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The Dinner Party
'He reflected in future retrospect on the evening and foretold every gesture, every word. "I can't do it," he said. "I can predict everything that will happen from the moment they arrive to the little kiss on the cheek goodbye and I just can't goddamn do it."'
The Dinner Party immerses us in the comic and strange realities of modern life, as we journey through the lives of the unlovable, the unloved, and those who love too much: Jack, who nervously tries to befriend the surly removal man by buying him a latte and a croissant; Sarah, who endlessly imagines how her evening would have been better had she only chosen a different restaurant; Joe, who spends a night alone at the office and surreptitiously starts to rearrange his colleagues' belongings.
These are stories about the infinite possibilities of a person's life, from an agonizingly funny and original writer.
The Dinner Party immerses us in the comic and strange realities of modern life, as we journey through the lives of the unlovable, the unloved, and those who love too much: Jack, who nervously tries to befriend the surly removal man by buying him a latte and a croissant; Sarah, who endlessly imagines how her evening would have been better had she only chosen a different restaurant; Joe, who spends a night alone at the office and surreptitiously starts to rearrange his colleagues' belongings.
These are stories about the infinite possibilities of a person's life, from an agonizingly funny and original writer.
246 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2017
362 people are currently reading
5968 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Ferris
48 books1,006 followersJoshua Ferris is the author of novels Then We Came to the End, The Unnamed and To Rise Again at a Decent Hour as well as a story collection, The Dinner Party. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award, short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize. He was named one of The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" writers in 2010. He lives in Hudson, New York with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 502 reviews
June 6, 2017
I'm at 4.25, maybe 4.5 here?
Sometimes you love every book an author writes, and other times you have a completely different reaction to every one of their books. Joshua Ferris definitely falls into the latter category for me— Then We Came to the End left me bemused yet ambivalent; I absolutely couldn't get into To Rise at a Decent Hour ; and I really enjoyed The Unnamed .
Despite that mixed track record, I still really enjoy the way he writes, so I jumped at the chance to read an early copy of his first story collection, The Dinner Party and Other Stories . Overall, I really enjoyed it—he kept some of the quirks which occasionally throw me in his writing in check, and these stories are compulsively readable. They're fascinating, some are really packed with emotion, some are a little bizarre, and you just want to know how Ferris will tie things up.
Many of the 11 stories in this collection seem fairly innocuous at first, with characters you think you've seen before—a husband dreading another dinner party with his wife's oldest friend and her husband; the retiree who laments growing old alone; a man who is falling to pieces because he believes his wife has left him. But as you delve deeper into these stories, you discover that nothing is quite what it seems, and which gives each story a little bit of an unexpected kick. Sometimes that doesn't quite work, but for the most part, it really does.
Only one story in the collection really didn't excite me, but my favorites included: "The Pilot," in which an insecure writer gets invited to the party of a famous writer he met once, but he wonders if she meant to invite him, and he struggles with whether to go; "The Valetudinarian," about an elderly man struggling with growing old alone, whose life is literally changed by the arrival of an intriguing gift from an estranged friend; "More Abandon, or What Ever Happened to Joe Pope," which tells of a man's exploits in his office after hours; "The Breeze," about a woman who nearly comes undone with the possibilities which arrive with an unexpected spring breeze; "The Stepchild," in which an actor seeks out a woman he met one night, in order to counter his despair that his wife has left him; and the title story, which tells of a couple awaiting friends to come over for a dinner party, despite the fact that the husband is utterly over them.
There were many times in these seemingly simple stories that I was wowed by Ferris' prose. One such example comes from "The Stepchild":
I don't believe that every person who has been successful at writing novels is as successful writing stories, and vice versa. But I felt that Ferris' storytelling ability was on great display in The Dinner Party and Other Stories . These were stories which really resonated, and worked for me in ways that his novels haven't always succeeded. And even if you've never read any of his books but you're a short story fan, this is a collection worth exploring.
NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Sometimes you love every book an author writes, and other times you have a completely different reaction to every one of their books. Joshua Ferris definitely falls into the latter category for me— Then We Came to the End left me bemused yet ambivalent; I absolutely couldn't get into To Rise at a Decent Hour ; and I really enjoyed The Unnamed .
Despite that mixed track record, I still really enjoy the way he writes, so I jumped at the chance to read an early copy of his first story collection, The Dinner Party and Other Stories . Overall, I really enjoyed it—he kept some of the quirks which occasionally throw me in his writing in check, and these stories are compulsively readable. They're fascinating, some are really packed with emotion, some are a little bizarre, and you just want to know how Ferris will tie things up.
Many of the 11 stories in this collection seem fairly innocuous at first, with characters you think you've seen before—a husband dreading another dinner party with his wife's oldest friend and her husband; the retiree who laments growing old alone; a man who is falling to pieces because he believes his wife has left him. But as you delve deeper into these stories, you discover that nothing is quite what it seems, and which gives each story a little bit of an unexpected kick. Sometimes that doesn't quite work, but for the most part, it really does.
Only one story in the collection really didn't excite me, but my favorites included: "The Pilot," in which an insecure writer gets invited to the party of a famous writer he met once, but he wonders if she meant to invite him, and he struggles with whether to go; "The Valetudinarian," about an elderly man struggling with growing old alone, whose life is literally changed by the arrival of an intriguing gift from an estranged friend; "More Abandon, or What Ever Happened to Joe Pope," which tells of a man's exploits in his office after hours; "The Breeze," about a woman who nearly comes undone with the possibilities which arrive with an unexpected spring breeze; "The Stepchild," in which an actor seeks out a woman he met one night, in order to counter his despair that his wife has left him; and the title story, which tells of a couple awaiting friends to come over for a dinner party, despite the fact that the husband is utterly over them.
There were many times in these seemingly simple stories that I was wowed by Ferris' prose. One such example comes from "The Stepchild":
And what you are growing here, and there, and over there, are little moments, and the memories make a life that can't be taken away from you by anyone or anything, not other people's fickleness, not even death. In the long run, you know, that's better than bowls of dried flowers, or whatever.
I don't believe that every person who has been successful at writing novels is as successful writing stories, and vice versa. But I felt that Ferris' storytelling ability was on great display in The Dinner Party and Other Stories . These were stories which really resonated, and worked for me in ways that his novels haven't always succeeded. And even if you've never read any of his books but you're a short story fan, this is a collection worth exploring.
NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
April 22, 2017
To quote another contemporary writer, T.C. Boyle: “A short story is like a toothache and you must drill it and fill it. A novel is more like bridgework.” Joshua Ferris is a master bridgework artisan. Since discovering Then We Came To The End more than a decade ago, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed To Rise Again at A Decent Hour, and even the less critically-acclaimed The Unnamed.
His short story collection, however, doesn’t quite rise to the height of his novels. Yes, there are moments of spectacular insight; in the eponymous first story, there is much beneath the surface when so-called close friends do not show up at another couple’s dinner party. It begs to be read a second time, when it becomes evident that the hosting couple is going through the motions and that the cracks have already appeared in their marriage.
Subsequent stories – such as Fragments and The Breeze, and even Valetudinarian, a slightly longer story, are fun to read, but somehow, but the author’s reliance on farcical dialogue and situations belied the gravitas that could have moved the reader more deeply if better developed. Joshua Ferris has always crafted his works with a dark sense of humor, but that humor worked more effectively on a broader canvas. Although I enjoyed these stories, minutes after finishing each one, I craved greater exploration into the depth of the neurosis that each of his characters portrayed. I am indebted to GoodReads FirstReads and the publisher, Little Brown and Company, for allowing me to take an early look at this collection.
His short story collection, however, doesn’t quite rise to the height of his novels. Yes, there are moments of spectacular insight; in the eponymous first story, there is much beneath the surface when so-called close friends do not show up at another couple’s dinner party. It begs to be read a second time, when it becomes evident that the hosting couple is going through the motions and that the cracks have already appeared in their marriage.
