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You Should Pity Us Instead
A debut collection of short stories which sympathetically explores some of the toughest dilemmas we face in our struggle though life.
You Should Pity Us Instead explores some of our toughest dilemmas: the cost of Middle East strife at its most intimate level, the likelihood of God considered in day-to-day terms, the moral stakes of family obligations, and the inescapable fact of mortality. Amy Gustine exhibits an extraordinary generosity toward her characters, instilling them with a thriving, vivid presence.
You Should Pity Us Instead explores some of our toughest dilemmas: the cost of Middle East strife at its most intimate level, the likelihood of God considered in day-to-day terms, the moral stakes of family obligations, and the inescapable fact of mortality. Amy Gustine exhibits an extraordinary generosity toward her characters, instilling them with a thriving, vivid presence.
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2016
About the author
Amy Gustine
2 books16 followersAmy Gustine’s debut short story collection, You Should Pity Us Instead, will be published by Sarabande Books in February 2016. Her fiction has appeared most recently in The Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Laurel Review and The Wisconsin Review. Her work received Special Mention in Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. She lives in Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
February 21, 2016
Life is messy, we know that and sometimes just so called normal life can be difficult. Add an extraordinary event and all bets are off, what do we do, how do, we cope? The people in these stories are just regular people, confronted with a situation that causes a strong emotion, upsets the apple cart. Yet, life goes on and how they handle things and move forward is a common theme in these stories.
The title story, usually the strongest in a collection, proved to be a favorite, giving me much to think about. Double themed, questions of faith but also begging the question, can one taken out of his environment, his culture, every truly thrive? An Uncontaminated Soul, is about a cat lady who has alienated her whole family. Prisoners Do, show there is more than one way to be a prisoner.
A few didn't work for me but the most notable thing for me about this collection is that when I was reading these stories, I would sometimes forget I was reading a short, felt more like the beginning of a novel. That so rarely happens that I found it impressive. As was this collection as a whole.
The title story, usually the strongest in a collection, proved to be a favorite, giving me much to think about. Double themed, questions of faith but also begging the question, can one taken out of his environment, his culture, every truly thrive? An Uncontaminated Soul, is about a cat lady who has alienated her whole family. Prisoners Do, show there is more than one way to be a prisoner.
A few didn't work for me but the most notable thing for me about this collection is that when I was reading these stories, I would sometimes forget I was reading a short, felt more like the beginning of a novel. That so rarely happens that I found it impressive. As was this collection as a whole.
February 25, 2016
What a stunning debut! The writing is fantastic, the stories layered, unique, riveting. These subtle character studies marry fragility with strength and the result is truly something special.
In the past I have struggled to enjoy short stories as each often seems like just the beginning of story to me...not so here! These thought-provoking stories were meaty and emotionally complex, so they held my interest and made me feel invested. Each story "ends" with a wisp of hope or despair. As a reader I felt that it was I who faded into the background as the story continued on without me, leaving me behind to ponder what I had "witnessed" indefinitely. 4.5 stars.
In the past I have struggled to enjoy short stories as each often seems like just the beginning of story to me...not so here! These thought-provoking stories were meaty and emotionally complex, so they held my interest and made me feel invested. Each story "ends" with a wisp of hope or despair. As a reader I felt that it was I who faded into the background as the story continued on without me, leaving me behind to ponder what I had "witnessed" indefinitely. 4.5 stars.
May 27, 2024
#Mothering May #2
Childhood, Sarah thinks: a prison made up of lack. A lack of words, of knowing better, of being believed. You are at everyone's mercy.
- Half Life
Mães biológicas, mães adoptivas, mães recentes, mães experientes, mães doentes, mães-galinha, mães distantes, mães que deixaram de sê-lo, mães que deixaram de existir. Excelente conjunto de contos que mostram como é difícil ser-se mãe mas também como é complicado ser-se filho.
All the Sons of Cain – 4,5*
Unattended – 4*
Goldene Medene- 3,5*
You should pity us instead- 4,5*
Uncontaminated Soul -3,5*
Prisoners Do – 4*
Coyote – 3*
AKA Juan – 4*
The River Warta – 4*
When We're Innocent – 4*
Half-Life – 5*
That's what parents do, they poison their children with their own convictions.
