Een man zijn

by Nicole Krauss, Rob van der Veer (Translator)

Wat betekent het om man of vrouw te zijn? Op de vloer van haar slaapkamer bij een hospita vertelt een tienermeisje haar vriendinnen over de zakenman die haar een briefje van 500 franc gaf, met daarop zijn hotelkamernummer. Een oude professor, die op het randje van de dood balanceerde, vlucht met zijn pasgeboren kleinkind naar het dakterras van een appartementengebouw. Twee zussen keren terug naar huis voor het scheidingsritueel van hun ouders. Een moeder belt haar dochter op om te vertellen dat ze een nieuwe echtgenoot toebedeeld heeft gekregen van de overheid.

Een man zijn is een onvergetelijk boek dat onder de huid van de lezer kruipt. Krauss schrijft meesterlijk over man-vrouwverhoudingen, over wat het betekent om vrouw te zijn, om man te zijn.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Jewish, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Literature

278 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2020

About the author

Nicole Krauss is an American author best known for her four novels Man Walks into a Room (2002), The History of Love (2005), Great House (2010) and Forest Dark (2017), which have been translated into 35 languages. Her fiction has been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, and Granta's Best American Novelists Under 40, and has been collected in The Best American Short Stories 2003, The Best American Short Stories 2008, and The Best American Short Stories 2019. In 2011, Nicole Krauss won an award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards for Great House. A collection of her short stories, To Be a Man, was published in 2020 and won the Wingate Literary Prize in 2022.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave up on Nicole Krauss’s last novel, Forest Dark. After 100 pages, I wasn’t connecting to the characters and I found it a chore to read. Maybe it was my mood at the time - who knows? However, that didn’t keep me from wanting to read this collection of short stories because I loved The History of Love and Great House. I was hoping to find some of what I connected with in those novels and the beautiful writing. I wasn’t disappointed.

There’s a lot about being Jewish here and I had to look up a few things and a few words, but you don’t have to be Jewish for these stories to resonate or to connect with these characters because the themes are ultimately about what it means to be human. It’s about men and women, their relationships with one another, about regrets, grief, divorce, love, the power of sexuality, about aging. There are wildfires and potential threats to the air we breathe striking us as we face the reality of such things . Krause takes the reader on journeys from Switzerland to Tel Avi to New York to California, but also takes us on journeys of these characters’ hearts

I can’t say that I loved all of the ten stories equally, but there were several that I found to be just so gripping. “Zusya on the Roof” was for me one of the touching of the stories. A man’s brush with death causes him to look into himself and his life and “the life of his people—the three thousand years of treacherous remembering, highly regarded suffering, and waiting “ and is at a loss for what legacy and wisdom to give to his newly born grandchild. In “I Am Asleep but My Heart Is Awake”, a young woman grieves her father’s death, ponders his life and hers and comes to a place of peace with the presence of a stranger. I found “Future Emergencies” to be a bit chilling as gas masks were distributed for the possible need. “I wondered how long it would be until we knew what it was we were going to need to learn to protect ourselves from, or if it was too late...”

“Amour” was one of the most affecting stories. A refugee camp, why we love who we love. “The absurdity of believing that the decisions about who we love, and who we bind ourselves to, could ever be arrived at rationally....Or did she mean the absurdity of having once believed in the possibility of dedicating one’s life to anything beyond tomorrow, beyond just surviving? “ “ To Be a Man” , a former officer in the Israeli army is one of the characters in this thought provoking story. “...it was then that he noticed the pairs of children’s shoes. Three or four pairs lined up at the entrance, little rubber sandals like he and his brothers used to wear ..” I held my breath . I won’t say more other than these stories deserve to be read. I just might have to go back and try Forest Dark again.

I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.

[Roxane]

Exceptional writing but not my cup of tea. First and last stories were the strongest.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

A buddy read with Violet....

I genuinely enjoyed each of the ten stories. A LOT!!!
I hope Violet did too.
We will discuss them privately together.

These stories resonated with me emotionally and intellectually.
It’s my 2nd favorite Nicole Krauss book next to “The History of Love”....( one of my favorite books of all times)....

From the United States, Israel, Europe and Japan, ....most of the short stories are contemporary. The one that wasn’t— “Amour” —
I let go into a cry. I almost couldn’t take the depth of hurt...and thoughts that surfaced.
All that I was crying over was the gift of kindness.
With my own grief right now... it was a cry I had been avoiding...
Nicole Krauss’s Holocaust short story in a refugee camp got to me more than it might have if I wasn’t already tender myself.
It was soooo beautifully written - yet painful to read!

General themes found in the stories are.....
Love, sex, intimacy, desire, tragedy, loss, legacy, hypocrisy, sorrow, death, deportation, absurdity, men, aging, women, couples, lovers, marriage, births, family, children, divorce, fires, war, fragility, Jewishness, history, brokenness, ambition, corruption, regret, fear, grief, loneliness, kindness, .....

From the story:
“I Am Awake But My Heart is Asleep”...
I felt so much warmth for a woman and a stranger. The mystery still sits with me.
The stranger - Boaz - cooked, and did laundry... washed the woman’s underwear!
I giggled! I said to myself...
“Hey, stranger...you can sleep in one of our spare rooms ...
just keep cooking”. 🫑🧅🍳🧀🍞
I adored “I Am Awake but My Heart is Asleep:
It was so visual for me. I’d love to see a movie made from it.
“I follow him at a distance down the street. He passes under a mulberry tree, so I pass. He crosses to the other side, so I cross. He stops to look up at a tall building they are raising, and I too stop to look up, and it seems to me that I could go on doing this for a very long time, shadowing a life”.
“We walked for almost an hour. But I don’t mind, I’ve always been a good walker. My father used to say that even as a little girl I would walk very far and never complain”.

Here’s a teaser (a tidbit from “End Days”)....
Fires were burning thousands of acres— homes destroyed — trees burning— thousands of people were forced to evacuate— and two firefighters reported having lost their lives.
A wedding was happening at the same time —no matter what.
Two-hundred and fifty people were expected.
Noa was delivering the wedding flowers to the house the day of the wedding— while only a few miles away people were losing their homes and dying in a brutal fight against the fires burning.
The mother of the bride bitched that the flower arrangements that Noa brought were too small.