Subsequent stories – such as Fragments and The Breeze, and even Valetudinarian, a slightly longer story, are fun to read, but somehow, but the author’s reliance on farcical dialogue and situations belied the gravitas that could have moved the reader more deeply if better developed. Joshua Ferris has always crafted his works with a dark sense of humor, but that humor worked more effectively on a broader canvas. Although I enjoyed these stories, minutes after finishing each one, I craved greater exploration into the depth of the neurosis that each of his characters portrayed. I am indebted to GoodReads FirstReads and the publisher, Little Brown and Company, for allowing me to take an early look at this collection.
May 24, 2017
Read for Short Story Month--May, 2017. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read an arc of this book for an honest review.
These stories were my first taste of Joshua Ferris's writing so I cannot make a comparison to his full-length novels. However, these short stories beautifully showcase the writer's skill at characterization and the ability to get into each person's neurotic thoughts or bad choices in a few brief pages. Some, like The Breeze, were very inventive, with a young wife imagining over and over again the way an evening out could turn out. Some were startling and painful, such as A Fair Price or A Night Out. All were well-worth reading.
These stories were my first taste of Joshua Ferris's writing so I cannot make a comparison to his full-length novels. However, these short stories beautifully showcase the writer's skill at characterization and the ability to get into each person's neurotic thoughts or bad choices in a few brief pages. Some, like The Breeze, were very inventive, with a young wife imagining over and over again the way an evening out could turn out. Some were startling and painful, such as A Fair Price or A Night Out. All were well-worth reading.
May 12, 2017
Found these stories somewhat amateur with the characters wearing their desperation so obviously that if you missed it there's always an intruding narrator or some contrived observer-character lurking a line away to restate the bleeding obvious. Richard Yates has covered this ground so slickly- the quiet tragedy and violence lurking underneath the mannered civility of urban yuppies, the "trapped" married-too-soon couples and families drifting in indifferent sprawling American metropolises who wake up one day to find themselves employment they don't want, kids they can't believe they've had, homes they can't believe they have to pay for, the thwarted American Dream if you will- that Ferris' admirable but failing attempts to retread it seven decades on made me yearn for Yates suicidal prose which had characters that spoke in ways I could imagine real despairing people whole and the all-too-obvious anxieties and desperations bled through without the author calling my attention to it again and again. Sadly for Ferris, a master has cast the same knowing eye over this landscape.
May 17, 2017
Ever since Then We Came to the End, I have considered myself a fan of Joshua Ferris. That novel is one of my most-often recommended titles. I skipped The Unnamed based on poor reviews, but I chalked it up to a sophomore slump and thought no more about it. I eagerly grabbed To Rise Again at a Decent Hour and read it, but found the plot convoluted, and the overall effect was disappointing.
I was excited to see a short story collection, but after 5 stories, I'm ready to quit, and I'm sorry to say I'm done with Joshua Ferris. If this was one of his stories, I'd be one of the several poorly drawn female characters, predictably packing my bag with resignation.
I was excited to see a short story collection, but after 5 stories, I'm ready to quit, and I'm sorry to say I'm done with Joshua Ferris. If this was one of his stories, I'd be one of the several poorly drawn female characters, predictably packing my bag with resignation.
May 25, 2017
I was in the car with my husband listening to NPR when we heard an interview with Joshua Ferris on his new book The Dinner Party and Other Stories. My husband is no fan of short stories but he said to me, "I'd read that book." I smirked because I knew I COULD read it. Being pre-approved by Little, Brown & Co. on NetGalley has its perks!
I downloaded the book and started reading.
These twelve stories are about how good people can make really bad decisions. The stories have humor, ironic twists, and chillingly bad choices. I was mesmerized.
In More Abandon, or What Ever Happened to Joe Pope? a man trashes and rearranges the offices of his coworkers, then turns the lights off. He thinks, "An odd scruple. But it's not the world that needs destroying, just his world."
The Stepchild concerns a man who is brooding over his failed marriage. He shows up at the apartment of a married woman he met once. He tells his sad story, and they talk, and 'fall in love'. At the end of the day, he returns to his ever suffering wife.
In The Dinner Party, a couple argues about friends who are late for dinner. The husband can't endure another meal with them, but his wife insists on keeping contact with one of her oldest friends. Finally, the wife retreats to bed leaving the food to spoil while the husband goes to see if their friends are ok. He arrives to find a party going on. His wife's friend knows their friendship is a sham, but he unable to tell his wife the truth.
In The Valetudinarian, Arty and his wife retire to Florida, then his wife dies leaving him alone in a strange place. He withdraws from life and nurses his unhappiness.When his children call for his birthday, he tries to engage their attention with complaints about his health. Then a prostitute shows up at his door, a birthday gift from a friend.
The Pilot concerns a scriptwriter who can't believe he has been invited to a party hosted by a famous director/actor. He wonders, was it a mistake? Should he go? He's been sober for sixteen months but the party unnerves him and he slips.
In The Fragments, a man's wife works later and later until one night she does not come home at all. He is sure she is having an affair. He broods over dividing their things. As he dismantles their life, his wife returns home.
Life in the Heart of the Dead takes place in Prague. A businessman goes on a historical tour of the city. He realizes his whole life has been 'a tour' without a destination.
In A Night Out, Tom and Sophie are reconciling after being estranged over his affair. When Tom speaks to a woman, Sophie is sure she was his mistress and disappears to follow her. Tom searches the city for his wife, finding he is too broke for subway fare. At a bar, he discovers his credit card has been canceled. Sophie's jealousy spurs her into an extreme act of revenge that could cause harm to herself. Meantime, Tom's real ex-mistress shows up at an inopportune time.
In one of the most disturbing stories, A Fair Price, Jack, asks what are we here for? Do we have some greater purpose in life as men? He has been a disappointment to his father, always making 'a hash' of things. He hires a man to help him move some things and unsuccessfully tries to engage him in human contact. In frustration, Jack vents his anger and is left to consider what a 'good' man does when he has done something wrong.
A fatherless son watches his mother throw out one more man in Ghost Town Choir. The man understands the child longs for a father. "Hell, who couldn't use a daddy?" he thinks, apologizing that he couldn't help. His mother responds by changing things around her instead of herself.
I loved the writing, descriptions like "his mustache moved up and down like a centipede." And lyric passages like this from The Breeze: "The children's voices carried in the blue air. Then the breeze came. It cut through the branches of trees, turning up the silver undersides of the young leaves."
My favorite story was The Breeze. On a perfect day, Sarah imagines a perfect time with her husband. She feels under pressure to do something memorable. She feels her husband is dull and her life is passing by without having really lived. Plans are made and go awry as she imagines possible outcomes.
There is a desperation in Sarah, "thinking her options were either a picnic or death." There is a longing for a fuller, more authentic life. "She wanted to be a different person, a better person, but he was perfectly happy being his limited self." Sarah is wise enough to realize that happiness is something she must find for herself for no person can give it to you.
In the end, she makes the right decision, finally understanding how they can both enjoy this one and perfect day in a beautiful and simple act of invitation.
These are stories I want to read again.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Read The Dinner Party at
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...
I downloaded the book and started reading.
These twelve stories are about how good people can make really bad decisions. The stories have humor, ironic twists, and chillingly bad choices. I was mesmerized.
In More Abandon, or What Ever Happened to Joe Pope? a man trashes and rearranges the offices of his coworkers, then turns the lights off. He thinks, "An odd scruple. But it's not the world that needs destroying, just his world."
The Stepchild concerns a man who is brooding over his failed marriage. He shows up at the apartment of a married woman he met once. He tells his sad story, and they talk, and 'fall in love'. At the end of the day, he returns to his ever suffering wife.