- You Should Pity Us Instead
Childhood, Sarah thinks: a prison made up of lack. A lack of words, of knowing better, of being believed. You are at everyone's mercy.
- Half Life
Mães biológicas, mães adoptivas, mães recentes, mães experientes, mães doentes, mães-galinha, mães distantes, mães que deixaram de sê-lo, mães que deixaram de existir. Excelente conjunto de contos que mostram como é difícil ser-se mãe mas também como é complicado ser-se filho.
All the Sons of Cain – 4,5*
Unattended – 4*
Goldene Medene- 3,5*
You should pity us instead- 4,5*
Uncontaminated Soul -3,5*
Prisoners Do – 4*
Coyote – 3*
AKA Juan – 4*
The River Warta – 4*
When We're Innocent – 4*
Half-Life – 5*
That's what parents do, they poison their children with their own convictions.
- You Should Pity Us Instead
February 19, 2016
I'd rate this 4.5 stars.
The characters in You Should Pity Us Instead , Amy Gustine's powerfully moving story collection find themselves in the midst of all kinds of challenges or emotional crises. But while reading 11 stories about people at emotional crossroads may sound harrowing, many of these stories also have a little bit of suspense, some have traces of sly humor, and all are tremendously compelling.
I had never heard of Amy Gustine before finding a mention of this collection in one of Book Riot's weekly emails highlighting new releases. I love finding story collections by new authors, and find that some of the best writers out there are generating such power and emotion within the confines of short stories. Gustine now has a fan in me, that's for sure.
The characters in these stories deal with both everyday and unusual problems. I honestly liked every story in the collection, but my favorites included: "Prisoners Do," in which a radiologist is torn between his loyalty to his wife, who lives with the aftereffects of a stroke, and his lover, who is also a doctor; "AKA Juan," which follows a young man whose adoptive siblings want him to be their ailing mother's caregiver, but he wants to live his own life; "When We're Innocent," in which a man travels to pack up his daughter's apartment after her death, and meets one of her neighbors, who is dealing with his own crisis; "All the Sons of Cain," the story of the mother of a kidnapped Jewish soldier who travels to Gaza to try and find her son; "Half-Life," which follows a young nanny as she cares for a couple's children and navigates the memories of her own troubled childhood; and the title story, about a woman whose life is affected by her husband's book about the hypocrisies of religion and her children's desire to understand what religion is.
Gustine's ear for dialogue, characterization, and language really shows through in these stories. Not all of the stories are perfect, but they do pack a punch, and leave you thinking about them long after you're finished. Not everyone is a fan of short stories, I know, but this is a collection worth reading and savoring.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
The characters in You Should Pity Us Instead , Amy Gustine's powerfully moving story collection find themselves in the midst of all kinds of challenges or emotional crises. But while reading 11 stories about people at emotional crossroads may sound harrowing, many of these stories also have a little bit of suspense, some have traces of sly humor, and all are tremendously compelling.
I had never heard of Amy Gustine before finding a mention of this collection in one of Book Riot's weekly emails highlighting new releases. I love finding story collections by new authors, and find that some of the best writers out there are generating such power and emotion within the confines of short stories. Gustine now has a fan in me, that's for sure.
The characters in these stories deal with both everyday and unusual problems. I honestly liked every story in the collection, but my favorites included: "Prisoners Do," in which a radiologist is torn between his loyalty to his wife, who lives with the aftereffects of a stroke, and his lover, who is also a doctor; "AKA Juan," which follows a young man whose adoptive siblings want him to be their ailing mother's caregiver, but he wants to live his own life; "When We're Innocent," in which a man travels to pack up his daughter's apartment after her death, and meets one of her neighbors, who is dealing with his own crisis; "All the Sons of Cain," the story of the mother of a kidnapped Jewish soldier who travels to Gaza to try and find her son; "Half-Life," which follows a young nanny as she cares for a couple's children and navigates the memories of her own troubled childhood; and the title story, about a woman whose life is affected by her husband's book about the hypocrisies of religion and her children's desire to understand what religion is.
