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What I Didn't See: And Other Stories
*Running Time => 6hrs. and 23mins.*
In her moving and elegant new collection, New York Times bestseller Karen Joy Fowler writes about John Wilkes Booth’s younger brother, a one-winged man, a California cult, and a pair of twins, and she digs into our past, present, and future in the quiet, witty, and incisive way only she can.
The sinister and the magical are always lurking just below the surface: for a mother who invents a fairy-tale world for her son in “Halfway People”; for Edwin Booth in “Booth’s Ghost,” haunted by his fame as “America’s Hamlet” and his brother’s terrible actions; for Norah, a rebellious teenager facing torture in the Shirley Jackson Award winning “The Pelican Bar” as she confronts Mama Strong, the sadistic boss of a rehabilitation facility; for the narrator recounting her descent in “What I Didn’t See.”
With clear and insightful prose, Fowler’s stories measure the human capacities for hope and despair, brutality and kindness. This collection, which includes two Nebula Award winners and some stories which have been significantly rewritten since first publication, is sure to delight listeners, even as it pulls the rug out from underneath their feet.
©2010 Karen Joy Fowler (P)2021 Tantor
In her moving and elegant new collection, New York Times bestseller Karen Joy Fowler writes about John Wilkes Booth’s younger brother, a one-winged man, a California cult, and a pair of twins, and she digs into our past, present, and future in the quiet, witty, and incisive way only she can.
The sinister and the magical are always lurking just below the surface: for a mother who invents a fairy-tale world for her son in “Halfway People”; for Edwin Booth in “Booth’s Ghost,” haunted by his fame as “America’s Hamlet” and his brother’s terrible actions; for Norah, a rebellious teenager facing torture in the Shirley Jackson Award winning “The Pelican Bar” as she confronts Mama Strong, the sadistic boss of a rehabilitation facility; for the narrator recounting her descent in “What I Didn’t See.”
With clear and insightful prose, Fowler’s stories measure the human capacities for hope and despair, brutality and kindness. This collection, which includes two Nebula Award winners and some stories which have been significantly rewritten since first publication, is sure to delight listeners, even as it pulls the rug out from underneath their feet.
©2010 Karen Joy Fowler (P)2021 Tantor
6 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Karen Joy Fowler
151 books1,609 followersKaren Joy Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels and three short story collections. Her 2004 novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection What I Didn’t See won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. Her most recent novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and was short-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. Her new novel Booth published in March 2022.
She is the co-founder of the Otherwise Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego). Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children and seven grandchildren, live in Santa Cruz, California. Fowler also supports a chimp named Caesar who lives at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone.
She is the co-founder of the Otherwise Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego). Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children and seven grandchildren, live in Santa Cruz, California. Fowler also supports a chimp named Caesar who lives at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
August 31, 2022
When I bought this book from Small Beer at AWP, I thought it was a new collection, and said as much to Karen Joy Fowler a short time later. She signed my copy and she muttered about her frustration with the novel she is currently writing (her husband has reminded her that this is not new, that she struggled for years with her "ape story") and I recognized the topic of the current struggle from a story she shared in a class I had with her long ago. "That was the impetus," I think she said when I called out the title. I was delighted to find that story here in this collection. In fact, most of the stories in this collection were familiar to me. I was surprised as I read to recognize one after another. I suppose I have been paying more attention than I knew.
Fowler has a way of twisting a story, of turning it just as you become comfortable with where you think it is going and taking it another direction entirely.
Perhaps not every story in this collection is five stars. Their impact is spectacular but troubling. I think authors can get away with that in short stories. The sad ending is something this author promises not to do "again" in the last story, but given that the story predates other stories in the collection it is well to remind myself that these are fiction.
Fowler has a way of twisting a story, of turning it just as you become comfortable with where you think it is going and taking it another direction entirely.
Perhaps not every story in this collection is five stars. Their impact is spectacular but troubling. I think authors can get away with that in short stories. The sad ending is something this author promises not to do "again" in the last story, but given that the story predates other stories in the collection it is well to remind myself that these are fiction.
May 15, 2012
This falls somewhere around three and a half stars for me, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt because I didn't read it in my medium of choice. While I'm now okay with the occasional ebook, I don't think it's the ideal medium for short story collections. I want to be able to choose which story to read next. I want to be able to glance back at the title of the story I just read as soon as I'm done, because proper titling is an art form. I want to be able to glance at the credits and see where each story was originally published. The list of credits appeared only at the end, and then I had to navigated the clunky table of contents all over again to try to figure out which stories had been published in which markets, since I had not managed to connect the titles with the stories. I'm now left trying to figure out why Asimov's published a couple of stories that I would not have recalled as speculative. A lot of these stories didn't really sit on the SF spectrum for me, but somewhere adjacent to it, like Fowler's early novels. I thought the second half of the collection was stronger than the first: the title story, with its riff on the life of Alice Sheldon, is excellent, and the fairy tale that I believe was called "Halfway People," and the short but poignant "King Rat." The last one reminds me of everything that I loved in her earlier collections, and why I always buy a magazine or anthology when I see that one of her stories is in it. Her novels have wandered a little from my taste, but her short fiction is masterful.
November 22, 2020
What I Didn't See is a short collection of short stories written by Karen Joy Fowler. That information alone was enough for me to put this book on my to-read list. However... Fowler has been publishing since 1985, and I've been avidly reading her work since at least the early 1990s. And although (except for "Booth's Ghost") the individual stories here are mostly reprints, whose original publication dates stretch back to 1991... somehow almost all of them were new to me. This particular collection was published 'way back in 2010, too—so I have no idea how I overlooked it for so long, before seeing my Goodreads friend Aerin's recent recommendation.
Possibly I overlooked this collection and its contents because they're not genre SF. Fowler rarely employs obvious sfnal props—no spacecraft, wizards, robots, werewolves or the like. The stories in What I Didn't See are, if not always entirely realistic, always reality-adjacent—oh, they're certainly speculative fiction, or most of 'em are, and a couple of them have even won Nebula Awards, but their speculative elements are subtle matters of nuance and emphasis.
Whatever the reason, not seeing What I Didn't See was my mistake.
*
As is my wont, I will share brief impressions of each tale:
"The Pelican Bar"
Norah thinks of herself as an abductee. She's not wrong. "The Pelican Bar" is a disturbing examination of how parents both assert and relinquish control—and, I thought, an oddly downbeat opening for What I Didn't See.