In The Dinner Party, a couple argues about friends who are late for dinner. The husband can't endure another meal with them, but his wife insists on keeping contact with one of her oldest friends. Finally, the wife retreats to bed leaving the food to spoil while the husband goes to see if their friends are ok. He arrives to find a party going on. His wife's friend knows their friendship is a sham, but he unable to tell his wife the truth.
In The Valetudinarian, Arty and his wife retire to Florida, then his wife dies leaving him alone in a strange place. He withdraws from life and nurses his unhappiness.When his children call for his birthday, he tries to engage their attention with complaints about his health. Then a prostitute shows up at his door, a birthday gift from a friend.
The Pilot concerns a scriptwriter who can't believe he has been invited to a party hosted by a famous director/actor. He wonders, was it a mistake? Should he go? He's been sober for sixteen months but the party unnerves him and he slips.
In The Fragments, a man's wife works later and later until one night she does not come home at all. He is sure she is having an affair. He broods over dividing their things. As he dismantles their life, his wife returns home.
Life in the Heart of the Dead takes place in Prague. A businessman goes on a historical tour of the city. He realizes his whole life has been 'a tour' without a destination.
In A Night Out, Tom and Sophie are reconciling after being estranged over his affair. When Tom speaks to a woman, Sophie is sure she was his mistress and disappears to follow her. Tom searches the city for his wife, finding he is too broke for subway fare. At a bar, he discovers his credit card has been canceled. Sophie's jealousy spurs her into an extreme act of revenge that could cause harm to herself. Meantime, Tom's real ex-mistress shows up at an inopportune time.
In one of the most disturbing stories, A Fair Price, Jack, asks what are we here for? Do we have some greater purpose in life as men? He has been a disappointment to his father, always making 'a hash' of things. He hires a man to help him move some things and unsuccessfully tries to engage him in human contact. In frustration, Jack vents his anger and is left to consider what a 'good' man does when he has done something wrong.
A fatherless son watches his mother throw out one more man in Ghost Town Choir. The man understands the child longs for a father. "Hell, who couldn't use a daddy?" he thinks, apologizing that he couldn't help. His mother responds by changing things around her instead of herself.
I loved the writing, descriptions like "his mustache moved up and down like a centipede." And lyric passages like this from The Breeze: "The children's voices carried in the blue air. Then the breeze came. It cut through the branches of trees, turning up the silver undersides of the young leaves."
My favorite story was The Breeze. On a perfect day, Sarah imagines a perfect time with her husband. She feels under pressure to do something memorable. She feels her husband is dull and her life is passing by without having really lived. Plans are made and go awry as she imagines possible outcomes.
There is a desperation in Sarah, "thinking her options were either a picnic or death." There is a longing for a fuller, more authentic life. "She wanted to be a different person, a better person, but he was perfectly happy being his limited self." Sarah is wise enough to realize that happiness is something she must find for herself for no person can give it to you.
In the end, she makes the right decision, finally understanding how they can both enjoy this one and perfect day in a beautiful and simple act of invitation.
These are stories I want to read again.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Read The Dinner Party at
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/200...
May 24, 2017
Evidently I'm in a weird mood this morning, explaining the below review. Just know that I almost ruptured my lingual artery forcing my tongue into my cheek that hard so I hope you enjoy the below and accept it in the heavily sarcastic spirit in which it was written :P (And J-Fez, if you chance upon this one, I enjoy your books, for what that's worth!)
Ah, MOST white men. We're MOST OF US NOT ALL OF US so privileged we can't even handle it when you so much as point it out. We scramble to find anything to complain about. We double down on our unhappiness because people don't take it seriously enough, as well they mostly shouldn't.
The last thing I'd want to do is belittle anyone who felt under the weather, it's just that most men don't know how to articulate their emotional predicaments without making it sound like they're more important than anyone else's or the first time anyone has ever felt as bad as they have for the reasons that they do. It's like, chill. You're just a guy. You can go back to being just a guy if you want. Final offer tho lol. There are many ways white men approach the task of exaggerating their melancholy.
There's the Bret Easton Ellis/Alex Israel/Cronenberg-style, "Don't you understand how horrific our superficiality is, especially in these particular American locations? Also, do you wanna fuck me?" To which you can answer, "If you hated those places that much, you'd've left by now. But then what the hell would you write about? Also, no thanks."
There's the Chuck Palahniuk/Irvine Welsh/John Niven-style, "Don't you understand that I understand how terrible we are? Look how nasty this shit is! I DARE you to wanna fuck me now!" To which you can answer, "Again, you're wallowing where you are because you're having fun. That you're self-aware isn't even a start, because you're using false self-awareness to gloat over the kind of weird shit you enjoy thinking about. So I hope you're enjoying those mental images of eviscerating me for being such a frigid bitch, because you'll never see me naked now."
There's the Woody Allen/Joshua Ferris/etc-style, "When you're as clever as I am, you can desconstruct even pleasant 1% scenarios in a manner that will make you see why they're so bad... while lowkey making you wanna fuck me." To which you can answer, "Try mansplaining to some other broad. These legs open only to those men who don't think inviting pity is foreplay."
So if I feel this way, why do I read these books? It's pure comfort food. I don't go to McDonald's; I read PARTICULAR white male authors.
I would opt for my usual scenario of leaning on the fact that I'm gay to act like I'm not to be considered a white man as such, but that would ruin the fun of white men, who agree with the above and are mad they didn't write it first, trying to outsmart me in the comments to prove to themselves that since both of us aren't getting fucked, at least they're the smartest unfuckable, to which I would have enjoyed replying, wrong tree, married to another dude, knee-deep in weiner since 2006, but I guess I scuppered that. Better get off Goodreads and pretend I had something better to do!
Ah, MOST white men. We're MOST OF US NOT ALL OF US so privileged we can't even handle it when you so much as point it out. We scramble to find anything to complain about. We double down on our unhappiness because people don't take it seriously enough, as well they mostly shouldn't.
The last thing I'd want to do is belittle anyone who felt under the weather, it's just that most men don't know how to articulate their emotional predicaments without making it sound like they're more important than anyone else's or the first time anyone has ever felt as bad as they have for the reasons that they do. It's like, chill. You're just a guy. You can go back to being just a guy if you want. Final offer tho lol. There are many ways white men approach the task of exaggerating their melancholy.
There's the Bret Easton Ellis/Alex Israel/Cronenberg-style, "Don't you understand how horrific our superficiality is, especially in these particular American locations? Also, do you wanna fuck me?" To which you can answer, "If you hated those places that much, you'd've left by now. But then what the hell would you write about? Also, no thanks."
There's the Chuck Palahniuk/Irvine Welsh/John Niven-style, "Don't you understand that I understand how terrible we are? Look how nasty this shit is! I DARE you to wanna fuck me now!" To which you can answer, "Again, you're wallowing where you are because you're having fun. That you're self-aware isn't even a start, because you're using false self-awareness to gloat over the kind of weird shit you enjoy thinking about. So I hope you're enjoying those mental images of eviscerating me for being such a frigid bitch, because you'll never see me naked now."
There's the Woody Allen/Joshua Ferris/etc-style, "When you're as clever as I am, you can desconstruct even pleasant 1% scenarios in a manner that will make you see why they're so bad... while lowkey making you wanna fuck me." To which you can answer, "Try mansplaining to some other broad. These legs open only to those men who don't think inviting pity is foreplay."
So if I feel this way, why do I read these books? It's pure comfort food. I don't go to McDonald's; I read PARTICULAR white male authors.