Gustine's ear for dialogue, characterization, and language really shows through in these stories. Not all of the stories are perfect, but they do pack a punch, and leave you thinking about them long after you're finished. Not everyone is a fan of short stories, I know, but this is a collection worth reading and savoring.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
September 9, 2016
This is an exceptional collection of short stories, all the more remarkable for being Gustine's debut. All of the stories are very different from each other, with memorable storylines and characters. I have read some wonderful short story collections this year, and this ranks right up with the best of them.
I have not seen many people reading this - if you enjoy short stories, I highly recommend this to you.
I have not seen many people reading this - if you enjoy short stories, I highly recommend this to you.
March 14, 2016
I almost cannot believe this is a debut novel because it was so well written. I am usually not one for short stories because I always get very invested in the characters and want to know more. I found with all of these stories Gustine maintains a strong balance in character where you like them, but not enough to fall in love and get invested. There were a few standouts that I really loved and others I found dragged on for entirely too long.
I am a sucker for titles and this one really jumped out at me. A great debut Amy Gustine! Looking forward to reading more from you.
A solid 3.5
I am a sucker for titles and this one really jumped out at me. A great debut Amy Gustine! Looking forward to reading more from you.
A solid 3.5
December 6, 2017
Onvan : You Should Pity Us Instead - Nevisande : Amy Gustine - ISBN : 1941411193 - ISBN13 : 9781941411193 - Dar 256 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2016
February 20, 2016
4.5 Stars
That this was written by a debut author is astonishing to me with such an accomplished collection. In some lovely prose, Gustine has taken subjects and themes that are disparate, up to the minute, universal, and political and created a little microcosm of our lives behind closed doors.
Primarily these stories are about being a parent, particularly a mother. At least three of the stories raise the question of how important, or not, biology is in that relationship. The first story, ‘All the sons of Cain’, one of my favorites, is an example of this as well as offering a perspective I’ve never read before when an Israeli Mother searches for her adopted son in the Gaza Strip. In ‘You should Pity us Instead’, the adoptive mother of an indigenous boy worries she did the wrong thing ‘rescuing’ him from his roots, while in ‘Aka Juan’, the adopted black child of a white family, tries to make something of his biological relationship that struggles to match his adoptive one.
We see a paranoid, overly protective mother in ‘Coyote’, a mother feeling unequal to the task but realizing that sometimes, any mother is better than none in ‘Unattended’, children made motherless by the Holocaust in ‘Goldene Medene’ and a story where the brutality of disabled parents towards each other, questions the earlier premise that any parents are better than none.
Only two of the stories are set in a different century, the rest appear more or less contemporary and feature on the whole, people we could encounter every day. We have a crazy cat lady, an affair complicated by illness on both sides, religious debate, loneliness and suicide with the latter especially questioning how far we really know the people we live with, and illustrating that all our relationships, and indeed all our lives, have a large degree of uncertainty within them.
There is much more to take from and talk about with these stories, so many lines I could quote like this one about the city of Phoenix; ‘here the sky reached down and pulled the land up around the city like a knife raises a scar’ but I will leave it there and just highly recommend you go and read them for yourselves.
That this was written by a debut author is astonishing to me with such an accomplished collection. In some lovely prose, Gustine has taken subjects and themes that are disparate, up to the minute, universal, and political and created a little microcosm of our lives behind closed doors.
Primarily these stories are about being a parent, particularly a mother. At least three of the stories raise the question of how important, or not, biology is in that relationship. The first story, ‘All the sons of Cain’, one of my favorites, is an example of this as well as offering a perspective I’ve never read before when an Israeli Mother searches for her adopted son in the Gaza Strip. In ‘You should Pity us Instead’, the adoptive mother of an indigenous boy worries she did the wrong thing ‘rescuing’ him from his roots, while in ‘Aka Juan’, the adopted black child of a white family, tries to make something of his biological relationship that struggles to match his adoptive one.