From the story “Future Emergencies”.....(people are being asked to wear masks)
This quote hit home:
“The radio! It gives the news a greater impact, and increases the drama of beginning another day in a world I’ve grown use to but know can change at any moment”.

From “Switzerland”....( the first story in the collection)...
“She had gone further than anyone I knew in a game that was never only a game, one that was about power and fear, about the refusal to comply with the vulnerabilities one is born into”.

From “The Husband” ...
“Roots are sown in two places and can never grow deeply enough in either”.

In many of the stories - characters were grappling with their hearts in Israel... but they lived in the United States.
“Always on the plane back to Israel Tamar feels the excitement of finally going home, only to land and remember why she left”.

One of the things that stood out for me, were the things ‘not written’.....yet were deeply felt as if they were.

Nicole Krauss did a tremendous job. She’s so darn talented!!
I’m left with much to contemplate.
I could go on and on.... chatter about the other stories—
“Seeing Ershadi” was a fascinating story too -
a dancer with a bad ankle was symbolic with greater issues....
.... I haven’t even mentioned the title story, “To
Be A Man”, yet...
But I can’t give the main dish away.
I’ll chat more with Violet.

Grab this book... it’s worth reading!!

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been more than five years since I found myself swept away by Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love. As is my usual habit when I adore a book, I quickly added her backlist to my poor to-read list. After neglecting those for too long, I found myself drawn to this more recent(ish) offering of her short stories instead. This was perfect for what I needed with my distracted mind at the moment – little bite-sized offerings of her artistry. These stories are more structurally straightforward than what I recall encountering previously. For me personally, that’s a plus when it comes to a short story. Too much artifice, no matter how much I admire such trickery, doesn’t work well for me in a shortened narrative. There are ten pieces included here. I couldn’t find a disappointing one in the bunch, though several naturally stand out more than others.

“It sounds cold, but later I experienced this myself: the sudden disassociation that comes with the fear of realizing how intimate you have been with someone who is not at all what you imagined but something other, entirely unknown.”

As in the first story titled “Switzerland”, many of the characters find themselves in vulnerable positions or in moments of self-realization. Most of the time Krauss depicts the perspective of a woman’s relationship with someone else, often a man or perhaps a parent. Some truth about another (or oneself) has been exposed in some way, and this woman has to come to terms with this new reality. There exists a palpable thread of melancholy throughout. The settings vary widely around the globe – from the Americas to Europe to Israel. One of my favorites, “I am Asleep but My Heart is Awake” (fabulous title!), deals with a daughter’s grief after her father’s death. While looking at photographs and reflecting on her life with her father, she begins to heal through an unusual and rather intimate, though not sensual, encounter with a stranger. I love the beauty and the ache of so many of those passages.

“In the last photo, his arms are thrown out, and he is laughing in a desert that stretches behind him forever. It fills me with longing, as if I, too, had been there long ago, or as if part of me goes on being there, or maybe it’s just the feeling that I would give anything to meet him there, to stand face-to-face with him, a mirror image of the desert stretching behind me forever.”

Other stories in this collection deal with coming-of-age and sexuality. Some are brief recognitions or glimpses of violence. All highlight specific moments in time, even if the realization of the significance comes to make more sense much later on. With some self-reflection, I’m sure we can all point to examples of those times when something has happened to us, perhaps not even some huge event, but something more subtle. The impact resonates quietly over time. We might one day look at someone differently or wonder whether we knew him or her as well as we thought all along. There’s a story here that is rather eerie given recent occurrences in the world. In “Future Emergencies”, citizens are told to wear their gas masks at some point in time (post 9/11.) A young woman wonders what it would be like to be with someone other than her lover. When the lover puts on his gas mask, the feeling is reinforced as she imagines she is now looking at a complete stranger.

“Though the life we live together now feels like the only one I know, there are moments when I still imagine another life, with different things in it. A life with someone who is not Victor, and who is nothing like him.”

The title story is one I will remember for quite some time, even if it was a bit fragmented. I had hoped that it would be a more structurally sound piece to finish off the collection. Even if it wasn’t quite that for me, I found it very potent. “To Be a Man” examines masculinity and its potential for violence, specifically in relation to the narrator’s German boxer boyfriend. Together they discuss whether or not he would have been a Nazi had he been of age during World War II Germany. Also explored is the transition from boy to man through the lens of a parent. The piece is intelligent and thought-provoking, as are all of Krauss’s stories. How women relate to men is the very basic theme at the heart of these stories. I believe it will appeal to both men and women alike, particularly if you like reflective reading and exquisite prose. This was an excellent book, but I do have to admit that even in the two weeks since I finished this, a few of the details have muted. What I won’t forget, however, are the emotions I felt while reading this! Four stars it is.

“… a person can happen to you and only half a lifetime later does this happening ripen, burst, and deliver itself.”

“How much time we wasted believing that things came to us as gifts, through channels of wonder, in the form of signs, in the love of men, in the name of God, rather than seeing them for what they were: strengths we dragged up from the nothingness of our own depths.”

“What is the good of expansiveness if one doesn’t expand? What is the good of so much possibility if one only feels it as a widening in the chest while driving down a country road at dusk…”

[Violet wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I could go on reading Nicole Krauss's stories all year. I love the quality of her intelligence.

All these stories are about crossroads moments in a history, moments in which we are vulnerable to changes of heart. Sexuality, as pathfinder of fate and identity, as a means of both fortifying and tearing up roots, plays a big part in many of the stories. As does the latent propensity for violence in men. In one story a woman asks her German boyfriend if he would have been a Nazi. He replies in the affirmative because, he says, he likes to serve and when he serves he also likes to excel - perfect SS material. He adds the doubtful disclaimer that he could never though kill innocent people. In another story a girl's boyfriend puts on a gas mask and becomes in an instant a terrifying stranger to her.

Two stories I especially loved. The Husband is the story of a daughter's draconian censorship of her widowed mother, her refusal, in the form of hyped moral indignation, to allow her mother the same liberties she allows herself. I Am Asleep but My Heart Is Awake is a story about a daughter mourning the death of her father who goes to his apartment in Israel where a man she doesn't know lets himself in and makes himself at home there. Her initial reaction is moral indignation - more than one of Krauss' women in this collection are prone to this scarcity of generosity in their feeling- but she soon becomes obsessed by him. There was only one nondescript story - about a landscape gardener's assistant in an unnamed south American country. It was an idea - the crimes buried under ornamentally costructed surfaces - that she never gave dramatic life to.