"Booth's Ghost"
This story, original to What I Didn't See, feels like history—Fowler focuses on John Wilkes Booth's family, and their acting careers, and in so doing provides an alternative perspective (not an excuse or an apologia but rather, let's say, a clarification) for Abraham Lincoln's assassin.
"The Last Worders"
So, a couple of twins go into a bar... or at least one of 'em does. Charlotta and her unnamed sister, our narrator, have always been inseparable... but San Margais is a land divided not just physically but by its history, during which at one point even poetry was outlawed. This is actually one of the most fantastic stories in What I Didn't See, with a setting worthy of Christopher Priest and characters like something from Daphne du Maurier.
"The Dark"
This one I remembered—I'd encountered "The Dark" recently enough, in fact, that its references to pandemics throughout history were still fresh in my mind. Fowler's story stood out for me among the many in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's gargantuan anthology The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, and I enjoyed it anew while rereading it here.
"Always"
Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute... but how often do they die?
"Familiar Birds"
"Private Grave 9"
"The Marianas Islands"
"Halfway People"
"Standing Room Only"
Anna knows that she is "living in the most wondrous of times" (p.166) in this story, which revisits the same turning point that inspired "Booth's Ghost" and which, ultimately, reminded me of the classic short story .
"What I Didn't See"
Despite having recently revisited Julie Phillips' amazing biography of James Tiptree, Jr., I wasn't sure what to make of this travelogue from a woman on an African safari back in the early 20th Century. I also, until I read Fowler's final choice, wondered why the title story wasn't either first or last in this collection...
"King Rat"
*
What I Didn't See is now a decade old, and as I said above, I don't know how I missed it when it was published—but I'm glad I didn't leave it unread any longer.
Possibly I overlooked this collection and its contents because they're not genre SF. Fowler rarely employs obvious sfnal props—no spacecraft, wizards, robots, werewolves or the like. The stories in What I Didn't See are, if not always entirely realistic, always reality-adjacent—oh, they're certainly speculative fiction, or most of 'em are, and a couple of them have even won Nebula Awards, but their speculative elements are subtle matters of nuance and emphasis.
Whatever the reason, not seeing What I Didn't See was my mistake.
*
As is my wont, I will share brief impressions of each tale:
"The Pelican Bar"
Norah thinks of herself as an abductee. She's not wrong. "The Pelican Bar" is a disturbing examination of how parents both assert and relinquish control—and, I thought, an oddly downbeat opening for What I Didn't See.
"Booth's Ghost"
This story, original to What I Didn't See, feels like history—Fowler focuses on John Wilkes Booth's family, and their acting careers, and in so doing provides an alternative perspective (not an excuse or an apologia but rather, let's say, a clarification) for Abraham Lincoln's assassin.
"The Last Worders"
So, a couple of twins go into a bar... or at least one of 'em does. Charlotta and her unnamed sister, our narrator, have always been inseparable... but San Margais is a land divided not just physically but by its history, during which at one point even poetry was outlawed. This is actually one of the most fantastic stories in What I Didn't See, with a setting worthy of Christopher Priest and characters like something from Daphne du Maurier.
"The Dark"
This one I remembered—I'd encountered "The Dark" recently enough, in fact, that its references to pandemics throughout history were still fresh in my mind. Fowler's story stood out for me among the many in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's gargantuan anthology The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, and I enjoyed it anew while rereading it here.
"Always"
Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute... but how often do they die?
You can always tell a cult from a religion, she said, because a cult is just a set of rules that lets certain men get laid.Words of wisdom...
—p.75
"Familiar Birds"
You had to wonder sometimes just how smart our mothers were.Ambiguous.
—p.93
"Private Grave 9"
{...}I didn't think of myself as unengaged from the world so much as careful in it.This one gave me vibes like Pat Murphy's amazing genre-crossing novel The Falling Woman—oh, and Fowler's story was pretty good too.
—p.117
"The Marianas Islands"
"It's not everyone who has a submarine."Truer words were never spoken. I've rambled about how often the romantic notion of a personal submarine crops up in fiction—from Yellow Submarine to Matt Ruff's Sewer Gas and Electric—but Fowler's version comes across as the most likely yet.
—p.129
"Halfway People"
There now, child. This is the wrong time to go to sleep. Maura is about to fall in love.This fable of swans and men felt familiar, but I think that's because I read someone else's retelling in another venue, not too long ago.
—p.143
"Standing Room Only"
Anna knows that she is "living in the most wondrous of times" (p.166) in this story, which revisits the same turning point that inspired "Booth's Ghost" and which, ultimately, reminded me of the classic short story .
"What I Didn't See"
Despite having recently revisited Julie Phillips' amazing biography of James Tiptree, Jr., I wasn't sure what to make of this travelogue from a woman on an African safari back in the early 20th Century. I also, until I read Fowler's final choice, wondered why the title story wasn't either first or last in this collection...
"King Rat"
Even now some of the classics remain hard for me.I know that emotion too. This brief glimpse may not be autobiographical, but its intimate look at a writer's childhood certainly feels that way. After "King Rat" and its condensed intensity, I better understood why Fowler chose this, rather than the title tale, to round off her collection.
—p.195
*
What I Didn't See is now a decade old, and as I said above, I don't know how I missed it when it was published—but I'm glad I didn't leave it unread any longer.
August 9, 2021
این داستان یه تم نوجوانانه داشت و جزو داستان های کوتاه خیلی جذابی بود که خوندم و خیلی دوسش داشتم و با وجود تمام سادگی و گاهی حتی سطحی بودن برای مدتی که در حال مطالعه بودم من رو غرق دنیای خودش کرد و هنوز هم نمیتونم از فکر کردن بهش دست بردارم.
داستان خیلی ساده شروع میشه اما به سرعت و شدت اوج میگیره و اتفاقاتی به سرعت رخ میدن. یه داستان خیلی جذاب راجع به رنج، اجبار به تغییر و انکار خود، سختی و کلی احساسات ک باعث شدن برخی مواقع با کاراکتر اصلی داستان همزاد پنداری کنم.
داستان خیلی ساده شروع میشه اما به سرعت و شدت اوج میگیره و اتفاقاتی به سرعت رخ میدن. یه داستان خیلی جذاب راجع به رنج، اجبار به تغییر و انکار خود، سختی و کلی احساسات ک باعث شدن برخی مواقع با کاراکتر اصلی داستان همزاد پنداری کنم.