We see a paranoid, overly protective mother in ‘Coyote’, a mother feeling unequal to the task but realizing that sometimes, any mother is better than none in ‘Unattended’, children made motherless by the Holocaust in ‘Goldene Medene’ and a story where the brutality of disabled parents towards each other, questions the earlier premise that any parents are better than none.
Only two of the stories are set in a different century, the rest appear more or less contemporary and feature on the whole, people we could encounter every day. We have a crazy cat lady, an affair complicated by illness on both sides, religious debate, loneliness and suicide with the latter especially questioning how far we really know the people we live with, and illustrating that all our relationships, and indeed all our lives, have a large degree of uncertainty within them.
There is much more to take from and talk about with these stories, so many lines I could quote like this one about the city of Phoenix; ‘here the sky reached down and pulled the land up around the city like a knife raises a scar’ but I will leave it there and just highly recommend you go and read them for yourselves.
Read
February 10, 2016Add this to the list of stellar story collections released in 2016! Gustine's stories are dazzling, a wide array of ideas, beautifully executed. There's a mother searching for her kidnapped son in Gaza, an Ellis Island conductor mourning for his old love, a father grieving the death of his daughter. The thread of this collection is the delicate nature of relationships, and Gustine's compassion and love for each of her characters shines off every page.
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Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/category/all-the-...
November 11, 2015
Amy Gustine's well-written short stories mine complicated situations and conflicting emotions An old Jewish woman seeking her son in Gaza; a mother on the edge dealing with a crying child and her own mother's abuse; a black boy's relationships with his adopted white family, a disabled sibling, and his birth mother; a father grieving his daughter's suicide. The author takes us firmly into these worlds in each 15-20 page story. The emotional responses feel real and deep. We are observers, but we care.
March 4, 2024
1⭐️
No tengo ni un solo sentimiento concreto referente a alguna de estas historias, me gustó exactamente una de las 11 que cuentan y por eso va la estrellita. No entendí el punto de la mitad de los cuentos y la otra mitad eran bastante depresivos y repetitivos, lo único que agradezco es lo rápido que pasa todo, pero tampoco se confíen de esa parte por mi porque lo escuche 1.5x todo el tiempo.
No tengo ni un solo sentimiento concreto referente a alguna de estas historias, me gustó exactamente una de las 11 que cuentan y por eso va la estrellita. No entendí el punto de la mitad de los cuentos y la otra mitad eran bastante depresivos y repetitivos, lo único que agradezco es lo rápido que pasa todo, pero tampoco se confíen de esa parte por mi porque lo escuche 1.5x todo el tiempo.
November 29, 2017
This was a doozy....such wonderful, uncomfortable, raw stories. I flew through it and felt simultaneously terrible and relieved with my inadequacies. Get ready for some seriously unlikeable people.
July 31, 2016
The writing itself is top flight, and every story pulled me in immediately. Three of the stories will stay with me. The first is "Goldene Medene" which takes place at Ellis island. A doctor who is supposed to be inspecting strictly for eye disease and insanity has "vision" and emotional issues of his own, his mind being on a love interest who snubbed him. His mood carries over with perhaps disastrous results for three people trying to get through to a new life in America. The second is "An Uncontaminated Soul", a story about a woman who, after her husband's suicide, becomes a stereotypical crazy cat lady. It's the best in the collection, in my view. The third is "Prisoners Do" (live on bread and water) about a man taking care of his wife and family after the wife's stroke leaves her disabled, at the expense of his own needs. Also good was "AKA Juan" about a black man adopted by a white family.
So, why just two stars? Because of two stories, both in the latter part of the book, and both dealing with characters' cruelty to innocents because of their own issues with someone else. "The River Warta" could have been a good story, about a woman who immigrates to the U.S. from Poland at the turn of the 20th century, but the horror story ending was unexpected and distressing. Suffice to say, she reveals that she decided to leave Poland because of her damaged parents taking out their mutual hatred on each other's cat and dog. This is the sort of stuff I don't need in my head and I felt it was way too far over the top to have any literary justification. This was the 9th of 11 stories and really blindsided me. I decided right then that this book was going in the circular file as soon as I finished, but hey, just 2 stories left, so press on. Mistake.