A buddy read with the gorgeous Elyse who loved it too.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spanning the globe, these ten stories are told with an elegance, a hallmark of Krause's voice. Relationships, connections, events, moments in life that are memorable, re expound within. Whether portraying teenagers or people in fearful circumstances, her characters thoughts, feelings seem authentic. There are moments of beauty mixed with sadness, regret mixed with triumph.

I enjoyed all of these, but as usual some more than others. The title story is probably her strongest but the story that has stayed with me is titled, Amour. It is far from your typical story about love since it takes place in a refugee camp and features a young women who is in terrible health. Yet, she remembers love and love is shown to her in this camp. It is sad, ugly circumstances, yet there are moments of wonder and the prose, phrasing is amazing.

"I want to say that the movies she blew into our minds with her magic-lantern words achieved their higher form, their highest, with everything else she stripped away from them."

A collection to cherish for those who love this authors writings.

[Emily B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic writing and interesting characters but I just couldn’t really connect to these stories

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author and I enjoyed all ten stories in this collection.
The stories take place in New York, Tel Aviv, Berlin and several other locations and examines such topics as..relationships between men and women, passion, growing older, sex, power, and self discovery.. to name a few.
A powerful and smart collection!
I’ll be reading more of this author.

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.7] These are challenging, melancholic stories about men and women, mostly emotionally repressed, during pivotal times in their lives. At times I had difficulty connecting with the characters. The author is often perched up high at a distance, describing their lives with contemplative coolness.

Two of my favorites are about young women, on the cusp of adulthood: Switzerland, about the narrator's friend Soraya's misadventures and End Days, about a teen grappling with her parent's divorce in the middle of a California wildfire. Others are less successful. Future Emergencies was unconvincing, Seeing Ershadi felt derivative of Paul Auster without the intrigue and In the Garden and Amour were too esoteric for me.

I loved The Husband which captured so well the feelings of displacement that Tamar feels when returning to her mother's Tel Aviv home. Similarly, I Am Asleep But My Heart Is Awake resonated with me. To Be a Man, the title story, brilliantly touches on "manhood" through stories about the narrator's German boxer boyfriend, her Israeli friend's marriage and her own young boys. The more I think about it, the more I like this collection.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's safe to say Nicole Krauss will never write another History of Love. Her vision of the world can no longer, it seems, accommodate the wealth of mischief characteristic of that novel. Her intelligence has become more suspicious and probing. There's something ambivalently menacing about every male in these stories. They might mean well; on the other hand they may not. You have to read the story through to the end to find out. The best three stories in this collection are brilliant. A couple of the others less successful. But I greatly enjoyed this book. 4+ stars.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had some mixed experiences with Nicole Krauss but I felt more connected to her characters in these short stories than I usually am in her novels. I had listened to her interview with Michael Silverblatt on KCRW Bookworm, but still was not prepared for how much Israel is a central location for these stories, largely Tel Aviv. It did add its own element that helped them feel more distinct. It is an interesting choice, to focus on all male characters and how they relate to the always female narrator.

My favorites were:

"I Am Asleep but My Heart is Awake," about a woman in her father's apartment after his death, a place she had never seen but she starts to realize was his actual life, as opposed to the part of his life he spent with her. Oof.

"End Days" about marriage, divorce, and just the perfect ending

"The Husband" and it's not what you think.

I did have a copy from the publisher through NetGalley; this collection came out November 3rd.

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything Nicole Krauss writes is gold to me, including my favorite of hers Great House. Dubbed the best Jewish writer since Kafka, Krauss is highly regarded by many. When I found out about her new to me short story collection, I knew it was a must read even though I am not usually a fan of short stories. Thus the collection got neglected until the Jewish book club here on Goodreads made it one of their monthly choices. Finally I would be reading another Nicole Krauss book and hopefully not be disappointed.

Krauss’ premise in the ten stories in this book is what is means to be a man, mainly a husband or father. A lot of the characters began to feel the same, and the majority of stories dealt with divorce after a generally happy marriage and two kids, leading me to wonder if she is still not over her divorce from equally prominent writer Jonathan Franzen Foer. Checking the index, I noticed that only two of these stories are new, most being published in magazines and journals over the last fifteen years, primarily the New Yorker, including Zusya on the Roof which I previously read. Interestingly enough, Zusya, which did not focus on divorce but rather a father’s relationship with his two grown daughters, was still one of my favorites in this collections, even after reading it previously.

Perhaps I could not connect as well as some other readers because my Jewish convictions are different than Krauss’ and I’ll leave it at that. I found Switzerland disturbing, Future Emergencies , Amour, and In the Garden to be intriguing but not my taste at best. Future Emergencies is Krauss’ response to 9/11 , which many New York based writers felt an obligation to focus on following the horrific events. It was their means of grieving and cleansing. Still as the story again touched on divorce I found myself aggravated by the piece, hoping that maybe one story in this collection would not mention divorce, although sadly I would be mistaken.

Besides Zusya, I enjoyed End Days and The Husband. Although these two stories featured divorce as a main theme, because they are a little longer, there is more character development, my main issue with short stories as a whole. Once I first become invested in the characters, the story is over. In End Days we meet Noa who is living on her own after her parents amicable divorce. She has visions of traveling on her own after high school and is an independent teenager, which in a culture that promotes being adolescent as long as possible I found refreshing. In The Husband both Tamar and her mother Iliana are newly single, the former through divorce, the latter widowed. Yet, the development of their family made me smile, especially Ilana, an independent older woman. These two stories I would love to see Krauss revisit and make into full length books; every time I wish this of a shorter story, it does not come to fruition, and I have to learn to be satisfied with the denouement in a thirty page piece.

Nicole Krauss will always rank among one of my favorite writers. Short stories as a whole are not one of my preferred genres, and I have to learn to appreciate the writing in the short pages that each story entails. This collection focuses on divorce, husbands, fathers, family dynamics, and how women cope in the end. While not new writing all the stories come together to meet this overarching theme. This collection left me aggravated yet I did savor the writing because Krauss is who she is. I hope I have another of her full length novels to savor soon.

