Si un inconnu vous aborde

by Laura Kasischke

« C’est pour ça que Mona était à présent agenouillée devant le tiroir du bas en train de retourner les soutiens-gorge et les culottes de sa fille. À cet instant, elle palpait les différents articles sans penser y trouver quoi que ce soit, mais pour autant, ne fut pas si surprise quand elle mit la main sur la chose. »

Laura Kasischke explore un nouveau genre avec ces nouvelles étranges, dérangeantes, ironiques, qui sont autant d'uppercuts à nos aliénations quotidiennes.

Quinze courts récits pétris de névroses, de rancœurs et de concours de circonstances malheureux. Un genre où l’écrivaine américaine excelle. Marine Landrot, Télérama.

Tout dérape vers l’imprévisible dans une prose feutrée et hypnotique. Sophie Pujas, Le Point.

Un condensé saisissant du meilleur de son art. Florence Noiville, Le Monde des livres.

Traduit de l’anglais (États-Unis) par Céline Leroy.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, The United States Of America

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 12, 2013

About the author

Laura Kasischke is an American fiction writer and American poet with poetry awards and multiple well reviewed works of fiction. Her work has received the Juniper Prize, the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Prize, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award for Emerging Writers, and the Beatrice Hawley Award. She is the recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as several Pushcart Prizes.

Her novel The Life Before Her Eyes is the basis for the film of the same name, directed by Vadim Perelman, and starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. Kasischke's work is particularly well-received in France, where she is widely read in translation. Her novel A moi pour toujours (Be Mine) was published by Christian Bourgois, and was a national best seller.

Kasischke attended the University of Michigan and Columbia University. She is also currently a Professor of English Language and of the Residential College at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She lives in Chelsea, Michigan, with her husband and son.

Reviews

[Good Books Good Friends · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tout Laura Kasischke dans des nouvelles, j'ai retrouvé en condensé tout ce que j'aime chez cette auteure.

[Suzanne Cohen Hard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The full review appears in the Fall 2013 issue of the journal Gently Read Literature. http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2013/...

"In the much-lauded Laura Kasischke’s first collection of short stories, If a Stranger Approaches You, the author investigates the role our perceptive inadequacies and past injuries play in our actions. She asks whether humans are equipped to function without harming themselves or others.

Kasischke (pronounced Ka-ZISS-kee), does not have a particularly uplifting view of humanity. Quite to the contrary, many of these stories resonate with some of humanity’s lowest points in modern history-- the holocaust, totalitarianism, terrorism, and the poverty and displacement of the recent world economic crisis. Along with her stories that explore more abstract themes, such as the relationships between citizens and the government in a totalitarian regime, as in Our Father, she also presents stories that touch with great accuracy and detail upon close familial relationships, as in the first piece, Mona.

The settings in this collection vary in time and place, and are not particularly determinative of the story; it seems the author has purposely left these details vague. The works are arrayed at all points on the realism spectrum, sometimes in the same piece where the dividing line between the real and the surreal is not entirely clear, as in The Flowering Staff. All of these stories are written in a well-plotted and articulate fashion, with uniquely-constructed descriptions that are a pleasure to read."

[Zoeytron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Goodreads giveaway, my first. Also my first review. This book is made up of 15 short stories, most of which I found to be just so-so, made only slightly better by a hint of the bizarre in each. A couple of the tales started off with good potential, but finished on random notes. Weirdness simply for the sake for being weird doesn't work for me. There were two of the stories, however, that were particularly haunting. "Somebody's Mistress, Somebody's Wife" was crazy good. I turned back to the beginning of the story immediately and read it a second time. It was most unusual. "Melody" was the other story that is staying with me. It is a tale of a man's obsessive love that seems to be slowly evolving into madness as a marriage stutters and fails. The longer stories were more successful than the shorter ones.

[David Edmonds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura Kasischke continually impresses me with her writing. From my first experience with her writing, [The Life Before Her Eyes], to this latest volume, her first collection of short fiction, she has continued to grow in her storytelling ability. Truthfully, I don't usually enjoy short fiction. For me, there is never enough time to become invested in the characters or what if happening to them before the story is over and I'm usually left wanting more. Kasischke, however, proves that she is just as capable of writing short fiction as she is novels, and also left me wanting more, but in a completely different fashion. While usually I fell there isn't enough in a short story to make it worth my while, Kasischke's story make me feel like there is almost too much, and that each of these stories could easily be fleshed out into a longer, more involved story, yet they work perfectly as they are.