The story in between--"When We're Innocent"--was kind of strange, and left me feeling like "what was the point of all that?", but wasn't so bad. Then came the final story, "Half-Life" which is about a nanny who targets an unsuspecting family for revenge because she has an ax to grind with the woman's father, a judge. So, naturally, she practices cruelties on the 5 year old and the baby. This one I had to skip some of, I just couldn't justify reading it. I don't think anything about the story made it worth reading such stuff. Yes, life is horrible sometimes, and people do horrifying things, but when you're writing literature, it had better have a reason for being written about that transcends the mud and cruelty.
I gave this two stars for the 9 stories that were pretty good, but in all honesty, I would never recommend this collection to anyone, and because of the two stories near the end, I really give it zero stars. Yes, it's well written, but that doesn't counterbalance the subject matter. Ugh.
So, why just two stars? Because of two stories, both in the latter part of the book, and both dealing with characters' cruelty to innocents because of their own issues with someone else. "The River Warta" could have been a good story, about a woman who immigrates to the U.S. from Poland at the turn of the 20th century, but the horror story ending was unexpected and distressing. Suffice to say, she reveals that she decided to leave Poland because of her damaged parents taking out their mutual hatred on each other's cat and dog. This is the sort of stuff I don't need in my head and I felt it was way too far over the top to have any literary justification. This was the 9th of 11 stories and really blindsided me. I decided right then that this book was going in the circular file as soon as I finished, but hey, just 2 stories left, so press on. Mistake.
The story in between--"When We're Innocent"--was kind of strange, and left me feeling like "what was the point of all that?", but wasn't so bad. Then came the final story, "Half-Life" which is about a nanny who targets an unsuspecting family for revenge because she has an ax to grind with the woman's father, a judge. So, naturally, she practices cruelties on the 5 year old and the baby. This one I had to skip some of, I just couldn't justify reading it. I don't think anything about the story made it worth reading such stuff. Yes, life is horrible sometimes, and people do horrifying things, but when you're writing literature, it had better have a reason for being written about that transcends the mud and cruelty.
I gave this two stars for the 9 stories that were pretty good, but in all honesty, I would never recommend this collection to anyone, and because of the two stories near the end, I really give it zero stars. Yes, it's well written, but that doesn't counterbalance the subject matter. Ugh.
April 29, 2016
I've been lucky with my short story collection choices of late. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, The Unfinished World, Dog Run Moon were all excellent. This is another addition to that list. As a cat lover, An Uncontaminated Soul resonated with me a lot. But, my favorite was Half Life, about a nanny who cares for a couple's children, and who has her own troubled past. It sounds so ordinary, and it is, but has a depth that is characteristic of all the stories in this book. The characters are not always likable, but human, relatable. A fantastic collection.
February 8, 2022
“If you don’t belong where you’re born, you’ll never belong anywhere.”
Genre: Cultural Heritage Fiction, Short Stories
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses death, suicide, mental illness, and so many more things. This is a compilation of really dark stories, so if you’re not in the best headspace, then don’t grab this book.
“You Should Pity Us Instead” was Amy Gustine’s debut collection of short stories (but she’s published lots since then). All following different characters along different settings—from different cultures, cities, countries—these stories will drag you into an existential crisis for sure.
If you’re looking for a depressing compilation of stories, look no further. Amy Gustine found a way to write about really heavy topics and very distinct characters and narrators in these entertaining short stories. Usually I feel like short stories leave us with more questions than answer—due to their short nature—but I am happy to say this was not the case with (most of) this compilation. (And why were they so many cat-related stories? I love cats, why make them into sad sad sad stories?)
Have you read “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara? Well, if you’ve read that and liked it, then this book is for you. The stories are so heavy and depressing, that I’m not sure I would ever be able to give this book as a gift, but it was still a good read.