4 ish stars, should be less but Nicole Krauss is still Nicole Krauss :)

[Chavelli Sulikowska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicole Krauss is a formidable story teller and I have consistently enjoyed her work. This collection of short stories, all depicting men at various 'cross roads' is no exception. She writes with insight and style in the male voice - no one would ever assume the author is female.

While all the stories are noteworthy, I particularly enjoyed I Am Asleep but My Heart Is Awake - a truly moving tribute from a grief affected daughter to her estranged father.

I never cease to be amazed at the skills of talented short story writers - I feel they are much underappreciated in relation to their novelist counterparts (not that Krauss hasn't proved herself as a reputatble novelist also). I think it is much much more challenging as a reader to fully connect with short story characters (is that not why we read novels though?).

For me, short stories are rewarding rather than enjoyable or fulfilling so to speak. I find them fascinating from a 'writer's craft' point of view - I enjoy unpacking and examing all the detail that goes in (as much as what is left out) to what should be super tightly structured plots. The character development and even language (which must be pruned to the bare minimum) is for me, secondary to the stylistic method. This is saying a lot, because for me, language/prose is probably my number one criteria when I read anything at all - even the news - it must, must, must be well written.

I admist, until now, I have not been much of a short story reader - most likely because I hadn't come across the best of them. I'm reading the short stories of Chekov and Turgenev at the moment - so yeah, short story heavyweights, and for certain that is raising the bar!

What are your favourite short story collections or authors?

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a dazzling collection of short fiction exploring what it means to be in a couple, and to be a man and a woman in that perplexing relationship and beyond. In one of her strongest works of fiction yet, Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.

The way these stories mirror one other and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: aging parents and new-born babies; young women’s coming of age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold. To Be a Man illuminates with a fierce, unwavering light the forces driving human existence: sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, growing older. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krauss’s stories are at once startling and deeply moving, but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength.

This is a deeply thought-provoking and emotionally resonant anthology featuring ten interconnected stories that hold your interest throughout. Exploring those at different stages of their life cycle, there is hope and hopelessness, beauty in sadness and rumination on the all too fleeting transience of life itself, which although nothing new Krauss manages to make it all feel refreshingly original. Beautifully written and sharply observed, Krauss builds on the success of her previous works and illustrates why she is a force to be reckoned with. Simply exquisite. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

[Anastasia Ts. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Λοιπόν... βρίσκομαι καπου στο 3.5 κ 3.8 στα αστερια. Καποια διηγηματα μ άρεσαν πάρα πολύ, καποια με προβλημάτισαν ακομα περισσοτερο κ καποια απλά μ άρεσαν. Θα τα αναφερω αναλυτικα στο βιβλιο της Δευτερας... θα επιστρεψω σύντομα

[Iulia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Cât timp poate să mai continue situația asta? mă întreb. Dar, chiar în clipa când mă gândesc la asta, în adâncul sufletului știu că lucrurile pot să o mai țină așa mult și bine. Că mă voi obișnui să pășesc, în drum spre bucătărie, peste trupul străinului, pentru că așa ne ducem noi viața, trecând cu indiferență peste asemenea lucruri până când nu mai sunt o povară, și e posibil să uităm cu totul de ele."

"Oamenii care ajung la noi de nicăieri și din neant nu sunt decât atât: un dar primit, din câte știm, fără să-l fi cerut, noi doar minunându-ne de felul cum viața ne dăruiește mereu câte ceva."

Nu am înțeles inițial unde duc povestirile Nicolei Krauss, (*de fapt nici nu mi-am pus problema aşa) doar m-am bucurat de lecturã ṣi de acel feeling cã au fost scrise ṣi pentru mine. Cu acea discreție care derivã din inteligențã, Nicole Krauss ne împinge sã gândim ṣi sã acceptãm ideea cã nu putem trãi fãrã sentimentul libertății individuale chiar ṣi când suntem în cuplu (*mai ales atunci!). Asta-i viața“, zic eu, sau încerc să spun, „care se desfășoară mereu pe atâtea planuri, simultan“.. Încercãm mereu.

[Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short story collections. It's one of my favorites way to read. This was very different. Unique doesn't do it justice. I enjoyed it, although some stories were a bit hard to get through. I like things that make me think, and this definitely did that.

[Bonnie G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicole Krauss is a favorite author of mine; even when Krauss's books are very flawed (like her last book, Forest Dark) they are a still a joy to read for those of us who appreciate good writing. I was so happy to find that in her new short story collection Krauss is consistently near the top of her game, and occasionally transcends what I would classify as her highs. (The Great House and History of Love are two of my favorite books, so her highs are pretty high IMO.)

In TBaM Krauss repeatedly returns to that central character with feet placed firmly in both Israel and in NY, cursed by that particularly Jewish one-two-punch of having your Jewishness being absolutely central in your life while also being an Atheist. It's frustrating and confusing and sometimes leads to hard athletic sex with burly Germans. (I get you grrrrrl!) Krauss also takes the opportunity to revisit her divorce. Intellectually I cringe at the artistic mileage she and JSF have gotten out of that divorce. The ongoing novelization of their split has lead to some really good stuff, this book and JSF's Here I Am are both exceptional, and also to not so good stuff (the aforementioned Forest Dark.) But as a reader there are times I feel like a voyeur, and not in a good way. Watching them is the opposite of sexy. Both of them write books that seem like psychological dick pics. As a reader I find myself in the middle of some character's self-analysis, and all I can think is "Ew, put it away, I did not ask to see THAT!" That said, I am never going to ding a writer for showing too much of herself when the product is quality.

This is a cohesive and impactful collection. If Forest Dark was Krauss wading through her divorce, this book is the process of her dealing with the aftermath. The writing? Well, damn! For the most part it simply could not be better. Krauss has a knack, like Laurie Moore, of entering and exiting stories at weird and perfect times, which leave you thinking hard about what happened before and after. That is a favorite thing for me, and I have seen many writers try and fail to do the same. Krauss is a master. As with any collection some stories are better than others.

The first story, Switzerland, is one of the best short stories I have ever read. It is downright masterful how in this tiny glimpse we see the dawning of sexuality through the eyes of a father, an adolescent girl and later through that girl's eyes when she herself is a parent. All those perspectives are on the page with such truth and completeness and complexity. Other favorites were I am Asleep but My Heart is Awake, which made me think about my choices with respect to men and relationships after having been entirely focused on being part of a unit from the age of 13 into my 40's. Zusya on the Roof was also wonderful. It crystalized the tension between Jewish tribalism and personal autonomy.