I took down some brief notes on each story as I was reading them, so I will just copy those here:

Mona - "First story in and I'm reminded why Laura Kasischke is one of my favorite authors. Eerie."
Memorial - "Haunting"
Melody - "Obsessive love crazy"
Our Father - "This has to be an idea for a longer story. There is so much potential here!"
Somebody's Mistress, Somebody's Wife - "What the what?! I don't even understand and I love it. This is particularly what I'm enjoying most about these stories: sometimes they make no sense whatsoever, and I'm good with that."
Joyride - "A love story. Of sorts."
The Foreclosure - "Obsessive craving meets ghost story."
Search Continues for Elderly Man - "Death can come visiting in many forms."
The Barge - "Probably my least favorite of the collection. Not even sure how to explain anything about the story."
You're Going to Die - "The relationship between a parent and child is not always loving."
The Flowering Staff - "Family isn't always something that needs to be shared."
The Prisoners - "Again, another story that has a lot of potential to become something more."
I Hope This is Hell - "Sometimes you just need to get away from your life."
The Skill - "Knowing you can take a life and knowing when not to."
"If a Stranger Approaches You about Carrying a Foreign Object with You onto the Plane" - "Everyone has heard this phrase at the airport. But what if it really happens to you?"

Kasischke is a skilled artist at taking the mundane, everyday world and skewing it just enough to keep it recognizable but totally foreign. There is a disturbing familiarity to the world in her writing, yet parts are so strange that they almost seem like a dream, and these stories are no exception. There is a common thread of loneliness or despair throughout, but in some ways, I almost think these stories in some ways speak to our times. I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but even though these stories do seem a little skewed and not entirely grounded in reality, there is still an element of truth to them.

Highly recommended!!

[Michael Estey · Rating 5 out of 5]

written by Laura Kasischke
Her first collection of fifteen short stories.
The title of the book:

If A Stranger Approaches You

The title of the last story in the book.

A book review...

I don't think you can get any better than this. Each story well written in an easy to read, style. Rivoting! Each story with it's own twisted ending. Each story leaving you miffed, bewildered, surprised! Each story unique. Of life's little fleeting moments.

Laura gets to the meat of her subject, quickly! Makes her surprise known. Then lets the stories end. No dilly-dallying. No frills. Exactly what you want, and all you need.

These fifteen stories have the ability to stir emotions. You feel the empathy, the love, the sorrows as if they were your own. Once you read the first story, Mona you'll understand what I mean.

What is this? I had to read the next story, Memmorial right away. Weird!

I couldn't put it down, after that!

I don't mean weird in a scary way. More, thought provoking. More, psycho dramatic. More Alfred Hitchcock'ish than Hitchcock himself.

I give it five stars out of five *****

You won't be disappointed.

Michael Estey

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things I liked: I enjoyed the darkness and starkness of the majority of the stories, she does a great job developing characters within this format that I can relate to and interpret. Her prose is magnificent and her descriptions and metaphors are striking and brilliant even if what they allude to isn't pleasant. She is one of my favorite descriptive authors as I can really visualize the scenes she sets in both picture and tone.

Things I didn't like: Overall, it seemed to me that is was a collection of stories and ideas that never really took off in long form and were cut short. What others describe as open ended, I saw more as hurried conclusions or lack of suitable closure; some of the endings just didn't seem to fit the story. Perhaps that is my naïveté as a reader or a lack of appreciation for her style in this format

[Brittany · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book through the First Reads giveaway program on Goodreads.

Reading the previous reviews, I guess I'm the only one who didn't like this collection. Like the book I read before this, it was horrible! What luck I have! The stories in this book were good ideas, but left you wondering what the heck was going on. The stories rambled on and on and on and on about nothing really important and didn't give the details needed for the important things.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Des nouvelles étranges, douces amères... j'adore.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura Kasischke has written a really odd set of stories - many of which made me feel like she had written a good beginning or middle, but never got around to the end. You get to figure out the end as you drive off the bridge that you didn't know you were on, trying to finish the thought just before you hit the cold purple water that will envelop you.

And, even if that is odd or disquieting, we get to have images like "Here, there we hundreds and thousands of cicadas humming invisibly overhead, making a somehow shiny and impenetrable music, the kind of music an orchestra full of mirrors might have made."
- or -
"The wind seemed to move around in the mouths of these official men at our door, as if they'd been wolfing down nothing for so long they couldn't keep it from coming back out."