Genre: Cultural Heritage Fiction, Short Stories
Actual Rating: 3 stars
Content Warnings: Discusses death, suicide, mental illness, and so many more things. This is a compilation of really dark stories, so if you’re not in the best headspace, then don’t grab this book.
“You Should Pity Us Instead” was Amy Gustine’s debut collection of short stories (but she’s published lots since then). All following different characters along different settings—from different cultures, cities, countries—these stories will drag you into an existential crisis for sure.
If you’re looking for a depressing compilation of stories, look no further. Amy Gustine found a way to write about really heavy topics and very distinct characters and narrators in these entertaining short stories. Usually I feel like short stories leave us with more questions than answer—due to their short nature—but I am happy to say this was not the case with (most of) this compilation. (And why were they so many cat-related stories? I love cats, why make them into sad sad sad stories?)
Have you read “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara? Well, if you’ve read that and liked it, then this book is for you. The stories are so heavy and depressing, that I’m not sure I would ever be able to give this book as a gift, but it was still a good read.
January 11, 2022
I am usually not one for short stories because I always get very invested in the characters and want to know more. A few didn't work for me but the most notable thing for me about this collection is that when I was reading these stories, I would sometimes forget I was reading a short, felt more like the beginning of a novel.
January 27, 2023
Started off strong with the story or an Israeli mother going to Gaza to look for her son, but the stories went downhill from there and some felt rather pointless.
March 31, 2016
I happened to find this on my library's New Books shelf and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did--this is a masterful, wide-ranging collection of stories, one that looks life head-on, without sentimentality, yet manages to avoid cynicism. Families are dysfunctional, but not without affection. Lives are complicated, and sometimes dark, but not without hope. Okay, there's at least one story I'd call grim, but its O.Henry ending is exactly right. Perhaps most importantly, every story is interesting. Even stories that I thought might not be my cup of tea ended up yielding rewards. Highly recommended.
May 10, 2016
I thought I needed a short story break after reading (and adoring) A Manual for Cleaning Women. Then this comes along. Are you kidding me? These stories KILL! Such a diverse and captivating collection with all the trademarks of greatness: no blending of stories once you've finished, each story is as good as the next, strong variation in voice/tone/setting/dialogue in each story. There is no link between the stories or overiding theme (though parenthood is featured in most of the stories). I am a convert and will wait with baited breath for whatever comes next from Gustine.
August 16, 2016
I am not generally a fan of short stories, but the theme of this book appealed to me. The language was simple, but very drab, like one of those dollar mysteries. You can't talk about the darkest side of humanity without getting more attached to the characters. A few of the stories will make great reads as full length novels.
May 10, 2016
Mostly interesting if not quite exciting group of stories. There were a few gems, and a few that I really thought could have benefited from a longer length. All of the stories have the common thread of featuring lonely outsiders, which I definitely appreciated.
March 17, 2016
Though the stories are varied the common thread is solitude and ramifications of loneliness and loss--how death leaves us alone, how we are alone in our own families, how being alone brings people together.
March 23, 2016
SO GOOD.
October 22, 2022
The writing was superb. This is a collection of short stories. Collectively, the theme was love, loneliness or yearning, and loss.
I wasn't the right reader for these, because they are vignettes. They don't have endings. I'd just get really involved in the characters, where the reader transitions from reading about a character to CARING about a character, and the short story would end. And I'd be left not knowing what outcome the protagonist had. Some readers love this type story; they are definitely "literary." But they left me frustrated with the "non-endings." It's why I took a star off. Perhaps that isn't fair, I typically don't discount a rating for something out of the author's control (i.e. typos, etc.). And given these were a particular kind of story, I suppose one could argue that the lack of ending should not be considered in the rating. But it so greatly affected my perception and enjoyment of the stories, I had to consider the lack of resolution. They were great stories, and they totally engaged me. I just hate that I don't know how they ended. If I had been less engaged, I wouldn't have cared. It's a mark of the author's skill that I did care! LOL. Most of these characters were changing, making life decisions, so whereas some short stories without an ending you can pretty much presume what occurs going forward, these I could not.