End Days was compelling, and despite the fact I don't think it fully came together I still thought it extraordinary. It was so close, I understood and felt where she was going. I loved the use of wildfires as existential threat and looming destruction and also as necessary for a bit of resurrection. But in the end the "resolution" did not make sense for me. Though the denouement made perfect sense as an act for the character, it did not work as an endpoint for the whole story. I also wanted to understand the parents' choices better. The parents here are so self-involved, and unempathic, and really just such shitty parents, that it was hard to reconcile them with their daughter's rosy view of them. Since those parents seemed so much like the parent characters in JSF and Krauss' books about their divorce, I assume they were the models for the parents. I needed Krauss to explain them to me a little in this story to round out the whole but I think that would take some self-actualization she not yet be capable of (but should be capable of given the amount of time she has clearly spent on self-analysis.) It was frustrating but again, still exquisite. To Be a Man also left me wishing for something more to connect some threads, while also still being a compelling and disturbing story.

Overall this is a high 4 on average, but not quite perfect enough to push me to 5. It is mostly great though, it really truly is.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seven of these 10 stories were previously published in periodicals like the New Yorker and Atlantic between 2002 and 2020. Ironically, the oldest story, “Future Emergencies,” ended up feeling like the most contemporary because, though it’s set in the aftermath of 9/11, it features gas masks and other disaster preparations. “End Days” takes up the apocalyptic tone with its California fires and a divorce (but counterbalances them with a wedding and a new relationship), while “Amour” involves an unspecified future refugee situation. Split roughly equally between the first and third person, the stories are melancholy and complex, often with several layers of Jewish family history and a few different settings. New York and other major U.S. cities feature, but Europe and Israel are almost always points of reference, and film is frequently mentioned, too (e.g. “Seeing Ershadi”). Overall, I think the collection could do with a more evocative title, but the title line alludes to the Israeli requirement for military service – being a man is being a soldier, like it or not. My favorite was probably the odd one out, “Switzerland,” about a daring friend from boarding school.

[BookOfCinz · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit underwhelming...

I wanted to read this book because:
1. I always love reading collection of stories
2. I loved Nicole Krauss' book The History of Love
3. I liked the title of the book.
Yes... My reasons for reading a book are pretty shallow but... here we are. Honestly, I did not enjoy this collection, I felt a lot of the stories were not sharp or interesting. I particularly enjoyed Switzerland, Amour, To Be A Man but even with me enjoying them I would not say they were strong 5 star reads.

Yeah.... thats my review.

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first story is an absolute gem. It's about the compelling fascination a sexually precocious young girl exerts on her school friend. Throughout this book Nicole Krauss provides brilliant insights into the female sensibility and psyche.

[Jennifer Blankfein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read a ton of short stories (I did love We Love Anderson Cooper by R.L. Maizes), but I was excited to read To Be a Man by Nicole Krauss because I adored one of her earlier novels, The History of Love. With beautiful writing, and rich, complex characters, Krauss manages to fit it all into each story of this lovely collection.

Influenced by history and her personal connection to Israel, Krauss addresses what it is to be a man through sex, power, passion, violence, self discovery and aging. Her characters exemplify human weakness and strength, whether they are lovers or strangers. One of my favorite stories called Zusya on the Roof is about a man who virtually died and then came back to life while in the hospital. He recovered from his illness enough to make it back home, just in time to attend his grandson’s bris. He carried the weight of the Jews from years past, and although he had the desire to impart sound advise to his grandson before the ceremony, he was overwhelmed with the responsibility and his mind drew a blank. Another favorite, Future Emergencies, was written by Krauss in the months following 9/11 but remains relevant today. It is about a couple living in NY and hearing on the radio that everyone must wear a gas mask. Protection was needed yet they were not told what the threat was. They stocked up at the grocery store and were provided instructions on how to seal up the windows. People were walking around town in fear with masks. Wow, this story was more true to life than I’m sure Nicole Krauss ever imagined when she was writing it.

Each of these layered short stories presents interesting characters, relationships and circumstances and I wished many of them would have continued on. My book group enjoyed To Be a Man and had engaging conversation. We talked a bit about Nicole Krauss and her relationship with her ex-husband, Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. There is much to say about the fine line between love and violence, freedom and pain, and the ongoing power shift between men and women. I definitely recommend this short story collection. Follow Book Nation by Jen for more reviews and author Q & As.

[Ρένα Λούνα · Rating 4 out of 5]

Σας έχει τύχει να σας αποπλανήσει κάποι@ που είναι βαθύτατα θλιμμέν@; Αυτή είναι η ευκαιρία σας.

Βέβαια, δεν έχω ιδέα πως νιώθει η Krauss, αλλά αυτή η αίσθηση έμεινε ριζωμένη μέσα μου, σαν κάτι βαρύ, οικείο και βαθιά προσωπικό. Είναι μάλιστα το πρώτο δικό της που πιάνω (στην αρχή την μπέρδεψα με την εκπληκτική Chris Kraus) και η ανθολογία της μου τα τίναξε όλα, όπως παθαίνω πάντα με το ήρεμο μίνιμαλ, που κυλάει σαν μια Τετάρτη που όλα σέρνονται και πότε τελειώνει η ρημαδιασμένη η βδομάδα;

Το να διαβάζω την Krauss σήμαινε να θέλω να ανακαλύψω τον κόσμο κάποιου καινούριο ανθρώπου από το μηδέν. Τι σημαίνει απώλεια για εσένα; Πότε κατάλαβες πως αυτό αγαπάς; Ποιο είναι το χειρότερο πράγμα που ποτέ έκανες; Σε αγαπάνε οι γονείς σου; Πέθανε ποτέ κάποιο κατοικίδιό σου; Πόσο συχνά σκέφτεσαι πως θα πεθάνουμε; Τι σημαίνει να είσαι άντρας, τι σημαίνει να είσαι γυναίκα; Σαν κάποια καινούρια φίλη που ταίριαξα από το πουθενά να μου έλεγε όλες τις ιστορίες της και να ήθελε να ακούσει τις δικές μου. Να λέγαμε όσα ντροπιαστικά κουβαλάμε και όσα ονειρευόμαστε να γίνουμε. Σαν μια φίλη που ξέρεις πως έχει γερό στομάχι και θα σε αντέξει, ενώ ανυπομονείς να της δείξεις με τη σειρά σου, από τι υλικό είσαι φτιαγμένη.