September 21, 2016
تلخ و عجیب و فکر بر انگیزنده و و تاثیر گذار و خواندنی در عین کوتاهی
August 27, 2021
I just keep falling deeper in love with Karen Joy Fowler's work. The stories in this collection are so workmanlike in their quality, but surprising, enchanting, ominous, sometimes funny in what they report. It's fantasy (or new weird, at least) with a light touch. When horror enters, it is human in nature, as in the title story, where a kind, loving, sensitive man directs the slaughter of dozens upon dozens of mountain gorillas. Standouts in this collection include "Halfway People," which is as fine a fairytale as any modern writer can make, "Booth's Ghost," and "The Dark."
December 30, 2010
Not the best short stories I read in 2010, but I think the one about the immortality cult and the one about the teen sent away for brainwashing boot camp will stick with me.
March 25, 2020
It's a hit and miss collection, but the misses are innocuous and the hits are home runs. Fowler is a gem.
December 27, 2024
Pelican Bar - 3/5, visceral and disturbing, pain and ended with more pain. If it wasn't so well written it would be 1 star.
Booth's Ghost - 3/5, I might be interested in her full-length novel about the Booth family, but this is too short to really make a point.
The Last Wonders - 3/5, captures the feeling of competitive sisterhood, sad and weird.
The Dark - 4/5, the first one in the set that I might consider "scifi", although it's almost magical realism. It's pretty bleak but asks interesting questions about nature/nurture.
Always - 4/5, if you really, actually believe it will, does something immutable happen?
Familiar Birds - 4/5, when you don't like someone but you still wouldn't wish harm to them. Another sad story!
Private Grave 9 - 4/5, an interesting take on how men and women interact with each other, and how finding fulfillment is different for everyone.
The Marianas Islands - 3/5, I don't think I got this one. About odd family secrets and traditions.
Halfway People - 5/5, lyrical, haunting, poetic, it's a fairy tale and it's about telling tales, loved it.
Standing Room Only - 4/5, second story in the collection tangentially about John Wilkes Booth.
"A war in the distance always provides a rich context of desperation, while at the same time granting women a bit of extra freedom. They might quite enjoy it, if the price they paid were anything but their sons."
What I Didn't See - 5/5, fantastic, chilling, upsetting, what makes us human, what drives us to try to weild our power over each other, how women are silenced over and over. Powerful.
King Rat - 4/5, you can see the seeds of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in this story, another bleak tale but well-told.
Booth's Ghost - 3/5, I might be interested in her full-length novel about the Booth family, but this is too short to really make a point.
The Last Wonders - 3/5, captures the feeling of competitive sisterhood, sad and weird.
The Dark - 4/5, the first one in the set that I might consider "scifi", although it's almost magical realism. It's pretty bleak but asks interesting questions about nature/nurture.
Always - 4/5, if you really, actually believe it will, does something immutable happen?
Familiar Birds - 4/5, when you don't like someone but you still wouldn't wish harm to them. Another sad story!
Private Grave 9 - 4/5, an interesting take on how men and women interact with each other, and how finding fulfillment is different for everyone.
The Marianas Islands - 3/5, I don't think I got this one. About odd family secrets and traditions.
Halfway People - 5/5, lyrical, haunting, poetic, it's a fairy tale and it's about telling tales, loved it.
Standing Room Only - 4/5, second story in the collection tangentially about John Wilkes Booth.
"A war in the distance always provides a rich context of desperation, while at the same time granting women a bit of extra freedom. They might quite enjoy it, if the price they paid were anything but their sons."
What I Didn't See - 5/5, fantastic, chilling, upsetting, what makes us human, what drives us to try to weild our power over each other, how women are silenced over and over. Powerful.
King Rat - 4/5, you can see the seeds of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in this story, another bleak tale but well-told.
March 4, 2019
I've read several of Fowler's varied novels, so it was no surprise that the stories in this collection also range wildly in setting, genre, and focus. What they have in common is excellent writing, at least a dash of humor, and richly developed characters and worlds.
About half the stories depict specific historical eras and sometimes take inspiration from real events and people. Two revolve around the assassination of Abraham Lincoln: "Booth's Ghost" tracks the careers of the Booth family of actors, focusing on one of the brothers of the infamous John Wilkes, and except for the mildly ghostly bit, it's all rooted in truth. "Standing Room Only" follows a young woman, daughter of co-conspirator Mary Surratt, who is in love with JW and completely unaware of what else is going on.
I'm impressed thinking about the amount of research that must have been required to write the 20-odd pages of a story like "The Dark", which starts with Yosemite disappearances in the 1950s and 60s, moves on to the history of pandemics, and then shifts to the work of soldiers who cleared tunnels during the Vietnam War. It shares a few elements with "What I Didn't See", narrated by a woman on a gorilla-hunting expedition in the 1920s, including that both stories aren't quite science fictional but also aren't quite grounded in reality.
I enjoyed the blurry genre lines throughout this collection, and the frequent feeling that I had no idea what sort of story I was reading or where things might be going. "The Last Worders" involves twin American sisters taking a trip to an odd European city, on an odd quest, and every development twists the story in another direction until it all comes to a strange and satisfying ending. In "Always", a young woman joins an immortality cult in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the story arcs nicely around the many questions raised by the premise.
About half the stories depict specific historical eras and sometimes take inspiration from real events and people. Two revolve around the assassination of Abraham Lincoln: "Booth's Ghost" tracks the careers of the Booth family of actors, focusing on one of the brothers of the infamous John Wilkes, and except for the mildly ghostly bit, it's all rooted in truth. "Standing Room Only" follows a young woman, daughter of co-conspirator Mary Surratt, who is in love with JW and completely unaware of what else is going on.
I'm impressed thinking about the amount of research that must have been required to write the 20-odd pages of a story like "The Dark", which starts with Yosemite disappearances in the 1950s and 60s, moves on to the history of pandemics, and then shifts to the work of soldiers who cleared tunnels during the Vietnam War. It shares a few elements with "What I Didn't See", narrated by a woman on a gorilla-hunting expedition in the 1920s, including that both stories aren't quite science fictional but also aren't quite grounded in reality.
I enjoyed the blurry genre lines throughout this collection, and the frequent feeling that I had no idea what sort of story I was reading or where things might be going. "The Last Worders" involves twin American sisters taking a trip to an odd European city, on an odd quest, and every development twists the story in another direction until it all comes to a strange and satisfying ending. In "Always", a young woman joins an immortality cult in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the story arcs nicely around the many questions raised by the premise.