I wasn't the right reader for these, because they are vignettes. They don't have endings. I'd just get really involved in the characters, where the reader transitions from reading about a character to CARING about a character, and the short story would end. And I'd be left not knowing what outcome the protagonist had. Some readers love this type story; they are definitely "literary." But they left me frustrated with the "non-endings." It's why I took a star off. Perhaps that isn't fair, I typically don't discount a rating for something out of the author's control (i.e. typos, etc.). And given these were a particular kind of story, I suppose one could argue that the lack of ending should not be considered in the rating. But it so greatly affected my perception and enjoyment of the stories, I had to consider the lack of resolution. They were great stories, and they totally engaged me. I just hate that I don't know how they ended. If I had been less engaged, I wouldn't have cared. It's a mark of the author's skill that I did care! LOL. Most of these characters were changing, making life decisions, so whereas some short stories without an ending you can pretty much presume what occurs going forward, these I could not.
July 24, 2020
I have lots of complex feelings about this collection. It is an unsettling read, more so than other stories I have read. Gustine’s story, “You Should Pity Us Instead,” which is also the title of the collection, was especially difficult to read. At times, I wanted to throw the book across the room out of frustration. At first, I felt a bit patronized. Most of the time, I don’t trust academics who write about religion because as someone who is a person of faith, I always end up feeling degraded by their cynicism. But as I read further, I realized there was something more to this story than just charactering Christianity (something that happens way too often in academia). Gustine was in fact showing that faith can be much more nuanced than how it is often portrayed. Not all of us are homophobic white supremacists. I think that is what ended up being the beauty of the book for me, though. It touched something very deep and wounded inside of me using using vivid characters, and even spanning continents, at times. I came to the conclusion that “You Should Pity Us Instead” is the type of book the world needs right now. It exposes the frailty, the complexity of being human. It forces us to look at one another as if we all had dimension.
June 22, 2025
The writing style is absolutely beautiful - it's hard to believe this is a debut novel. So brilliant! Unfortunately, that’s where the positives end for me. I genuinely wanted to love this book, but many of the stories just didn’t land. I felt strangely indifferent to them. The topics didn’t resonate, and the pacing often felt too slow, drawn-out, and honestly, a bit boring. Some of the stories, on the other hand, struck me as unnecessarily brutal. I couldn’t find the deeper purpose behind the cruelty, and it made me quite uncomfortable. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, maybe I missed something, maybe I'm not the target audience, or perhaps this just wasn’t the right time in my life for this book - especially having just finished Anne Frank. Whatever the reason, this one was, sadly, a big miss for me.
September 3, 2022
Very interesting story.premises and well thought-out characters. I feel Gustine was trying to take archetypal figures (crazy cat ladies and mistrusting mother's) and tell the stories from their perspective. She brought life to them. But I couldn't help but feel detached from them. Perhaps there was too much self awareness in the characters; they were constantly rationalizing their behavior. Maybe that is the case for most. But I'm not sure it's as consciously and articulately stated as she made them. And perhaps that's the dilemma - how do you articulate that which is properly articulated with no articulation? Or maybe I'm thinking too hard.
I enjoyed the book regardless. The stories drew me in. I just took too many fiction classes in my undergrad.
I enjoyed the book regardless. The stories drew me in. I just took too many fiction classes in my undergrad.
July 4, 2017
Dark and dreary. These read more like outlines of larger works than the neat little packages I have found in other short stories. I was going to give this 2 stars, because the writing isn't terrible, but I can't think of a single story in this collection that I actually enjoyed reading, so 1 star it is...
November 7, 2020
Some interesting vignettes, but nothing that I found truly refreshing (although "The River Warta" was quite enjoyable). Most of the stories seem to follow similar patterns when it comes to the flow of action, making it feel a bit repetitive; perhaps this feeling could be prevented by reading the stories more isolated instead of all in a row.
March 8, 2021
Really, really good for a debut. It's probably more around 4 stars but because there are only a few reviews and the book deserves a lot more attention, I gave it 5. I was captivated by every single story in the collection and the prose was beautiful. Some of the stories were disturbing and others emotional, but they were all really interesting and the characters were very well written.
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