Αλλά αυτό αφορά εμένα και ��εν είναι αντικειμενική διαπίστωση. Εάν στοχεύαμε εκεί, θα λέγαμε πως η συγγραφέας παίρνει χειρουργική πένα και πιάνει την υδρόγειο από Ελβετία μέχρι Λ.Α. και από Υόρκη μέχρι Τελ Αβίβ, τοποθετώντας ανθρώπινους ρόλους, μητέρες και πατέρες, κόρες και γιους, σε μεταφυσικές σκηνές πόνου μέσα από το φύλο τους. Ακούγεται απλό, αλλά φυσικά και δεν είναι. Θέλει τρομερή παρατηρητικότητα και ευαισθησία για να μπορείς να κάνεις αυτό που μας σέρβιρε, έτσι δήθεν σαν ένα ακόμα βιβλίο με ιστορίες.

«Η Σ. με το χνούδι στο πάνω χείλος και το λοξό αϊλάινερ και το γέλιο της, εκείνο το βαθύ γέλιο που ανέβαινε από την κοιλιά της όταν μας έλεγε για τη διέγερση του ολλανδού τραπεζίτη. Θα μπορούσε να την είχε σπάσει στα δύο με το ένα του χέρι, αλλά είτε εκείνη ήταν ήδη σπασμένη είτε δεν επρόκειτο να σπάσει ποτέ».

[Will Ansbacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love Nicole Krauss’s writing style … sentences so artfully constructed that you need to parse them out to reveal the underlying meaning. Mostly melancholy and reflective, the theme running through these ten short stories is of women questioning their relationships with their men.

Best of all was The Husband, which concerned – like many of her stories – a New York Jewish woman with an Israeli background. Despite being herself a liberated and self-directed woman, she doesn’t react well when her widowed mother in Tel Aviv takes up with a man who enters her life in rather quirky circumstances. The sly humour here is what made it really sparkle.

There is pathos and tenderness in I Am Asleep but My Heart is Awake. Another NY woman mourning her father’s recent death is spending time in his Tel Aviv apartment - which she never even knew about until after he died; it was a part of his life he’d never shared with her. But another guest arrives - Boaz, an old friend of her father’s, who often stayed there when in town. Although initially affronted by his intrusion, she finds she comes to accept his presence. Boaz is kind but detached and I wondered whether he was in fact her father’s ghost.

Future Emergencies also takes place in NY, when gas masks are suddenly distributed for an unspecified emergency: it feels very prescient. A couple try on their new masks with a bit of apprehension while trying to adapt to an unknown situation. But wearing them lets the narrator see her partner in a different, more threatening light and she is forced to re-evaluate their relationship.

Another shorter one Amour is set in the dystopian future of a refugee camp where the narrator meets an old friend Sophie, now chronically ill, who she hasn’t seen for many years. Sophie relates how she came to realize, when a friend made a small casual gesture of kindness, that her relationship with her lover was going nowhere.

Zosya on the Roof concerns an old and argumentative man, by nature remote and intellectual who feels excluded from - or at least outside - his wife and daughters’ lives; he suddenly sees in his newborn grandson an opportunity to … what? He realizes he doesn’t really know at all.

The title story was pretty good too. The “man” is the narrator’s friend Rafi who relates during a car trip an incident from when he was in the Israeli Army, and the unintended consequences when he and his wife embark on an open relationship. But there are other men too – her lover, a German boxer (who, she wonders, would he/could he/ have been a Nazi in the 30s), as well as her father and her sons. It’s narrated in both the first and third person, which makes the continuity a bit jarring but I think that was the intention.

I also quite liked End Days and the first story, Switzerland, where young women are shown taking control of their lives.

The only two that I felt were less successful were In the Garden, an exploration of how a famous landscape architect is forced into compromises in an authoritarian state, and Seeing Ershadi, an atmospheric piece about encountering a famous Iranian actor.

Both of these were built on too much artifice, and actually I felt all these short stories were rather too carefully constructed: I know writing is hard work but the results should seem effortless or spontaneous to the reader – exactly the way I felt about The History of Love in fact - and these don’t quite have that. 3 1/2 stars.

[Roula · Rating 3 out of 5]

"... Mονο που τωρα υπαρχει η επιγνωση οτι οι ανθρωποι που φτανουν κοντα μας απο το πουθενα και το τιποτα δεν ειναι παρα μονο αυτο : ενα δωρο που το δεχομαστε δίχως να γνωριζουμε οτι το ζητησαμε, απορωντας, καταπληκτοι με τον τροπο που η ζωη δινει ξανά και ξανα.. "


Για να ειμαι απολυτα ειλικρινης, δεν εχω καταληξει ακομη στο αν μου αρεσει σαν συγγραφεας η Nicole Kraus. Εχω διαβασει ακομη ενα βιβλιο της, το οποιο δε μου αρεσε καθολου και με το ζορι το τελειωσα, ωστοσο η γραφη της εχει κατι που σιγουρα δε σε αφηνει ασυγκινητο. Γιαυτο το λογο, αλλα και για αυτο το υπέροχο εξωφυλλο, οταν βγηκε αυτό το βιβλιο, αποφασισα να δωσω αλλη μια ευκαιρια στην αναγνωστικη μας σχεση. Το αποτελεσμα με βρισκει ακομη πιο μπερδεμενη, καθως απο τα 10 διηγηματα που αποτελουν αυτή τη συλλογη, μου αρεσαν τα μισα, ενω τα υπολοιπα ηταν απλα αδιαφορα. Κι εξηγουμαι λέγοντας πως κατα τη γνωμη μου η Κραους ξερει να γραφει και μάλιστα καλά, ωστοσο σε πολλες περιπτωσεις μου βγαζει οτι τα δινει ολα σε αυτη την πενα που διαθετει και ενω μαγευεσαι αρχικα στην πορεια λες, οκ πού θα το παει απο αποψη περιεχομενου, περιμενεις κατι να σε κρατήσει, αλλα αυτο δε συμβαινει.. Οχι παντοτε.. Τα διηγηματα που μου αρεσαν, μου αρεσαν πολυ, σε σημειο που θα εβαζα 5 στο καθενα από αυτά, αλλά αυτα που δε μου αρεσαν, ηταν εως και εκνευριστικα βαρετα. Για ολους αυτους τους λογους δίνω ενα γενναιοδωρο..
🌟🌟🌟/5 αστερια
Υ. Γ. Τα διηγηματα που μου αρεσαν: ο Ζουσια στη στεγη, εγω κοιμομουν μα ξαγρυπνα μου η καρδια, βλεποντας τον ερσαντι, μελλοντικες εκτακτες αναγκες, και το αγαπημενο μου, ο σύζυγος...