May 18, 2012
For some authors, a short story collections is like a science lab. The stories in this collection, published over a span of nearly two decades, show Fowler experimenting with many different styles and forms distinct from her novels. But no matter the genre or subject, the author retains what makes her full-length books so successful: an attention to detail, an ear for language, and compassion for her characters. For those who have found Fowler through her novels, these stories offer a chance to encounter an imaginative storyteller as she moves from subject to subject.
One of the pleasures of reading an eclectic collection is being constantly turned around and never knowing what to expect, but trusting the author to pull off the next story. Fowler does so brilliantly, whether chronicling a girl’s life in a brutal reform home or tying together a family history through the stewardship of a homemade submarine. Again and again, Fowler combines the mundane and the extraordinary to produce fiction as imaginative as it is relatable.
Although the stories in this collection have been published widely, readers may be most familiar with “Private Grave 9,” which was included in McSweeny’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. In the story, an archeologist falls in love with an Egyptian priestess, whose ghost may or may not be haunting him, compelling him to violence as he exhumes her tomb. While developing a picture of the priestess’s sarcophagus, he discovers a ghostly image of the woman’s face superimposed over the print. “A photograph is a moment you can spend your whole life looking at,” the narrator muses. This is Fowler at her best: unearthing a specific point in history, falling under its spell, and bringing the characters’ stories to life to offer a detailed snapshot of the past.
One of the pleasures of reading an eclectic collection is being constantly turned around and never knowing what to expect, but trusting the author to pull off the next story. Fowler does so brilliantly, whether chronicling a girl’s life in a brutal reform home or tying together a family history through the stewardship of a homemade submarine. Again and again, Fowler combines the mundane and the extraordinary to produce fiction as imaginative as it is relatable.
Although the stories in this collection have been published widely, readers may be most familiar with “Private Grave 9,” which was included in McSweeny’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. In the story, an archeologist falls in love with an Egyptian priestess, whose ghost may or may not be haunting him, compelling him to violence as he exhumes her tomb. While developing a picture of the priestess’s sarcophagus, he discovers a ghostly image of the woman’s face superimposed over the print. “A photograph is a moment you can spend your whole life looking at,” the narrator muses. This is Fowler at her best: unearthing a specific point in history, falling under its spell, and bringing the characters’ stories to life to offer a detailed snapshot of the past.
March 17, 2019
This is a collection of clever and insightful stories that go in unexpected directions. They are slow, quiet explorations of individuals and their lives and relationships. I really enjoyed many of the stories, but several others seemed to end abruptly, with no clear resolution. Definitely worth a look for fans of magical realism. Note that the first story was my least favorite, so if you don't like that one, please do keep reading: you may find you like the others better.
October 18, 2022
Felt like a collection of urban folklore for academics. Great first read of October, some of these stories will haunt me for a long time
February 7, 2020
Another uneven short story collection.
March 25, 2018
What an interesting set of short stories. I enjoyed this book because of its quirkiness. It was a bit difficult to read through some of the stories though because they were a bit dry. But overall, a solid 3 stars.
xx-dnf-skim-reference
March 4, 2018Because of Pelican Bar, which in Evolution of SF group is noted as not actually being SF or fantasy except for nictitating membranes, even though it won genre awards.
.....
Well. I thought it was SF. It was also ugly and opaque. I tried to read a couple others in the collection and couldn't.
.....
Well. I thought it was SF. It was also ugly and opaque. I tried to read a couple others in the collection and couldn't.
October 22, 2018
A compact collection of short stories, from the author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.
The stories:
The Pelican Bar – 5 stars: Rebellious Norah is sent away by her fed-up parents, to a rehabilitation facility of sorts, designed to do more than correct her behavior. Disturbing and riveting.
Booth’s Ghost – 1 star: The happenings of the Booth family (as in, John Wilkes), culminating in Lincoln’s assassination, from the perspective of one brother.
The Last Worders – 4 stars: Twin sisters backpacking somewhere in Europe stumble on a spoken-word poetry café. Well written.
The Dark – 3 stars: Unsettling description of warfare inside the dark, cramped viet cong tunnels during the Vietnam War.
Always – 5 stars: One woman’s account of her time at the city of Always, a cult-like commune where Brother Porter offers immortality.
Familiar Birds – 2 stars: Rather pointless story depicting a tug-of-war for superiority between two young girls, who are forced to spend time together because their parents are friends.
Private Grave 9 – 3.5 stars: An American mystery author visits, and disrupts, an archeological team in 1920s Mesopotamia. Good ending.
The Marianas Islands – 1.5 stars: The ins-and-outs of a family’s possession of a submarine built by a great-grandfather. Off beat, and not especially engaging.
Halfway People – 3 stars: Fantastical story about a working-class family that lives by the sea in the winter, but inland when the summer tourists come. A bit weird, but effective.
Standing Room Only – 1 star: A different viewpoint on the fateful weekend of Lincoln’s assassination, this time from Mary Surratt’s boarding house, and the inner dialogue of her daughter Anna.
What I Didn’t See – 4 stars: A female narrator, and last surviving member of the team, looks back on the events of an expedition in the Congo in 1928. Pretty good.
King Rat – 2 stars: Strange and very short story about the nature and value of fairy tales.
My thoughts:
There were a lot of stories packed into this slim collection. And I do appreciate short short-stories; they’re like snacks and can truly be experienced in one sitting. Some of these will stay with me a while. I like Fowler’s voice, and her writing comes across as confident and creative. The collection overall was a mixed bag, but worth the read.
August 13, 2011
I'm not usually a fan of the short story. At best, I'm left feeling dissatisfied that the story (or stories) aren't novel length, and that the characters and the plot weren't fleshed out to completion. At worst, I finish them with a bitter after-taste based on not understanding what the author was trying to convey. I had read some of Karen Joy Fowler's books in the past and because I had enjoyed her writing before, I thought I'd give this compilation of stories a try. Besides, it was a library book, so nothing was lost if they didn't engage me.
The first story, The Pelican Bar, gripped me from its opening and while they all didn't engage me to that level, many did and the ones which didn't were still interesting enough to keep me reading. Fowler offered an array of different plots and characters, the story lines ranging from the late 1890s to present day. I found it interesting that two separate stories revolved around John Wilkes Booth and the assasination of President Lincoln and wondered if Fowler doesn't have a particular fascination for that period in history.