I would opt for my usual scenario of leaning on the fact that I'm gay to act like I'm not to be considered a white man as such, but that would ruin the fun of white men, who agree with the above and are mad they didn't write it first, trying to outsmart me in the comments to prove to themselves that since both of us aren't getting fucked, at least they're the smartest unfuckable, to which I would have enjoyed replying, wrong tree, married to another dude, knee-deep in weiner since 2006, but I guess I scuppered that. Better get off Goodreads and pretend I had something better to do!
December 31, 2017
Malesseri newyorkesi
Ho apprezzato tutti e tre i romanzi di Joshua Ferris quando ancora era semi-sconosciuto (almeno quando ho letto il primo) ma questa raccolta non mi è sembrata all’altezza, suggerendo che il formato racconto non sia congeniale all’autore, perché la piega “strana” che prendono le sue storie, nei romanzi ha tempo e modo di svilupparsi, nelle poche pagine di un racconto no: talvolta la trama sembra bloccata su sé stessa, mentre in altri racconti il finale appare posticcio e artificiale.
I protagonisti sono tipi più o meno simili all’autore, maschi quarantenni newyorkesi benestanti, afflitti da nevrosi che si manifestano in vario modo nei confronti del lavoro, della coppia quasi sempre disastrata, della città stessa vissuta col fiatone, fra innumerevoli party, telefonate, sms, lunch, in un continuo movimento poiché a ognuno di essi basta, ad esempio, intravedere dalla finestra uno sconosciuto che sale su un taxi per sentire che “…la curiosità per la sua destinazione si trasforma rapidamente in una specie di invidia priva di oggetto, ma abbinata alla vaga convinzione che altra gente sia più felice e ottenga più di lui dalla vita … lavorare è difficile se si prova il desiderio di trovarsi là fuori con loro. Dove stanno andando quelle persone sui sedili posteriori dei taxi?
Nel racconto forse più riuscito del libro, intitolato “La brezza”, dove protagonista è una coppia ma il punto di vista è femminile, questa smania di divorare New York in tutte le sue infinite opzioni raggiunge il parossismo ed il racconto è un ansiogeno sovrapporsi di taxi, metro, camminate, appuntamenti mancati, destinazioni immediatamente deludenti, orgasmi rubati dietro un cespuglio di Central Park, cocktails ingollati in un bar panoramico, senza requie e senza pause: Metà serata era finita. Che stupido pensarlo, quando non erano ancora le otto, ma lei non riuscì a farne a meno. L’ultima ora, fatta di frustrazioni e sfortuna, di incertezze e blocchi in cui avrebbe avuto bisogno che accadessero tante cose, era ormai il simbolo della sua serata e della sua vita.
Ferris non scrive male e il tema sopra esemplificato, benché non nuovo, può essere interessante nel mettere in luce la nuova angoscia urbana contemporanea che si associa alla compulsione nell’essere sempre connessi, condivisi e nel dominio del cellulare sulla realtà e sulla vita; il problema è che, salvo qualche eccezione, tutte le storie di “Invito a cena” sono simili, tanto che a volte ci si scopre a confondere il protagonista con quello del racconto precedente…
In conclusione: credo che a Ferris sia necessario un punto fermo cui ancorare la sua narrazione, fosse anche un’assurdità come in “Non conosco il tuo nome” (la sua opera migliore, secondo me) o il disagio collettivo della perdita del lavoro (come in E “poi siamo arrivati alla fine”), per evitare che il vuoto e il senso di vanità che pervade i suoi personaggi finisca per estendersi fino a coinvolgere la concentrazione del lettore, a sua volta frustrato da tanta dissipazione di tempo e di vita.
Ho apprezzato tutti e tre i romanzi di Joshua Ferris quando ancora era semi-sconosciuto (almeno quando ho letto il primo) ma questa raccolta non mi è sembrata all’altezza, suggerendo che il formato racconto non sia congeniale all’autore, perché la piega “strana” che prendono le sue storie, nei romanzi ha tempo e modo di svilupparsi, nelle poche pagine di un racconto no: talvolta la trama sembra bloccata su sé stessa, mentre in altri racconti il finale appare posticcio e artificiale.
I protagonisti sono tipi più o meno simili all’autore, maschi quarantenni newyorkesi benestanti, afflitti da nevrosi che si manifestano in vario modo nei confronti del lavoro, della coppia quasi sempre disastrata, della città stessa vissuta col fiatone, fra innumerevoli party, telefonate, sms, lunch, in un continuo movimento poiché a ognuno di essi basta, ad esempio, intravedere dalla finestra uno sconosciuto che sale su un taxi per sentire che “…la curiosità per la sua destinazione si trasforma rapidamente in una specie di invidia priva di oggetto, ma abbinata alla vaga convinzione che altra gente sia più felice e ottenga più di lui dalla vita … lavorare è difficile se si prova il desiderio di trovarsi là fuori con loro. Dove stanno andando quelle persone sui sedili posteriori dei taxi?
Nel racconto forse più riuscito del libro, intitolato “La brezza”, dove protagonista è una coppia ma il punto di vista è femminile, questa smania di divorare New York in tutte le sue infinite opzioni raggiunge il parossismo ed il racconto è un ansiogeno sovrapporsi di taxi, metro, camminate, appuntamenti mancati, destinazioni immediatamente deludenti, orgasmi rubati dietro un cespuglio di Central Park, cocktails ingollati in un bar panoramico, senza requie e senza pause: Metà serata era finita. Che stupido pensarlo, quando non erano ancora le otto, ma lei non riuscì a farne a meno. L’ultima ora, fatta di frustrazioni e sfortuna, di incertezze e blocchi in cui avrebbe avuto bisogno che accadessero tante cose, era ormai il simbolo della sua serata e della sua vita.
Ferris non scrive male e il tema sopra esemplificato, benché non nuovo, può essere interessante nel mettere in luce la nuova angoscia urbana contemporanea che si associa alla compulsione nell’essere sempre connessi, condivisi e nel dominio del cellulare sulla realtà e sulla vita; il problema è che, salvo qualche eccezione, tutte le storie di “Invito a cena” sono simili, tanto che a volte ci si scopre a confondere il protagonista con quello del racconto precedente…
In conclusione: credo che a Ferris sia necessario un punto fermo cui ancorare la sua narrazione, fosse anche un’assurdità come in “Non conosco il tuo nome” (la sua opera migliore, secondo me) o il disagio collettivo della perdita del lavoro (come in E “poi siamo arrivati alla fine”), per evitare che il vuoto e il senso di vanità che pervade i suoi personaggi finisca per estendersi fino a coinvolgere la concentrazione del lettore, a sua volta frustrato da tanta dissipazione di tempo e di vita.
June 16, 2017
I sensed a thread of introspection weaving through Ferris' new short story collection, particularly concerning time. I could drill it down another level and say these are stories about people realizing that time truly is a limited commodity. In some it provokes fear, in others new life. In every case these musings cause interesting changes.
I won't summarize each story, but must mention briefly my favorite in the compilation, "The Valetudinarian". A darkly comic take on the Matrix (my interpretation), it involves a thirty-something hooker, a rapidly aging widower and a blue pill that completely changes his outlook on the rest of his life. This one is a must read.
While not every story is comical, there are elements of humor in each. Most often this is accomplished via Ferris' facility with dialog. Modern sounding and so well timed, one gets the sense he'd be equally at home writing scripts.
It's my understanding that most or all of the collection has previously been published but fans of Ferris will be happy to have them collected in one place and those new to the author will find the stories to be an excellent jumping off point into his longer works.
Note: I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of review.
I won't summarize each story, but must mention briefly my favorite in the compilation, "The Valetudinarian". A darkly comic take on the Matrix (my interpretation), it involves a thirty-something hooker, a rapidly aging widower and a blue pill that completely changes his outlook on the rest of his life. This one is a must read.
While not every story is comical, there are elements of humor in each. Most often this is accomplished via Ferris' facility with dialog. Modern sounding and so well timed, one gets the sense he'd be equally at home writing scripts.