I dug it, you might too.

[Prpages · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recieved this as part of the goodreads first reads giveaway program as a free giveaway. This stories in this book seem to have one thing in common which is the people in it, or the main character. Each story seems to be set on the grounds of lonliness, obssession, worry, loss, relationships or failing of past realtionships, or the failure or decline of the American dream, it also has a lot of refrences to childhood issues as well. It is an imaginativley and wonderfully crafted book, that I managed to read in one sitting. It is both personal and gripping. It can be a bit srange at times or can seem to be confusing and can at times be a bit hard to follow. But all in all three and a half stars for this book. My favirote short story in this book was probably "The Barge"

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivating book of short stories - two of them really hit home for me. "Melody" about a man going through a divorce who is still in love with his wife yet succumbing to some serious anger issues and "The Foreclosure" about a young financially-struggling wife who dreams of a day they can own one of the cute, charming homes in neighborhoods close by her own. Author Laura Kasischke has a definite talented eye for culling life's nitty gritty details and drawing you in, as if you were there. I love her writing, even though some of the stories were a bit odd and obtuse to me.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite a mix of stories. Melody, one of the stories and actually the longest, was one I really enjoyed. The first story in the book I wish someone else would read and let me know what they thought, because though I liked it, I am not sure what it meant. These were a mix of family malfunctions and other things, obsessive love, non trusting mother, and other things like a zombie and some magical realism thrown in for good measure. Interesting, some good, some just okay.

[Melissa Seitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantasy, magical realism, & richly-developed characters. Some of these stories will make you wonder about your neighbor or the person behind you in the store. I enjoy stories that make me wonder what might happen next.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

sign of a great writer is the illusion that she is not even really trying. that the people, settings, emotions, are true, are real, are her relating histories of her life. that is what this book is like. even has a zombie, and an "arab".

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of short stories by Laura Kasischke. I really like this author and I loved these quirky stories. They are all quite dark. My favourites were Somebody's Mistress, Somebody's Wife and especially, You're Going To Die. Definitely twisted but I loved them.

[Cathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Although some stories were a bit surreal for my taste, Mona, Melody, I Hope This is Hell, and If a Stranger Approaches You about Carrying a Foreign Object with You onto the Plane, were brilliant. The title story was beyond chilling, and the writing throughout was exquisite.

[Natasha Small · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok but the stories didn't hold me, very intellectual and blah.

[Alex-Mot-à-Mots · Rating 4 out of 5]

15 nouvelles composent ce recueil, chacune paru dans une revue différente au cours des années.

Ce qui fait leur point commun : la vie de banlieue américaine.

Parfois avec un humour féroce, l’auteure nous parle du quotidien de la banlieue middle-class américaine sur laquelle elle porte un regard décalé réjouissant.

Il y a toujours un peu de mystère et d’étrange dans les romans de Laura Kasischke, que l’on retrouve plus ou moins selon les histoires.

Certaines m’ont laissé indifférentes, d’autres m’ont mis mal à l’aise, d’autres encore sont tellement décalées qu’elle m’ont paru peu crédibles, d’autres enfin sont tellement réalistes.

J’ai parfois aimé ce côté décalé, parfois pas du tout. J’en conclue que je préfère ses romans, dans lesquels elle installe une atmosphère plus homogène.

L’image que je retiendrai :

Celle du bras coupé d’un des personnage, emporté par un automobiliste.

http://alexmotamots.fr/si-un-inconnu-...

[David Erik Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kasischke writes absolutely excellent first halves of stories! Does anyone know when the companion volume—with the conclusions to these stories—is die out?

All snark aside, while I’d easily four or five star much of this, almost every story (save one, perhaps two) falls into the Lit Fic short story trap of mistaking an interesting Complication for a Resolution. That annoys the hell out of me. If I wanted to make up the rest of the Resolution and then compose a Conclusion, I’d just write my own story. This is shelved as “Fiction,” not “riddles/puzzles/sudoku”.

That said, “The Skill” *is* a complete story, well-balanced in its construction, thrilling in its concision, and almost brings the whole collection up to four stars on its merits alone. When Kasischke connects, she delivers the KO blow.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The molestations and rape were disturbing. I think they were meant to be. But they were disturbing in a realistic-feeling kind of way; it was unsettling, and that’s the worst I have to say about this book. Overall, the collection is deliciously dark and odd and unexpected. Each voice and narrative feels different from the one before it. Each story makes the strange feel normal. This is a compliment.