All in all, I found this collection of short stories entertaining and satisfying. There were a few, as I imagined there would be, that left me frustrated and wishing she'd saved them for a full-length book, but even in their abbreviated format they never left me completely unsatisfied.
The first story, The Pelican Bar, gripped me from its opening and while they all didn't engage me to that level, many did and the ones which didn't were still interesting enough to keep me reading. Fowler offered an array of different plots and characters, the story lines ranging from the late 1890s to present day. I found it interesting that two separate stories revolved around John Wilkes Booth and the assasination of President Lincoln and wondered if Fowler doesn't have a particular fascination for that period in history.
All in all, I found this collection of short stories entertaining and satisfying. There were a few, as I imagined there would be, that left me frustrated and wishing she'd saved them for a full-length book, but even in their abbreviated format they never left me completely unsatisfied.
February 16, 2013
My favorite stories in this collection straddle the line between reality and not-quite-reality in a style I have long admired, even though I am never sure what to call it (Slipstream? Magical realism? Sci-fi?). The title story adheres pretty closely to historical fact, but the visitors encounters with Africa and gorillas, which were at the time almost mythical beasts, endows it with a aura of fantasy, and at the end, mystery. The collection opens with “The Pelican Bar,” which I read as a dark allegory for parental desertion, adolescence, and the impact of victimization, with a hint of true science fiction thrown in at the end, and closes with “King Rat” a moving story of loss concluded with fairytale allusions. By far my favorite story was “The Dark,” both because of its expansive and intriguing subject matter (infectious diseases throughout history, Vietnam, children raised by wolves) and because of its narrator, desperate and by his own admission, possible unbalanced, his final words to one of the characters he encounters echoed in my head for days.
May 15, 2015
A solid collection with a huge range, though I thought the voice of the narrator's was generally more interesting than what happened in the stories. A few great ones though, especially The Pelican Bar, about a girl in a cruel boarding school maybe run by aliens, and the title story, which had a setting that almost reminded me of Tarzan with a very interesting focus on feminism. Fowler's novels have never looked very interesting to me, so this collection was a big eye opener, especially how sharp, incisive, and crafted the prose was.
This is probably the last short story collection I'll read for a while since I want to spend the summer focusing on novels, but it's been really interesting to essentially blow through 22 collections or stand-alone novellas in about a month, very different from any reading experience I've had in the past since I've always been so focused on novels. It might be a while, but I think I'll start again once school is going, since short stories do fit in a lot better during coursework.
This is probably the last short story collection I'll read for a while since I want to spend the summer focusing on novels, but it's been really interesting to essentially blow through 22 collections or stand-alone novellas in about a month, very different from any reading experience I've had in the past since I've always been so focused on novels. It might be a while, but I think I'll start again once school is going, since short stories do fit in a lot better during coursework.
Read
September 8, 2021Of the stories I read, here are the ones I generally recommend:
What I Didn’t See
This story is part of a curated, scifi-thematic, challenge read that I programmed. https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... Let me know if you take me up on it! https://bookshop.org/lists/beyond-the...
Always
The Dark
King Rat
Wherever one stops reading, this serves well as a bookend to read last.
What I Didn’t See
This story is part of a curated, scifi-thematic, challenge read that I programmed. https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... Let me know if you take me up on it! https://bookshop.org/lists/beyond-the...
Always
The Dark
King Rat
Wherever one stops reading, this serves well as a bookend to read last.
September 29, 2010
This is a fantastic collection of stories that venture into the unseen and peripheral worlds that exist within the world around us. It's dark, sometimes funny, challenging, and always riveting in the way that good fiction makes us feel when it forces us to look at things we'd rather ignore.
November 4, 2018
An interesting and well-written set of stories, some with a slight bent towards the fantastic.
“At the Pelican Bar”: This is one of the most depressing stories ever written, or at least that I've read. It's concept, of a rebellious teenage girl who is sent to a "reform school" where she is essentially tortured until she turns 18 and can't be legally held any longer, is all-too-realistic, sadly. Even the fact that, in some sense, she doesn't break under what she experiences hardy makes it triumphant.
“Booth’s Ghost”: A really quite touching semi-autobiographical semi-story of the family of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, focusing on his brother Edwin but generally covering the family's response to one of its members suddenly becoming a byword for evil.
“The Last Worders”: An interesting story of the bond, not always affectionate, between twin sisters. The made-up city of San Margais, where the story is set, its invisible river, and its poetical civil war given the story a kind of Borges feeling. Raphael Kaplinsky doesn’t really work, though.
“The Dark”: A rather weird mashup of a feral-child story, a Vietnam war story, and a disquisition on the plague, which doesn't entirely hang together.
“Always”: A quite well-done cult story told by a member who accepts that she was indeed a cult but seems fairly unconcerned about that, plus some musings about immortality.
“Familiar Birds”: This story doesn't have much too it, in the end: Daisy and the narrator don’t like each other but there’s not much of a story and since they’re both kids we don’t necessarily get to know them. There's a hint of the fantastic here, but that's all.
“Private Grave 9”: This is a nice twist on an Agatha Christie story, featuring a mystery writer who has come to an archaeological dig to try to find materials for a murder mystery set at an archaeological dig and thus is slowly creating the conditions for such a murder. Plus, the narrator may not be quite sane. Another story with just a hint of the fantastic.
“The Marianas Islands”: Mostly about the narrator’s grandmother, who was an interesting woman with a submarine, but there's not much of a story as such.
“Halfway People”: A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale "The Wild Swans", recentered on some brand-new characters. Interesting and well-done.
“Standing Room Only”: JW Booth, again, but this time with a focus on the daughter of one of his co-conspirators, Anna Surrat. However, she isn’t really interesting enough to carry the story, and the time travel angle is played a little too subtly.
“What I Didn’t See”: Probably the best story in the collection, a problematization of old-fashioned "Dr. Livingston, I presume" African exploration, with its negative effects on both the natives and the wildlife, and its inherent sexism.
“King Rat”: The collection closes on a rather dark note, with an autobiographical (maybe?) story which isn’t really a story about a Norwegian friend of the author’s family and his family tragedy.
“At the Pelican Bar”: This is one of the most depressing stories ever written, or at least that I've read. It's concept, of a rebellious teenage girl who is sent to a "reform school" where she is essentially tortured until she turns 18 and can't be legally held any longer, is all-too-realistic, sadly. Even the fact that, in some sense, she doesn't break under what she experiences hardy makes it triumphant.