It's my understanding that most or all of the collection has previously been published but fans of Ferris will be happy to have them collected in one place and those new to the author will find the stories to be an excellent jumping off point into his longer works.
Note: I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of review.
January 28, 2019
I was half and half on these stories: loved 5 of them, the others seemed paler copies. The best are enjoyable: cynical, funny, well written, sometimes moving, but occasionally straining for effect. They often concern couples on the verge of breaking up, and needed something different to make them fresh, hence I enjoyed the one from the child's p.o.v. over others. It was a relief to encounter a different subject too, e.g. the self doubting (a lot of that) screenwriter at an L.A. party, the reluctant Prague tourist or the pensioner visited by a prostitute.
August 19, 2017
I frequently read short story collections, and I almost always find that I love some of the stories while others leave me unmoved. That was definitely the case with this collection.
When Ferris writes about 20 and 30-somethings and their worries about status and what everybody's thinking about them, that's boring to me as a 61-year-old woman who is past all that (well...mostly). And I was annoyed by one story about an "old" (in his 60s!!) man whose interest in life can only be reawakened by....wait for it....a sleazy, ignorant young prostitute. Aw, c'mon.
I loved some of the other stories, though. I think my favorite was The Breeze, about a young woman who feels the first breeze of summer on a spring evening and feels that she and her husband must do something special on that evening. I know exactly the kind of evening Ferris is talking about, and the feeling of joyful vitality and vague restlessness that you feel. And I liked the approach he took of alternative ways that the evening could proceed. That could be hard to pull off, but it was effective and very well-handled.
I really liked A Fair Price, too, which starts out seeming like it's going to be another one about a self-absorbed young person obsessed with what other people think about him, but ends up being way more sinister than that.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com
When Ferris writes about 20 and 30-somethings and their worries about status and what everybody's thinking about them, that's boring to me as a 61-year-old woman who is past all that (well...mostly). And I was annoyed by one story about an "old" (in his 60s!!) man whose interest in life can only be reawakened by....wait for it....a sleazy, ignorant young prostitute. Aw, c'mon.
I loved some of the other stories, though. I think my favorite was The Breeze, about a young woman who feels the first breeze of summer on a spring evening and feels that she and her husband must do something special on that evening. I know exactly the kind of evening Ferris is talking about, and the feeling of joyful vitality and vague restlessness that you feel. And I liked the approach he took of alternative ways that the evening could proceed. That could be hard to pull off, but it was effective and very well-handled.
I really liked A Fair Price, too, which starts out seeming like it's going to be another one about a self-absorbed young person obsessed with what other people think about him, but ends up being way more sinister than that.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com
May 23, 2018
Un Ferris che avrei preferito non leggere. Un insieme di racconti da affrontare con lo xanax, per non farsi sommergere dal binomio sfigato-fallito che sembra contraddistinguere i protagonisti, tutti maschi nel fiore della maturità, che si sono infilati in situazioni da incubo emotivo (sembra che non abbiano corteccia cerebrale o perlomeno una ghiandola in grado di secernere empatia).
Le ultime pagine le ho lette in parallelo a Macerie prime - Sei mesi dopo di ZeroCalcare e la differente capacità narrativa è andata ancora più a svantaggio di Ferris.
Le ultime pagine le ho lette in parallelo a Macerie prime - Sei mesi dopo di ZeroCalcare e la differente capacità narrativa è andata ancora più a svantaggio di Ferris.
February 9, 2021
These were good stories, but most of them were a bummer and left me feeling deflated. However, about halfway through the collection was The Breeze, a really excellent story that made me want to finish the book.
(I got this book at The Dollar Tree.)
(I got this book at The Dollar Tree.)
January 30, 2018
Or, Men Who Are Very, Very Bad at Imagining the Inner Lives of Other People and the Women Who Leave Them
(Ferris is a solid writer, and particularly good as always in describing the weird, deadening routines of office life; I'm just really not in the mood for these kinds of stories right now.)
(Ferris is a solid writer, and particularly good as always in describing the weird, deadening routines of office life; I'm just really not in the mood for these kinds of stories right now.)
February 5, 2017
I was lucky enough to pick up at galley at ALA - this book kept me company at dinner (Gus' Famous Fried Chicken, delicious!) and at the Atlanta airport while I waited for my delayed flight. I don't usually read short stories because I don't feel invested in the characters before the end, but in almost every one of these, I did. I found fault with only one, and that is more a reflection on me and what I like to read rather than the story.
This is mostly a collection of stories about flawed middle aged white guys, of which I know plenty so I was comfortable being both sympathetic and infuriated at once. Don't want to give too much away, esp. because the ones I liked the most had a bit of a twist. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed.
The first one was maybe my favorite. Or maybe the second (?) to last. Can't check now because I already gave it to someone else.
LOVED THIS.
This is mostly a collection of stories about flawed middle aged white guys, of which I know plenty so I was comfortable being both sympathetic and infuriated at once. Don't want to give too much away, esp. because the ones I liked the most had a bit of a twist. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed.
The first one was maybe my favorite. Or maybe the second (?) to last. Can't check now because I already gave it to someone else.
LOVED THIS.
May 16, 2017
Thanx to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review.
Ferris is one of the few writers who can actually make me LOL, and he doesn't disappoint with this short story collection; although many of them are on the more dour side, and chronicle, for the most part, lives of quiet desperation. I usually don't enjoy short stories, and rarely read them, and although a few of these are not QUITE up to his usual 5 star excellence, they are all readable and some even quite memorable. But I will look forward to Ferris returning to the novel form, at which he is an undisputed master.
Ferris is one of the few writers who can actually make me LOL, and he doesn't disappoint with this short story collection; although many of them are on the more dour side, and chronicle, for the most part, lives of quiet desperation. I usually don't enjoy short stories, and rarely read them, and although a few of these are not QUITE up to his usual 5 star excellence, they are all readable and some even quite memorable. But I will look forward to Ferris returning to the novel form, at which he is an undisputed master.
September 13, 2016
Well written short story but damn am I confused as to what went down lol. (I need to go back and reread this more slowly)
March 21, 2020
Este relato me ha resultado tan familiar que hace que me preocupe un poco por mi actual vida social.
May 13, 2017
Not quite a 4* read but close enough to round up. Joshua Ferris is one of the "20 under 40" fiction writers to watch identified by the New Yorker in 2010. The eleven stories in this book were all previously published in The New Yorker. These stories are wildly disparate. They have no common link. They are somewhat on the dark side, as are Ferris's novels. Brief descriptions follow --
The Dinner Party starts with a husband complaining about the couple he and his wife are having to dinner. But then the couple doesn't show up. The wife is worried, as there is no answer when she tries to phone them, and she then calls hospitals. The husband suggests that he go to their apartment, where he finds a party in progress. But the story seems to really be about a marriage that just is not working.
The Valetudium is about Arty Groys. He and his wife moved to Florida when he retired but just after getting there, his wife is killed in an auto accident. Arty doesn't take it well and does not adjust well to Florida. In fact, he turns into a complainer and grump. So it's his birthday and it isn't until late in the day that he hears from anyone. Arty's only friend in Florida, who he is on the outs with, does remember and pays a hooker to visit Arty and Arty's life is changed.
The Pilot is about a most unconfident actor/writer who seems to live out the pilot he his writing. It is perhaps the saddest story in the book.
A Night Out is mostly about a woman's reaction to her husband telling her he had been seeing another woman but had come to his senses. At least the cheating husband suffers some consequences.
The Breeze starts and ends with the same scenario - a husband coming home early because his wife wanted to do something. Between the beginning and the end, many possible outcomes are portrayed. Another marriage that doesn't seem to be the best match.
