5 — explores familial ties in a new way
The Village
5/5 — I gotta embrace whimsy more!
Winter in Yalta
4/5 — I miss my best friend
The There There
4/5 — why I can never marry a nice guy
Chapter 2
3/5 — interesting from an addicts perspective the preposterousness of others
Funny once
5/5 — really liked the characters
Three Wishes
4/5 — almost a small novel ringing in at 100 pages
September 25, 2022
I'll give this a hesitant three. I'm not sure this type of compilation is for me, so if you like these kinds of short stories ignore my comments! The stories were raw and factual to the utmost detail. I found myself disliking almost all of the characters, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt because there were some serious things going on in their lives. Not something I'll pick up again.
January 23, 2025
Antonya Nelson writes about the people we don’t want to be, whom we hope not to see when we look in a mirror at our own lives. We can feel
superiority or empathy, or both, but it makes for interesting reading in any case.
My preferred stories are:
Soldier’s Joy
The Village
The There There (set in Telluride)
Funny Once
superiority or empathy, or both, but it makes for interesting reading in any case.
My preferred stories are:
Soldier’s Joy
The Village
The There There (set in Telluride)
Funny Once
April 17, 2018
I really thought I would like this praised writer of short stories, but I just never felt anything for her characters....nothing to keep me reading. I read all of the short stories, but just felt no interest to invest in the 100 page novella.
August 7, 2019
I grabbed this on a whim. The whole time I was reading it I wasn't really sure how I felt about it. None of the stories left a lasting impression on me which left me with the over-all sensation of killing time.
October 10, 2023
The writing is sharp. But I didn't realize these were short stories. It feels like I'm walking into a large party in which I know no one but every person is vying for my attention --- the experience is energizing for some, but exhausting for me.
July 11, 2017
Wonderful collection, the type you savor instead of gobble down.
October 14, 2017
Very good. I look forward to reading more of her work.
July 5, 2018
Really not that funny.
May 4, 2020
3.5 stars
May 14, 2021
Even with some awkward writing here and there, a highly enjoyable book.
July 15, 2021
Loved the characters and the writing…so easy to become involved in the stories and reflect on real life.
January 5, 2022
Well written stories. Intriguing characters.
July 2, 2022
This collection of short stories had me wanting a book for each one of them! The amount of detail and the way the author draws you into wanting to know what happens next.
March 18, 2024
The last story in this collection, Three Wishes, is great. Very funny and such recognizable characters.
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