[Agathe · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'ambiance des romans de Laura Kasischke se retrouve totalement dans ces 15 nouvelles. Bien souvent la fin est laissée en suspens laissant au lecteur le plaisir d'imaginer. Le tout dans une ambiance tout à fait dérangeante. Un bon moyen de la découvrir.

[Amanda Morris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. Short stories are good for my current attention span, and I adore Kasischke's prose, but I really dislike unresolved endings and this book is chock full of them. The stories would be much more satisfying if at least some of them had a conclusion.

[Lee Entrekin · Rating 4 out of 5]

delightful reading

I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. The writing is excellent, and the characters are real. Many of them left me with an incomplete feeling, though. I wanted to know more of their stories.

[Gilles Russeil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nouvelles où la vie quotidienne d'américains moyens se heurtent ou non à l'étrange. Drôles, ironiques et trop courtes

[Dorothée Moisan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Julie lit pour les autres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laura Kasischke est une autrice américaine de qui je lirais pas mal tout, y compris une réinterprétation du bottin téléphonique. On reconnaît son style si particulier dans ce recueil de nouvelles : des images inspirées, un enfoncement graduel dans l’angoisse existentielle dont on tente de s’éloigner par nos activités quotidiennes frénétiques et surtout cette ambiance feutrée, presque confidentielle, qu’elle a le talent d’installer. D’un personnage auquel il serait facile de s’identifier, l’autrice nous emmène doucement vers ce qui anime le monde souterrain de celui-ci. Nous ne sommes jamais bien loin des névroses, de l’anxiété, des peurs et des pensées intrusives. Et soudainement, le monde ne fait du sens qu’à travers le regard de ce personnage.

Même si j’ai apprécié la plupart des nouvelles de ce recueil, je ne suis pas certaine que ce genre littéraire nous permette d’apprécier pleinement le talent de Kasischke. Le roman, lui, offre tout l’espace nécessaire au lecteur pour expérimenter ce glissement graduel vers le sentiment d’étrangeté et de malaise. La première nouvelle du recueil, en ce sens, m’a beaucoup plu : simplement intitulée « Mona », elle met en scène une mère inquiète, qui fouille dans les tiroirs de la commode de sa fille, à la recherche d’un objet ou d’un signe d’une potentielle fêlure dans la vie de son ado sage et rangée. Elle y trouvera quelque chose qui aura l’effet d’une petite explosion et qui nous plongera soudainement dans le cauchemar.

Pour qui souhaiterait découvrir les œuvres de cette autrice, je suggérerais d’abord de lire ses romans. « Esprit d’hiver » est un endroit dérangeant et glaçant où commencer.

[DENISA HOWE]

This book was filled with several short stories that hit you in the gut, heart or mind. The majority of them were rather good. They are not straight forth stories but ones that left some to your imagination and let your own attitudes, mind and heart finish. They are not happy, a glad perfect ending as life itself doesn’t always have the scripted endings we desire. The author reached out and pulled you into several separate little worlds with issues all their own and some will remind you of yourself in a certain point in time, or someone close to you. I personally love short stories, ones you can easily finish over lunch or waiting for someone or something. Some stories are better than others but over all a stirring read.
I bought this book via Amazon and am excited to add it to my personal library.

[Xilks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read most of the stories in this collection for class. I will say that I like her short stories a little more than her novels, just because there's less time to mess around with writing long descriptions that only circle the same subject over and over. And yet, as beautiful as those words can be, they try my patience. Here, there is less of that and still that strange, unsettling tone that is found all throughout her work. I probably wouldn't have picked this up on my own to read if it hadn't been assigned for a class.

If you like strange and slightly "off" stories, I'd say this was a read for you, if you're not so into the "almost reality, but not" type of short story I'd probably not recommend this to you.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

OLA I like a short story collection when I travel, when I have only an hour or so to read and then go on with other tasks. I found myself wishing several of the short stories were actually a novel.

As I started to enter the book into goodreads, I read the author info. I have college friends in Chelsea, Michigan, not so recently however.

I will look forward to more. Also, the publisher sarabandebooks.org a non profit literary press.

[Peapod · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked her stories. They were really creepy and unsettling. The sometimes left me wondering what the fuck had actually happened and that was great. I love it when writers make you use your brain. The creep factor and the disturbing feeling you get with most of these stories is fantastic. A great and quick read.