“Booth’s Ghost”: A really quite touching semi-autobiographical semi-story of the family of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, focusing on his brother Edwin but generally covering the family's response to one of its members suddenly becoming a byword for evil.
“The Last Worders”: An interesting story of the bond, not always affectionate, between twin sisters. The made-up city of San Margais, where the story is set, its invisible river, and its poetical civil war given the story a kind of Borges feeling. Raphael Kaplinsky doesn’t really work, though.
“The Dark”: A rather weird mashup of a feral-child story, a Vietnam war story, and a disquisition on the plague, which doesn't entirely hang together.
“Always”: A quite well-done cult story told by a member who accepts that she was indeed a cult but seems fairly unconcerned about that, plus some musings about immortality.
“Familiar Birds”: This story doesn't have much too it, in the end: Daisy and the narrator don’t like each other but there’s not much of a story and since they’re both kids we don’t necessarily get to know them. There's a hint of the fantastic here, but that's all.
“Private Grave 9”: This is a nice twist on an Agatha Christie story, featuring a mystery writer who has come to an archaeological dig to try to find materials for a murder mystery set at an archaeological dig and thus is slowly creating the conditions for such a murder. Plus, the narrator may not be quite sane. Another story with just a hint of the fantastic.
“The Marianas Islands”: Mostly about the narrator’s grandmother, who was an interesting woman with a submarine, but there's not much of a story as such.
“Halfway People”: A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale "The Wild Swans", recentered on some brand-new characters. Interesting and well-done.
“Standing Room Only”: JW Booth, again, but this time with a focus on the daughter of one of his co-conspirators, Anna Surrat. However, she isn’t really interesting enough to carry the story, and the time travel angle is played a little too subtly.
“What I Didn’t See”: Probably the best story in the collection, a problematization of old-fashioned "Dr. Livingston, I presume" African exploration, with its negative effects on both the natives and the wildlife, and its inherent sexism.
“King Rat”: The collection closes on a rather dark note, with an autobiographical (maybe?) story which isn’t really a story about a Norwegian friend of the author’s family and his family tragedy.
August 27, 2017
With a short story collection, you have to be willing to allow for stories to which you are indifferent and measure the quality of the collection by the height of the best stories. (The same goes for collections of essays, Nine Gates by Jane Hirshfield earned my 5-star appreciation despite my indifference to over half the essays because a couple were so exemplary.)
I thought "Booth's Ghost" was thoughtful, but not moving enough to remember a few weeks after reading it. Likewise "The Dark" and "Private Grave 9" touched me and then slipped into a vague half-memory. "The Last Worders", "Familiar Birds", "The Marianas Islands", "Standing Room Only", and the title story "What I Didn't See" left even less than ghosts, just simple wooden blocks of description (the last one was about a Gorilla expedition, somebody got lost), without emotion attached to it. They did however, get me in the rhythm of Fowler's excellent prose, as well as the range of her curiosity.
"The Pelican Bar" is much harder to forget. I vacillate between thinking it's simple SBA (Screwed By Author) in which the protag goes through a miserable experience simply because the author wants that to happen, and thinking that perhaps the story has something I should hold onto about the utter extremes of human experience and strength. A powerful but disconcerting entry.
Then there were "Always" and "King Rat". The first is wonderful. About a strong believer at a cult of immortality in Santa Cruz. The location, the voice, the humor are perfect. It may not make it into my pantheon of super-5-star stories, but it is a name that I will record to remind me to revisit it periodically to re-etch it in my memory. I love how the story relies utterly on the carrying power of the first-person narrator's voice, and the voice holds it up.
And "King Rat" is small and simple and sweet and sad. I don't think it's really speculative at all. But after many stories that were quite melancholic or even grim, this one sad note felt uplifting, a good change of pace and a fine way to end the collection.
So 3 strong stories to hold onto in a collection of 12. That's a pretty good number for me. Even my very favorite short collections by such as Peter S. Beagle and Kij Johnson have fewer than half the stories outstanding. A solid and worthwhile read, and you might be affected by others than I was.
I thought "Booth's Ghost" was thoughtful, but not moving enough to remember a few weeks after reading it. Likewise "The Dark" and "Private Grave 9" touched me and then slipped into a vague half-memory. "The Last Worders", "Familiar Birds", "The Marianas Islands", "Standing Room Only", and the title story "What I Didn't See" left even less than ghosts, just simple wooden blocks of description (the last one was about a Gorilla expedition, somebody got lost), without emotion attached to it. They did however, get me in the rhythm of Fowler's excellent prose, as well as the range of her curiosity.
"The Pelican Bar" is much harder to forget. I vacillate between thinking it's simple SBA (Screwed By Author) in which the protag goes through a miserable experience simply because the author wants that to happen, and thinking that perhaps the story has something I should hold onto about the utter extremes of human experience and strength. A powerful but disconcerting entry.
Then there were "Always" and "King Rat". The first is wonderful. About a strong believer at a cult of immortality in Santa Cruz. The location, the voice, the humor are perfect. It may not make it into my pantheon of super-5-star stories, but it is a name that I will record to remind me to revisit it periodically to re-etch it in my memory. I love how the story relies utterly on the carrying power of the first-person narrator's voice, and the voice holds it up.
And "King Rat" is small and simple and sweet and sad. I don't think it's really speculative at all. But after many stories that were quite melancholic or even grim, this one sad note felt uplifting, a good change of pace and a fine way to end the collection.
So 3 strong stories to hold onto in a collection of 12. That's a pretty good number for me. Even my very favorite short collections by such as Peter S. Beagle and Kij Johnson have fewer than half the stories outstanding. A solid and worthwhile read, and you might be affected by others than I was.
March 28, 2019
I found this book on my tablet. I must have bought it in a bundle at some point, and then downloaded it at another point. I have a terrible memory so it isn't that unbelievable that I could have done both those things and forgotten it. I've been getting restless lately both with life and with the books I have planned to read, so I decided to just read this. I briefly googled the author's name and saw she wrote The Jane Austen Book Club. I made some assumptions because of that.
The first story in this collection is called "The Pelican Bar"; It tells the story of Norah, who is sent off to a special boarding school the day after her fifteenth birthday. Calling the boarding school inhumane or abusive feel like understatements, the food is inedible and often rotting, the floor is covered in insects... The girls there are punished severely if they ever say anything that is a lie; a lie is anything that doesn't crush their self esteem. Throughout the story there is a slight implication that the people who run this school aren't just figuratively monsters.