In Ghost Town Choir a young boy tries to keep his mother with her most recent boyfriend. You will feel sorry for this child, but not too sorry.
More Abandon (Or Whatever Happened to Joe Pope?) was one of my two favorites. Joe Pope stays late at work because he has no reason to go home. He leaves 15 minutes worth of voicemails on the office phone of a pregnant co-worker he has concluded he loves but then realizes he shouldn't have done it and takes action to stop her ever hearing the voice mails. He also moves all the pigs from one woman's office to the office of a grieving mother and moves the grieving mother's pictures of her murdered daughter to the office where he got the pigs. They are on different floors. He wakes in the morning to find himself wearing another female co-workers's gym T-shirt, hugging the electric guitar of a mail co-worker, and laying on the couch in the office of yet another female co-worker. Just what will happen to him as a result of all this?
Fragments is about another marriage going to hell. Katy does the equivalent of a "butt-dial" to her husband and he determines from what he hears that she is having an affair. Katy is a young lawyer working on a case that is on its way to trial so her husband rarely is awake when she gets home or goes to work. The husband can't face having to divide their possessions so he starts giving them away ... without ever having asked his wife about what was going on.
The Stepchild concerns a husband, a well-known actor, who is sure his wife has left him when she does not return quickly enough after having gone for the Sunday morning bagels. He takes the rather dramatic action of going to the home of a married woman he met two weeks earlier and telling her he loves her. Apparently it is not the first time.
Life in the Heart of the Dead is my other favorite. Some guy is in Prague on business and doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of selling whatever it is he is selling. He knows nothing about Prague and has already been chastised for calling the country Czechoslovakia instead of the Czech Republic. Somehow he gets roped into having a tour of the city on his last day there and he's not too happy about it. But the tour and the tour guide seem to get to him. It was the tour guide with whom I related.
A Fair Price concerns two jerks. One hires the other to help him move the contents of a storage unit to the house of the woman he is about to marry. God help the woman if the marriage actually happens.
The Dinner Party starts with a husband complaining about the couple he and his wife are having to dinner. But then the couple doesn't show up. The wife is worried, as there is no answer when she tries to phone them, and she then calls hospitals. The husband suggests that he go to their apartment, where he finds a party in progress. But the story seems to really be about a marriage that just is not working.
The Valetudium is about Arty Groys. He and his wife moved to Florida when he retired but just after getting there, his wife is killed in an auto accident. Arty doesn't take it well and does not adjust well to Florida. In fact, he turns into a complainer and grump. So it's his birthday and it isn't until late in the day that he hears from anyone. Arty's only friend in Florida, who he is on the outs with, does remember and pays a hooker to visit Arty and Arty's life is changed.
The Pilot is about a most unconfident actor/writer who seems to live out the pilot he his writing. It is perhaps the saddest story in the book.
A Night Out is mostly about a woman's reaction to her husband telling her he had been seeing another woman but had come to his senses. At least the cheating husband suffers some consequences.
The Breeze starts and ends with the same scenario - a husband coming home early because his wife wanted to do something. Between the beginning and the end, many possible outcomes are portrayed. Another marriage that doesn't seem to be the best match.
In Ghost Town Choir a young boy tries to keep his mother with her most recent boyfriend. You will feel sorry for this child, but not too sorry.
More Abandon (Or Whatever Happened to Joe Pope?) was one of my two favorites. Joe Pope stays late at work because he has no reason to go home. He leaves 15 minutes worth of voicemails on the office phone of a pregnant co-worker he has concluded he loves but then realizes he shouldn't have done it and takes action to stop her ever hearing the voice mails. He also moves all the pigs from one woman's office to the office of a grieving mother and moves the grieving mother's pictures of her murdered daughter to the office where he got the pigs. They are on different floors. He wakes in the morning to find himself wearing another female co-workers's gym T-shirt, hugging the electric guitar of a mail co-worker, and laying on the couch in the office of yet another female co-worker. Just what will happen to him as a result of all this?
Fragments is about another marriage going to hell. Katy does the equivalent of a "butt-dial" to her husband and he determines from what he hears that she is having an affair. Katy is a young lawyer working on a case that is on its way to trial so her husband rarely is awake when she gets home or goes to work. The husband can't face having to divide their possessions so he starts giving them away ... without ever having asked his wife about what was going on.
The Stepchild concerns a husband, a well-known actor, who is sure his wife has left him when she does not return quickly enough after having gone for the Sunday morning bagels. He takes the rather dramatic action of going to the home of a married woman he met two weeks earlier and telling her he loves her. Apparently it is not the first time.
Life in the Heart of the Dead is my other favorite. Some guy is in Prague on business and doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of selling whatever it is he is selling. He knows nothing about Prague and has already been chastised for calling the country Czechoslovakia instead of the Czech Republic. Somehow he gets roped into having a tour of the city on his last day there and he's not too happy about it. But the tour and the tour guide seem to get to him. It was the tour guide with whom I related.
A Fair Price concerns two jerks. One hires the other to help him move the contents of a storage unit to the house of the woman he is about to marry. God help the woman if the marriage actually happens.
November 13, 2017
Great Talent in the Writer, Difficult to Like Characters
I graded this on a curve because - it set out what it was supposed to do, which is to tell tales from the perspective of self-involved New Yorkers who seem set on finding a way to not enjoy life.
Great writing, great tales, some experimental, some straightforward New York tales.
Like in 1922 by Stephen King, Joshua Ferris gets better the farther he gets from his primary subject matter. The second tale is probably the best of the lot, about a hard-to-like retiree who finds himself in Florida.
In Fragments he goes experimental and tells the tale from the perspective of someone walking through New York and hearing fragments of others lives.
Ferris is no Callan Wink or Sherman Alexie, where he throws in a reason to like each character, and each tale. He sets out to show a world of self-interested New York types, each of whom finds a way to be unhappy. Set against that goal, he achieves this.
My advice? Give it a few shots - you'll see if you like it pretty quickly. Regardless it's worth a shot.
I graded this on a curve because - it set out what it was supposed to do, which is to tell tales from the perspective of self-involved New Yorkers who seem set on finding a way to not enjoy life.
Great writing, great tales, some experimental, some straightforward New York tales.
Like in 1922 by Stephen King, Joshua Ferris gets better the farther he gets from his primary subject matter. The second tale is probably the best of the lot, about a hard-to-like retiree who finds himself in Florida.
In Fragments he goes experimental and tells the tale from the perspective of someone walking through New York and hearing fragments of others lives.
Ferris is no Callan Wink or Sherman Alexie, where he throws in a reason to like each character, and each tale. He sets out to show a world of self-interested New York types, each of whom finds a way to be unhappy. Set against that goal, he achieves this.
My advice? Give it a few shots - you'll see if you like it pretty quickly. Regardless it's worth a shot.
March 20, 2017
I was sent this book of short stories (out May 2017) by Hachette Book Group. I had it in my library for the past month, and kept pushing it aside for other reads. Earlier this week, I decided to finally read the first of the short stories 'The Dinner Party,' of the books name. Within but I page I was invested not only in the hilarity, irony and sharpness of the plot, writing and characters, but the tone of the tale on a whole. I knew within the first two sentences, that I was in for a real treat c/o author Joshua Ferris's unique, yet consistent writing style, unlike anything I've ever read before.
Each short story lived up to the peak story telling as the last short story and I found myself smiling as I read every sentence, each rich with observation on the mundane; each showcasing how the inner working of our psyche and our inner monologues affect our actions and in turn our relations with others.
From The Dinner Party, I took away the importance of making other people happy, and it sometimes being more central than them knowing the truth. I observed how we get caught up and the 'what if's' and how it can drive us mad. I also was reminded how our relations with some of our closest friends change, when they meet and marry someone we don't get along with; that we don't respect, nor like really at all.