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this short story collection. I've never read anything by Nicole Krauss, and I'm happy I did because she is a fantastic writer. There's 10 stories in total but unfortunately, I only enjoyed 5 of them. The highlights were: "Switzerland", "I Am Asleep but My Heart is Awake", "End Days", "Seeing Ershadi", and "Future Emergencies".

I really tried to enjoy the other 5 stories but I kept getting distracted. The storytelling was a little wonky and lacked excitement. I also think the synopsis was a little confusing. I've read much better short story collections than this one, but I would gladly read anything Nicole Krauss' publishes in the future. She's got a way with words.

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins for the digital ARC.

Release date: November 3, 2020

[Jolene · Rating 4 out of 5]

The truth is that I almost DNF'd this collection after the first two stories. It wasn't that they weren't good. They were just so ...basic. It felt like I had read them before. Probably because I happen to have read quite a few titillating stories about disaffected young people who make bad decisions but are really just doing their best, you know?

I'm so happy I kept reading though because A) there are some real gems here and B) I don't think I had ever read contemporary fiction so situated in a Jewish American world. They're not stories about Judaism, but the protagonists are almost always second generation Jewish Americans, often with families overseas and complicated feelings about Israel and Palestine. In one of the collection's most compelling stories "The Husband," the protagonist's mother, who lives in Tel Aviv, takes in a strange man brought to her by Social Services, claiming he is her missing husband who had been a refugee in Hungary. Her mother isn't missing her husband -- he passed away a few years prior -- but the mother lets him to stay. She's happy. She is hesitant to reveal any of this to her daughter, Tamar, who can't sleep once she finds out:

[I]s there really no end to the uses and abuses of the Holocaust they will come up with? Here they are, riffing off a deep emotional chord in the country's history, playing on the moving stories her mother's generation grew up with, which happened far too infrequently but were so often told, of fathers and husbands, wives and sisters, lost during the war and presumed dead, only to be miraculously dredged up by the Red Cross and reunited with their loved ones. Rescued from the lost and the dead in some hellish DP camp, packed onto a boat to Haifa, and in a moving ceremony of the impossible becoming possible, the unreal becoming real, which after all was to be the hallmark, the speciality, of that about-to-be-born country, delivered into the arms of the one who lost them, who presumably never took them for granted again. And now here was Social Services, or Special Services, or whatever they called themselves, claiming even now, seventy years on, to be turning up, in the form of little old men in shapeless hats, all the love that was lost? And, so that no opportunity for hypocrisy should be missed, at the very same moment when they were sending their agents out with a plan to thrust these unclaimed old Jews into other people's homes and hands, they were sending out the police to round up the Sudanese in Florentine for deportation, and to pluck out of their homes Filipino children who had been born in Israel, whose first language was Hebrew and grew up singing "Ha'Tikva," to throw them into jail before kicking them out of the country they'd grown up in for good. What kind of fools did they think they were dealing with? (176)

The story is about the legacy of the Holocaust but also about the relationship between mothers and daughters and distant fathers and #FOMO and what really makes a family. It's beautiful.

So come for "The Husband." Stay for "To Be a Man" about relationships and (toxic) masculinity and how sons become men, "Seeing Ershadi" about a woman who becomes kind of obsessed with the actor Homayoun Ershadi from the movie Taste of Cherry, and "Future Emergencies" about relationships and art and gas masks and whom we allow to see us.

[Jan Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

How are these better than other short stories?

First of all, are they? Maybe I was primed to think so because Nicole Krauss also wrote The History of Love. Reviewers were saying this new collection was second only to that and was more like it. I hadn't read any of her intervening books, although I'd read about them. I have heard her speak several times recently.

I have not been loving short stories lately, although I did as a teenager--but certain ones: Sherlock Holmes. Jeeves and Wooster. Or was it Saki? Lately, the ones I've read have seemed lacking, for the most part. Even the ones by authors whose books I've read. When I read them in magazines they leave me empty.

A novel gives more room to maneuver.
If endings are hard, then in short stories those difficulties are more so.

But the short stories in this collection are different. They aren't perfect. But they're complete in themselves. Maybe they don't try to do too much. Maybe they are simpler.

As for not being perfect, about every other story started out as Greek to me. I didn't know what it was talking about. Most of those contained a reference to something unknown to me. Looking up the unfamiliar reference, it turned out, helped. In the end I could make sense of all but one.
Luckily I have a group discussion coming up. Maybe someone else saw the light on that one.

How half of these stories came across clear and half murky is a mystery.

Speaking of mystery, just because a story was clear to me didn't mean it necessarily was straightforward or realistic.

Several of the stories were for me about a significant influence on the protagonist's life, that is, a person or occurrence that ended up shaping the character's entire life. I love that subgenre and at first thought that was going to be the case for all these stories, but apparently not so.

Several of the stories waved a red flag of impending physical danger that distracted me, then surprised me with danger that came instead from inside the protagonist. Several times the foreboding external setting is left unexplained, leaving me wondering what was going on in the background while the story was unfolding.

One friend was aware the author had gone through a divorce and thought the stories were about divorce. They certainly are about relationships, maybe marriage.

My husband thought they were about danger (or thought one of them was, anyway).

I think these stories are like a multifaceted gem and whoever reads them will see a different facet. At any rate, a gem of great worth.

At bottom, I don't know why I love them like I do, I just do.
https://www.google.com/search?q=i+don...