The collection never gets that disturbing again, but it does continue in a similar style. The stories are wistful, melancholic and contain hints of the science-fictional, such as a poetry slam that may actually be to the death or a cult that probably doesn't grant the members immortality, but might. The fantastical hints add a dream like quality to the stories. The writing style and subject matter occasionally reminded me of a strange combination of Neil Gaiman and Kazou Ishiguro. Some of the stories will stick with me for a long time, some are already fading dreamlike leaving only an impression.
Finding this collection of stories felt like making a new friend who likes to tell you stories about her life. You quickly realize that the stories all feel very implausible, but you also don't dare challenge her because if you do she may stop telling them.
The first story in this collection is called "The Pelican Bar"; It tells the story of Norah, who is sent off to a special boarding school the day after her fifteenth birthday. Calling the boarding school inhumane or abusive feel like understatements, the food is inedible and often rotting, the floor is covered in insects... The girls there are punished severely if they ever say anything that is a lie; a lie is anything that doesn't crush their self esteem. Throughout the story there is a slight implication that the people who run this school aren't just figuratively monsters.
The collection never gets that disturbing again, but it does continue in a similar style. The stories are wistful, melancholic and contain hints of the science-fictional, such as a poetry slam that may actually be to the death or a cult that probably doesn't grant the members immortality, but might. The fantastical hints add a dream like quality to the stories. The writing style and subject matter occasionally reminded me of a strange combination of Neil Gaiman and Kazou Ishiguro. Some of the stories will stick with me for a long time, some are already fading dreamlike leaving only an impression.
Finding this collection of stories felt like making a new friend who likes to tell you stories about her life. You quickly realize that the stories all feel very implausible, but you also don't dare challenge her because if you do she may stop telling them.
November 11, 2021
Overall, I really appreciated that none of these stories were cut and dry; for each of them, one could just as easily argue that there was a rational explanation for everything as one could argue that there were, indeed, aliens running a reform school-slash-torture camp, or that there really was some kind of werewolf boy running around in the caves of 'Nam. They're thoughtful, and there's no clear resolution.
The Pelican Bar - 3.5/5. Some really effective characters in the sense that I found some of them absolutely despicable. I'm still trying to decide what I think the ending means.
Booth's Ghost - 2/5. Well-written, but I didn't care that much for the subject matter. I could see this making a fun TV miniseries, though.
The Last Worders - 2/5. Again, well-written, but I struggled to get into the plot.
The Dark - 4/5. I really liked this one. It's like a darker, more sci-fi Forrest Gump.
Always - 4/5. I loved the premise of this one, and the pacing was great! I appreciated that there's some sense of uncertainty about whether or not the narrator truly has achieved eternal life.
Familiar Birds - 3.5/5. This one felt more grounded than the stories thus far - no ghosts, no werewolves, no sci-fi or paranoraml elements. I liked it as a palate cleanser and really enjoyed exploring a relationship between two girls who are only thrust together because their moms are friends and because they're around the same age.
Private Grave 9 - 3/5. This one had some good things going for it, but I was thirsty for some suspense that just didn't show up.
Halfway People - 3.5/5. Kind of gave me Howl's Moving Castle vibes.
Standing Room Only - 1.5/5. Another John Wilkes Booth story, for some reason? I honestly just skimmed this one.
What I Didn't See - 4/5. One of the more interesting stories, and I see why it was the titular one. While not exactly sci-fi nor fantasy, there was something dark about this one that just really tied everything together well for me.
King Rat - 3.5/5. This one was eerie, but for some reason, that wasn't conveyed well to me on the first listen-through. I had to give it a second go and read a two-sentence synopsis to really grasp what this one was about. Maybe it was me, maybe it was its place in this collection.
The Pelican Bar - 3.5/5. Some really effective characters in the sense that I found some of them absolutely despicable. I'm still trying to decide what I think the ending means.
Booth's Ghost - 2/5. Well-written, but I didn't care that much for the subject matter. I could see this making a fun TV miniseries, though.
The Last Worders - 2/5. Again, well-written, but I struggled to get into the plot.
The Dark - 4/5. I really liked this one. It's like a darker, more sci-fi Forrest Gump.
Always - 4/5. I loved the premise of this one, and the pacing was great! I appreciated that there's some sense of uncertainty about whether or not the narrator truly has achieved eternal life.
Familiar Birds - 3.5/5. This one felt more grounded than the stories thus far - no ghosts, no werewolves, no sci-fi or paranoraml elements. I liked it as a palate cleanser and really enjoyed exploring a relationship between two girls who are only thrust together because their moms are friends and because they're around the same age.
Private Grave 9 - 3/5. This one had some good things going for it, but I was thirsty for some suspense that just didn't show up.
Halfway People - 3.5/5. Kind of gave me Howl's Moving Castle vibes.
Standing Room Only - 1.5/5. Another John Wilkes Booth story, for some reason? I honestly just skimmed this one.
What I Didn't See - 4/5. One of the more interesting stories, and I see why it was the titular one. While not exactly sci-fi nor fantasy, there was something dark about this one that just really tied everything together well for me.
King Rat - 3.5/5. This one was eerie, but for some reason, that wasn't conveyed well to me on the first listen-through. I had to give it a second go and read a two-sentence synopsis to really grasp what this one was about. Maybe it was me, maybe it was its place in this collection.
November 21, 2020
Whoa.
I should have been more prepared for this fiction collection. Each story is written in a realism that strays so subtly off the path of reality by the time you’re finished. Except once you’ve meandered off that path, you can’t seem to get back. And the conclusion is often haunting and disturbing.
Another reviewer mentioned that Fowler's stories straddle the line between reality and not-quite-reality. I couldn’t say it any better.
I like to judge fiction by a simple formula. Do I remember the story a day after I read it? Does it make me feel something?
In this case, I can’t forget some of the things that happen.
There are some award winners in here. “Always” depicts a religious immortality commune, specifically a teen girl caught up in the hysteria. In “The Pelican Bar,” a girl is sentenced to a rehabilitative boot camp. “What I Didn’t See” has a “Heart of Darkness” feel to it; a woman travels to see the elusive silver back gorillas and attempts to shoot one to deter others from shooting the apes. And that’s not even the strange part of the story.