The Valetudinarian: This short story reminded me of an older relative in my life (now deceased) who would spend every convo we shared over the years basking in her misfortune. Her hard life. Her struggles. Her medications. It strained our relationship and resulted in pushing me away, because it was always such a downer. Always the glass half empty. This story is about Arty who, the day after he moved to Florida to bask in his new found and much anticipated retirement, lost his wife in a head-on-collision, which left him unexpectedly alone and bitter and initiated a downward spiral making him a miserable man, who in turn lost all his friends and his grown kids barely talked to him. The story takes place on his birthday and each page the tale gets more obscene, as the one friend he has sends him a prostitute he immediately falls in love with (then chases) even after she left him for dead.
The Pilot: A tale that focuses on a big Hollywood party, and a sober man, who struggles so much with wondering whether or not he was meant to be invited, that it causes him to question himself and all the imagined ways he likely was invited by mistake, that it hightails him off the wagon, leading to his own demise.
A Night Out: Looks at a married couple and a wife whose sixth sense teaches her her husband has been cheating on her. The wife ends up following the woman, then stealing the woman's man from her and hooking up with him, cancelling her husbands cards, and a whole night of madness ensues between her estranged husband, her parents (who they were meeting for a night out with) and another one of his lovers.
*The Breeze: My favourite of all the stories in this book, the breeze looks at a young married couple who, on the first day of spring, want to embark on a night out, that turns into a whole
'What do you want to do?'
'No what do you want to do?' question-off. In each paragraph we look at all the things they could've done and situations they could've got themselves in that evening if they answered honestly, or took a different method of transportation or chose a different spot. It's all very 'Sliding Doors,' and is a reminder at how trapped we get into our heads that we always feel the grass is greener elsewhere, and made me question: Is anyone in this world *truly* happy? We all have so much stuff. So many destructive thoughts and patterns and clouded views that how can we ever just be? How can we ever really value what we have, our privilege, our ability to breath?
Ghost Town Choir: Didn't love this one, but enjoyed the actual writing that allowed me to hear one of the characters voices it was that well written in a very specific tone.
*More Abandon: Also one of my faves in this book. Joe Pope is a well to do man in a good position at a company in a high rise building. But he loves a woman who he works with who is married and oh-so-very pregnant. He needs more from life and its blaseness, so one day he stays after work, and once every leaves the office, he partakes in an array of wilder-by-the-hour activities, as we see him downward spiral and by the next morning, still there, after all his madness, we are left with what will likely be his demise.
*Fragments: A wildly creative and well written story of the fragments of things we hear, whether we've been pocket dialed, are people watching, are overhearing peoples convos when we pass them on the street, or they are next to us on the subway. A hilarious and well thought out tale.
The Step Child: Now this one, up until the very last second had me. I didn't see the great plot twist that would come. This looks at an actor whose wife doesn't come home after getting bagels one Sunday morning (their usual to-do is to eat them in bed while reading the paper every Sunday morning, as lovers do,) and how he has a downward spiral through his thoughts, that lead him to learn that she has finally left him. His helplessness causes him to go to the home of a woman he met a few nights earlier from a gala. It is there (while her kids are out with her husband) that they end up talking about an hour (he feeds her ego, her heart, her hope) and by the end of their hour together they are kissing and can't get enough of each other and she intends to tell her husband when he gets home, so they can now be together. I'll leave it at that because this must read story is so sharp, and the ending will leave you in shock, yet smiling, because you'll totally get it.
Each short story lived up to the peak story telling as the last short story and I found myself smiling as I read every sentence, each rich with observation on the mundane; each showcasing how the inner working of our psyche and our inner monologues affect our actions and in turn our relations with others.
From The Dinner Party, I took away the importance of making other people happy, and it sometimes being more central than them knowing the truth. I observed how we get caught up and the 'what if's' and how it can drive us mad. I also was reminded how our relations with some of our closest friends change, when they meet and marry someone we don't get along with; that we don't respect, nor like really at all.
The Valetudinarian: This short story reminded me of an older relative in my life (now deceased) who would spend every convo we shared over the years basking in her misfortune. Her hard life. Her struggles. Her medications. It strained our relationship and resulted in pushing me away, because it was always such a downer. Always the glass half empty. This story is about Arty who, the day after he moved to Florida to bask in his new found and much anticipated retirement, lost his wife in a head-on-collision, which left him unexpectedly alone and bitter and initiated a downward spiral making him a miserable man, who in turn lost all his friends and his grown kids barely talked to him. The story takes place on his birthday and each page the tale gets more obscene, as the one friend he has sends him a prostitute he immediately falls in love with (then chases) even after she left him for dead.
The Pilot: A tale that focuses on a big Hollywood party, and a sober man, who struggles so much with wondering whether or not he was meant to be invited, that it causes him to question himself and all the imagined ways he likely was invited by mistake, that it hightails him off the wagon, leading to his own demise.
A Night Out: Looks at a married couple and a wife whose sixth sense teaches her her husband has been cheating on her. The wife ends up following the woman, then stealing the woman's man from her and hooking up with him, cancelling her husbands cards, and a whole night of madness ensues between her estranged husband, her parents (who they were meeting for a night out with) and another one of his lovers.
*The Breeze: My favourite of all the stories in this book, the breeze looks at a young married couple who, on the first day of spring, want to embark on a night out, that turns into a whole
'What do you want to do?'
'No what do you want to do?' question-off. In each paragraph we look at all the things they could've done and situations they could've got themselves in that evening if they answered honestly, or took a different method of transportation or chose a different spot. It's all very 'Sliding Doors,' and is a reminder at how trapped we get into our heads that we always feel the grass is greener elsewhere, and made me question: Is anyone in this world *truly* happy? We all have so much stuff. So many destructive thoughts and patterns and clouded views that how can we ever just be? How can we ever really value what we have, our privilege, our ability to breath?
Ghost Town Choir: Didn't love this one, but enjoyed the actual writing that allowed me to hear one of the characters voices it was that well written in a very specific tone.
*More Abandon: Also one of my faves in this book. Joe Pope is a well to do man in a good position at a company in a high rise building. But he loves a woman who he works with who is married and oh-so-very pregnant. He needs more from life and its blaseness, so one day he stays after work, and once every leaves the office, he partakes in an array of wilder-by-the-hour activities, as we see him downward spiral and by the next morning, still there, after all his madness, we are left with what will likely be his demise.
*Fragments: A wildly creative and well written story of the fragments of things we hear, whether we've been pocket dialed, are people watching, are overhearing peoples convos when we pass them on the street, or they are next to us on the subway. A hilarious and well thought out tale.
The Step Child: Now this one, up until the very last second had me. I didn't see the great plot twist that would come. This looks at an actor whose wife doesn't come home after getting bagels one Sunday morning (their usual to-do is to eat them in bed while reading the paper every Sunday morning, as lovers do,) and how he has a downward spiral through his thoughts, that lead him to learn that she has finally left him. His helplessness causes him to go to the home of a woman he met a few nights earlier from a gala. It is there (while her kids are out with her husband) that they end up talking about an hour (he feeds her ego, her heart, her hope) and by the end of their hour together they are kissing and can't get enough of each other and she intends to tell her husband when he gets home, so they can now be together. I'll leave it at that because this must read story is so sharp, and the ending will leave you in shock, yet smiling, because you'll totally get it.
May 13, 2023
The Breeze priča 10/10, ostalo baš prosek. Džošua ne piše loše, ali je nekako dosadno sve zajedno.
May 17, 2017
THE DINNER PARTY by Joshua Ferris is a measured, slow burning book of eleven stories of modern fiction filled with complex, unusual characters that reveal themselves via anxiety ridden situations covering everything from infidelity and rejection to career failure and even murder.