[MimbleWimble___ Elli Maria Moutsopoulou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η Nicole Krauss, σε διάστημα 20 χρόνων, έγραψε δέκα διηγήματα στα οποία φρόν��ισε να θίξει όσα περισσότερα ζητήματα μπορούσε. Και τα κατάφερε. Με επιτυχία. Και από μένα είναι Ναι.
Δε μιλάει συγκεκριμένα για άντρες, μάλιστα αυτό με έκανε να απορήσω για την επιλογή του τίτλου(ο οποίος προσωπικά με απωθούσε και με έβαζε σε διαδικασία αμφισβήτησης). Δε μιλάει ούτε για γυναίκες. Ο κατάλληλος για εμένα τίτλος θα ήταν «Τι σημαίνει να είσαι άνθρωπος», χωρίς τη διάκριση του φύλου, γιατί τελικά είμαστε όλοι ίσοι, άλλωστε σε αυτό το συμπέρασμα οδηγείσαι αν βρεθείς αντιμέτωπ@ με τις ιστορίες της.
Η συγγραφέας καταγράφει με δεξιοτεχνία τα συναισθήματα των ηρώων της, τις ανθρώπινες σχέσεις, τις στερεοτυπικές αντιλήψεις αλλά και τα θρησκευτικά, πολιτικά, κοινωνικά, ταξικά πλαίσια. Μέσα από ένα ταξίδι στον χρόνο και στο χώρο, γνωρίζουμε ήρωες άλλοτε στην ακμή και άλλοτε στην παρακμή τους. Οι ίδιοι αναζητούν το Εγώ τους, φιλοσοφούν για όλα εκείνα που μας κάνουν ανθρώπους, για τις αδυναμίες και τα τρωτά μας σημεία. Επιζητούν αλλά και απαρνούνται την αγάπη, τη φιλία, τον έρωτα, τον πόλεμο, το σεξ, τα γηρατειά, τις ασθένειες, τον θάνατο, τη γέννηση, τη μητρότητα, την πατρότητα, την ομοφυλοφιλία, τη μονογενεικότητα, το χωρισμό, την πίστη, τη φροντίδα, τη μετανάστευση, την προσφυγιά, τη ματαίωση, την απόγνωση, τη μοναξιά, την ανιδιοτέλεια, το χάσμα, τον σεξισμό, την πατριαρχία, τους φράχτες και τις μάσκες. Άλλοτε οδηγούνται σε συμπεράσματα κι άλλοτε μένουν μετέωροι ανάμεσα στα «θέλω», τα «πρέπει» και στην πραγματικότητα του «εδώ και τώρα».
Η Krauss γράφει ρεαλιστικά, δεν ωραιοποιεί, καταφέρνει να απογυμνώσει κάθε ύπαρξη και πίσω από τους άπειρους συμβολισμούς της σου δίνει στο πιάτο τη σαπίλα, θυμίζοντάς σου παράλληλα, πως τελικά η ζωή είναι ρόδα, γυρίζει και σου δίνει τους καρπούς της ξανά και ξανά. Κι όπως η ζωή έχει «τα πάνω και τα κάτω», έτσι και οι ιστορίες της.. άλλες σε κερδίζουν περισσότερο άλλες λιγότερο, όμως κάθε μία αποτελεί μια διαφορετική εμπειρία που διαβάζεται και ερμηνεύεται ποικιλοτρόπως.
Επίσης, δε λείπουν οι αναφορές στη Ναζιστική Γερμανία, στη Λατινική Αμερική αλλά και στον Ισραηλινό Ιμπεριαλισμό, υπογραμμίζοντας σε λίγες μόνο προτάσεις τις κτηνωδίες που έχουν διαπραχθεί.
Τελικά, το προτείνω αυτό το βιβλίο;
Μονάχα σε αυτ@ που αγαπούν τα διηγήματα, τους συμβολισμούς και τα αινίγματα, σε αυτ@ που αντέχουν να διαβάσουν ένα βιβλίο που απαιτεί το μυαλό να τρέχει με εκατό, που θα είναι σε εγρήγορση να ερμηνεύσουν κάθε λέξη και κάθε μήνυμα που κρύβεται πίσω από αυτή, στους δουλεμένους με τα κουτάκια της κοινωνίας, στους αρνητές των «ροζ σύννεφων». Θα το χαρακτήριζα εύκολα ένα βιβλίο «έκρηξη ιδεών».
Ωστόσο, θα χαιρόμουν επιπλέον αν υπήρχαν αναφορές και σε άλλες ομάδες ανθρώπων, αισθάνθηκα ότι πρόκειται για μερική προσέγγιση του «ανθρώπινου».. είναι μπόλικα ακόμη αυτά που οφείλουν να ειπωθούν σε τέτοιες ενδοσκοπήσεις, η «συμπερίληψη» είναι το μαγικό κλειδί. Ίσως σε μια επόμενη συλλογή της..

[Martina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starnúci rodičia a novonarodené deti. Dospievanie a s ním spojená trochu mätúca sila novoobjavenej sexuality. Generačné rozdiely. Nezabudnuteľné okamihy života. No najmä vzťahy. Vzťahy medzi mužmi a ženami, rodičmi a deťmi, vzťahy k ostatným i k sebe samému...

Či už si myslíme, že o ľudskej existencii vieme všetko, nemusí to byť zákonite tak. Čo totiž znamená byť človekom? Čo znamená byť mužom či ženou?

Nicole Krauss vo svojej najnovšej zbierke poviedok otvára dvere práve tej neznámo-známej entine menom človek a dovoľuje nám nahliadnuť na javy, psychiku či okolnosti, ktoré nás formujú. Vášeň, moc, sex, násilie, dospievanie i starnutie, sebapoznávanie.

Či už Krauss stvárňuje dospelých alebo tínedžerov, ľudí relatívne spokojných alebo takých, ktorí sa zmietajú vo víre zmätku, frustrácie a nezávideniahodných situácií, ich pocity i myšlienky vykresľuje tak hodnoverne, až si nemôžete pomôcť, musíte sa s nimi stotožniť.

Kraussovej príbehom, ktoré čitateľom podsúva s istou elegantnou razantnosťou, nechýba hĺbka - miestami sú dojemné, miestami zarážajúce, kĺbia v sebe radosť aj smútok, ľútosť aj triumf. Odhaľujú ľudské slabosti aj silné stránky, prepájajú v sebe vieru s beznádejou, rozjímajú o prchavej pominuteľnosti života.

Pre niekoho je Nicole Krauss už „stará známa“, záruka kvality či skvelého zážitku - pre mňa bola „novinkou“ a po prečítaní Byť mužom sa len s ľútosťou pýtam, prečo sa naše cesty nepreťali skôr? Výborná.