I think the whole collection won an award.
There’s two John Wilkes Booth stories. As if one wasn’t enough. “The Dark,” possibly my favorite story in the collection, connects incidents that are years and thousands of miles apart, that involve a “wild boy” in Yosemite Park and “tunnel rats” during the Vietnam War.
It’s worth a read, if you are looking for a few unforgettable stories.
I should have been more prepared for this fiction collection. Each story is written in a realism that strays so subtly off the path of reality by the time you’re finished. Except once you’ve meandered off that path, you can’t seem to get back. And the conclusion is often haunting and disturbing.
Another reviewer mentioned that Fowler's stories straddle the line between reality and not-quite-reality. I couldn’t say it any better.
I like to judge fiction by a simple formula. Do I remember the story a day after I read it? Does it make me feel something?
In this case, I can’t forget some of the things that happen.
There are some award winners in here. “Always” depicts a religious immortality commune, specifically a teen girl caught up in the hysteria. In “The Pelican Bar,” a girl is sentenced to a rehabilitative boot camp. “What I Didn’t See” has a “Heart of Darkness” feel to it; a woman travels to see the elusive silver back gorillas and attempts to shoot one to deter others from shooting the apes. And that’s not even the strange part of the story.
I think the whole collection won an award.
There’s two John Wilkes Booth stories. As if one wasn’t enough. “The Dark,” possibly my favorite story in the collection, connects incidents that are years and thousands of miles apart, that involve a “wild boy” in Yosemite Park and “tunnel rats” during the Vietnam War.
It’s worth a read, if you are looking for a few unforgettable stories.
January 21, 2024
What I Didn't See and Other Stories by Karen Joy Fowler was a solid short story collection with a few excellent gems.
In "The Last Worders," two twin sisters are invited to a poetry slam that's "to the death," and are trying to decide who gets to date a boy that they both want. "The Mariana Islands" is a nostalgic family story with a faint mood of the absurd, with a hippie grandmother and an inherited homemade submarine. And "Halfway People" is a really lovely, pretty retelling of the fairy tale about the brothers who turn into swans.
I didn't expect a few things about this collection, but the main one was that there would be not one, but two stories about John Wilkes Booth—in one, his brother, also an actor and one of the best Hamlets ever performed, deals with the consequences of his brother's actions; in another, it's a young girl has a big crush but has no idea what Booth, or her mother, are involved in.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection. It had a lot of unexpected turns and tales. Most of the stories were good, and one or two were really excellent. Fowler is a writer I've enjoyed in the past, and I hope to read more of her in the future as well.
Content warnings for psychological torture, domestic abuse, violence, claustrophobia, n-word, animal cruelty/death.
In "The Last Worders," two twin sisters are invited to a poetry slam that's "to the death," and are trying to decide who gets to date a boy that they both want. "The Mariana Islands" is a nostalgic family story with a faint mood of the absurd, with a hippie grandmother and an inherited homemade submarine. And "Halfway People" is a really lovely, pretty retelling of the fairy tale about the brothers who turn into swans.
I didn't expect a few things about this collection, but the main one was that there would be not one, but two stories about John Wilkes Booth—in one, his brother, also an actor and one of the best Hamlets ever performed, deals with the consequences of his brother's actions; in another, it's a young girl has a big crush but has no idea what Booth, or her mother, are involved in.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection. It had a lot of unexpected turns and tales. Most of the stories were good, and one or two were really excellent. Fowler is a writer I've enjoyed in the past, and I hope to read more of her in the future as well.
Content warnings for psychological torture, domestic abuse, violence, claustrophobia, n-word, animal cruelty/death.
March 8, 2018
I got this book from the Super Nebula Author Showcase Humble Bundle so I was expecting something much more SF/Fantasy. That being said, I really enjoyed this collection so I am happy it was put on the collection.
While I usually read in paper, this was an exception and I read it on my cellphone. I waste much time waiting for and taking meetings, so it is very nice to have a book of short stories you can read. Most stories were read over days and sometimes weeks, and the fact that the stories were so evoking was critical so I will keep involved with each story.
Trying to describe the stories is difficult. They are written in different forms and styles. What they all share is that the characters are very well written and passionately taken care of. The settings may be historical or even quite mundane but the characters always have distinct voices and essence. The storytelling is excellent and evocative. The stories I liked the most are those that had more of a magical or fantastical tone to them like "The Last Worders". Some of the stories were a bit slow for me, or had too little action going on, but the vast majority was excellent. I give this collection four stars our of five.
While I usually read in paper, this was an exception and I read it on my cellphone. I waste much time waiting for and taking meetings, so it is very nice to have a book of short stories you can read. Most stories were read over days and sometimes weeks, and the fact that the stories were so evoking was critical so I will keep involved with each story.
Trying to describe the stories is difficult. They are written in different forms and styles. What they all share is that the characters are very well written and passionately taken care of. The settings may be historical or even quite mundane but the characters always have distinct voices and essence. The storytelling is excellent and evocative. The stories I liked the most are those that had more of a magical or fantastical tone to them like "The Last Worders". Some of the stories were a bit slow for me, or had too little action going on, but the vast majority was excellent. I give this collection four stars our of five.
November 25, 2020
A cracking selection of Fowler's fable-like stories, tales of our world slightly skewed, the fantastic elements creeping in to thwart and upend a reality we thought we knew. The strongest tales, those that linger in the mind, seem to have a hard truth at their core—the reform school horror of 'The Pelican Bar'; the holidaying twins in 'The Last Worders'; the weird war tale of 'The Dark'; the cult of immortality in 'Always'; the feuding cousins of 'Familiar Birds; and the feminist jungle adventure of title tale 'What I Didn't See'—beginning on familiar ground, with familiar people, but then the ground shifts, or—more disturbingly—the people do, and you're in Fowler's world, with Fowler's rules. Except there are no rules, just fantastic truths.
Not a perfect collection; I didn't enjoy either of the Wilkes Booth stories, possibly down to my lack of familiarity with the history, though both seemed to offer no strong narrative to the layman, and a couple more seemed more like fragments than complete tales, but all of those mentioned are five star stories, and everything else is pretty damn close.
Not a perfect collection; I didn't enjoy either of the Wilkes Booth stories, possibly down to my lack of familiarity with the history, though both seemed to offer no strong narrative to the layman, and a couple more seemed more like fragments than complete tales, but all of those mentioned are five star stories, and everything else is pretty damn close.
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