This dour collection of what amounts to urban morality tales does have a smattering of humor peppered here and there among the narratives but on the whole, for this reader at least, it was like sitting through a re-run of that old Ernest Borgnine movie MARTY where the conversations (both verbal and internal) are passive and boring.
Most of the situations are full of antipathy and self –delusion and while the stories themselves may provide some enlightenment as they examine life under a microscope - - one begins to wonder if any of these people would be someone you would want in your own life as a friend or significant other.
Final Word: If you are seeking an uplifting read better move on because this is not it
This dour collection of what amounts to urban morality tales does have a smattering of humor peppered here and there among the narratives but on the whole, for this reader at least, it was like sitting through a re-run of that old Ernest Borgnine movie MARTY where the conversations (both verbal and internal) are passive and boring.
Most of the situations are full of antipathy and self –delusion and while the stories themselves may provide some enlightenment as they examine life under a microscope - - one begins to wonder if any of these people would be someone you would want in your own life as a friend or significant other.
Final Word: If you are seeking an uplifting read better move on because this is not it
June 26, 2017
I am really not sure what to make of this. I want to say the best way to describe it is Newton's Third Law ; "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects."
I interpreted the collection of stories to be a parallel to life's relationships with others and how we can muck them up if we over analyze/fantasize the other's motives for more than what they are. As in real life, most of our responses to others are based upon our past experiences. It is when these characters overly indulge in assumptions and misinterpret actions it gives the reader a " what the heck?" moment... or two.
The short stories occur in different settings and slices of life, but the characters have similar flaws. Each story is based in the present, but the main characters have some type of affair, or flashback to a better time ( in their mind) relieving their past by over-thinking and over- imagining what others think of them, they lose sight of reality. All of the characters in each story act upon their perceptions.
Some stories were more appealing to me than others. None really have "happy endings." I am not a Pollyanna reader that thinks all stories have to have happy forever- after- endings to be strong, well written books. Gone Girl is excellently written, but lacks a "happily ever after" ending. Some of the stories in The Dinner Party seem as if Ferris either became tired of writing about the character and ended the story or wasn't sure where to take the storyline.
This is my first Ferris book, so maybe that is his style?
I interpreted the collection of stories to be a parallel to life's relationships with others and how we can muck them up if we over analyze/fantasize the other's motives for more than what they are. As in real life, most of our responses to others are based upon our past experiences. It is when these characters overly indulge in assumptions and misinterpret actions it gives the reader a " what the heck?" moment... or two.
The short stories occur in different settings and slices of life, but the characters have similar flaws. Each story is based in the present, but the main characters have some type of affair, or flashback to a better time ( in their mind) relieving their past by over-thinking and over- imagining what others think of them, they lose sight of reality. All of the characters in each story act upon their perceptions.
Some stories were more appealing to me than others. None really have "happy endings." I am not a Pollyanna reader that thinks all stories have to have happy forever- after- endings to be strong, well written books. Gone Girl is excellently written, but lacks a "happily ever after" ending. Some of the stories in The Dinner Party seem as if Ferris either became tired of writing about the character and ended the story or wasn't sure where to take the storyline.
This is my first Ferris book, so maybe that is his style?
June 17, 2017
Everything I've read by Ferris has been solid. This is no exception.
November 16, 2018
Loved these beautiful stories, each one a gem.
August 6, 2018
3.5 rounded down. One of his stories makes references to a book he wrote, Then We Came to the End. Men sure don't look good in these stories.
I love to read short stories, but I hate reviewing them...so I'll paste a bit from a review from the Guardian by Marcel Theroux:
In his first short story collection, the Man Booker-shortlisted American author Joshua Ferris presents a bouquet of egregious male doofuses. Behind a deadpan title – “Fragments”, “The Breeze”, “A Fair Price”, “The Stepchild” – each of the 11 tales in The Dinner Party anatomises a particular variant of 21st-century masculine folly.
The stories are constructed with great care, combining beady-eyed observation with farce, black comedy and occasional moments of lyricism. Ferris never tells us in so many words that his protagonists are awful – except in an acknowledgments page, where he’s careful to let us know that they don’t resemble him – but their selfishness, narcissism, neediness and moral idiocy are the recurring notes of the collection.
On the opening page of the fourth story, “A Night Out”, faithless husband Tom is headed into town with his wife Sophie for dinner with her parents. The narrator offers us these sentences about Tom: “Slogging out of the subway, they passed a fat woman on the stairs begging help from anyone willing. Tom absentmindedly rubbed the downy dollar bill folded in fourths between his fingertips. A found thing: he had been worrying it since they left Cobble Hill.”
The reader is meant to notice that it never occurs to Tom to give the money to the homeless woman. At the climax of the story – after a marital argument, a rejected credit card and a farcical encounter with a former lover – Tom will himself be reduced to begging in order to fund his journey home.
I love to read short stories, but I hate reviewing them...so I'll paste a bit from a review from the Guardian by Marcel Theroux:
In his first short story collection, the Man Booker-shortlisted American author Joshua Ferris presents a bouquet of egregious male doofuses. Behind a deadpan title – “Fragments”, “The Breeze”, “A Fair Price”, “The Stepchild” – each of the 11 tales in The Dinner Party anatomises a particular variant of 21st-century masculine folly.
The stories are constructed with great care, combining beady-eyed observation with farce, black comedy and occasional moments of lyricism. Ferris never tells us in so many words that his protagonists are awful – except in an acknowledgments page, where he’s careful to let us know that they don’t resemble him – but their selfishness, narcissism, neediness and moral idiocy are the recurring notes of the collection.
On the opening page of the fourth story, “A Night Out”, faithless husband Tom is headed into town with his wife Sophie for dinner with her parents. The narrator offers us these sentences about Tom: “Slogging out of the subway, they passed a fat woman on the stairs begging help from anyone willing. Tom absentmindedly rubbed the downy dollar bill folded in fourths between his fingertips. A found thing: he had been worrying it since they left Cobble Hill.”
The reader is meant to notice that it never occurs to Tom to give the money to the homeless woman. At the climax of the story – after a marital argument, a rejected credit card and a farcical encounter with a former lover – Tom will himself be reduced to begging in order to fund his journey home.
September 19, 2017
While this author's writing didn't really fit me, I couldn't help but admire the style. He has this very interesting way of slowly drawing you into a false sense of security with the story (you think you understand the characters and how things are developing)...and then there comes a curious sentence that keeps you pondering for the next page or two....and BAM! Things take a drastic turn and you suddenly are taken aback by the surprise that just hit you.
March 23, 2018
E' un libro che va inserito nel solco della grande tradizione americana del racconto (vedi Hemingway, Cheever, Bukowsky, soprattutto Carver ecc.), quando in Italia è risaputo che la narrativa breve non va (lo stesso Cognetti nato come scrittore di racconti, pur di avere successo si è cimentato, seppure con qualche iniziale difficoltà, anche con il romanzo). Questa raccolta ha il pregio di aggiungere nuova linfa e di affrontare problemi, soprattutto di incomunicabilità, quanto mai attuali. Purtroppo però non incide molto e alcuni racconti addirittura sono sconclusionati. Purtroppo non raggiunge le vette di un D'Ambrosio o di un Saunders.
April 11, 2020
4.25 Stars - Brilliant, simply brilliant! The Novella itself is a masterpiece, brooding with tension yet funny, real & is undoubtedly one of the most quintessential 21st century Novella OR short stories I’ve ever read..
There are other gems that follow, and whilst they may not feature the same shrines the title piece has, that’s no criticism!
Never mention GR scores ordinarily but come on, this 3.44 rating on GR is CRIMINAL!!!
There are other gems that follow, and whilst they may not feature the same shrines the title piece has, that’s no criticism!
Never mention GR scores ordinarily but come on, this 3.44 rating on GR is CRIMINAL!!!
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