Disruptions: Stories

by Steven Millhauser

An exquisite new collection from a Pulitzer Prize-winning master of the short story, the culmination of a five-decade career: work that takes us beneath the placid surface of suburban life into the elusive strangeness of the everyday.

Here are eighteen stories of astonishing range and precision. A housewife drinks alone in her Connecticut living room. A guillotine glimmers above a sleepy town green. A pre-recorded customer service message sends a caller into a reverie of unspeakable yearning. With the deft touch and funhouse-mirror perspectives for which he has won countless admirers, Steven Millhauser gives us the towns, marriages, and families of a quintessential American lifestyle that is at once instantly recognizable and profoundly unsettling. Disruptions is a collection of provocative, bracingly original new work from a writer at the peak of his form.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Horror, Fantasy, Adult Fiction, Audiobook

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2023

About the author

Millhauser was born in New York City, grew up in Connecticut, and earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1965. He then pursued a doctorate in English at Brown University. He never completed his dissertation but wrote parts of Edwin Mullhouse and From the Realm of Morpheus in two separate stays at Brown. Between times at the university, he wrote Portrait of a Romantic at his parents' house in Connecticut. His story "The Invention of Robert Herendeen" (in The Barnum Museum) features a failed student who has moved back in with his parents; the story is loosely based on this period of Millhauser's life.

Until the Pulitzer Prize, Millhauser was best known for his 1972 debut novel, Edwin Mullhouse. This novel, about a precocious writer whose career ends abruptly with his death at age eleven, features the fictional Jeffrey Cartwright playing Boswell to Edwin's Johnson. Edwin Mullhouse brought critical acclaim, and Millhauser followed with a second novel, Portrait of a Romantic, in 1977, and his first collection of short stories, In The Penny Arcade, in 1986.

Possibly the most well-known of his short stories is "Eisenheim the Illusionist" (published in "The Barnum Museum"), based on a pseudo-mythical tale of a magician who stunned audiences in Vienna in the latter part of the 19th century. It was made into the film, The Illusionist (2006).

Millhauser's stories often treat fantasy themes in a manner reminiscent of Poe or Borges, with a distinctively American voice. As critic Russell Potter has noted, "in (Millhauser's stories), mechanical cowboys at penny arcades come to life; curious amusement parks, museums, or catacombs beckon with secret passageways and walking automata; dreamers dream and children fly out their windows at night on magic carpets."

Millhauser's collections of stories continued with The Barnum Museum (1990), Little Kingdoms (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories (1998). The unexpected success of Martin Dressler in 1997 brought Millhauser increased attention. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories made the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008".

Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and teaches at Skidmore College.

Reviews

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

In turn, imaginative and fantastical, thought-provoking, humorous and unsettling Disruptions by Steven Millhauser is a remarkable collection of short stories varying in theme, length, and subject matter – a testimonial to the author’s magnificent range and versatility. The collection comprises a total of eighteen stories, some new as well as several that have been previously published.

Among my favorites in the collection ( 5⭐ ) are :
After the Beheading examines the aftermath of life in a town after the public beheading (guillotine) of a killer. Guided Tour takes us on a very realistic trip around an old city whose fame has its roots in a popular fairy tale. The Summer of Ladders follows the residents of a town as their obsession with ladders in the summer results in an almost competitive quest to climb to the highest altitude that results in dire consequences for some. The Little People studies the dynamics between humans and a community of tiny people who live in their midst. In The Column Dwellers of Our Town, the top of the columns in the city provide sanctuary to those looking to live out their lives in solitude. In Theater of Shadows a unique show performance in a new theater in town inspires the residents to drastically change their way of life. In Green, we follow a community whose idea of beatification of their neighborhoods involves the removal of all greenery.

My ratings for the remaining stories -

4⭐-Late , A Tired Town, A Common Predicament and The Circle of Punishment

3.5⭐- The Fight , A Haunted House Story , Thank You for Your Patience, Kafka in High School 1959, The Change and He Takes, She Takes.

3⭐- One Summer Night

Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this superbly penned collection of stories. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is my first time reading Steven Millhauser and it surely won’t be my last.

Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of odd, often surrealistic, short stories. I was new to this author, so I wasn’t expecting that. Several of the stories follow a similar pattern. In a seemingly ordinary small town an odd feature exists - some people choose to live atop columns, a group of citizens are only several inches tall, ladders are everywhere, lawn treatment becomes an obsessive trend, etc. some of the stories are befuddling. I particularly enjoyed the one about the Pied Piper and I wasn’t crazy about the one about the small people (I had actually read that one before and I didn’t like it then either). The book certainly held my interest and I will try something else by the author.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a champion of Millhauser's work for a long time now, ever since I was introduced to his work through one of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's fabulous Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies. I was rather excited when I heard that Millhauser had released another collection of shorts that I had somehow missed - I blame post-covid . . . well, everything.

I've always admired Millhauser's clean aesthetic and straightforward storytelling, always with a hint of something more lurking behind the scenes. After reading many more authors since my earlier Millhauserian days, I now recognize, in this collection, echoes of some of my favorite authors: Calvino, Borges, and Kafka, for instance. But I sometimes wondered as I read if these echoes were too loud, that Millhauser was dipping into these classic literary heroes of mine and regurgitating what he found there. Oh, I don't think it's anything intentional, and it probably says more about my reading journey than about his writing journey, but I couldn't help but want to compare the stories in this collection to these three authors. I showed great restraint in not doing so for almost every single story. There were times where I just couldn't help myself. The resemblance was too strong. Sadly, this made me, well, sad. My love affair with Millhauser may be coming to an end.

"One Summer Night" reminded me of the elements I love in Millhauser's fiction: the crystal clear, yet evocative prose, a sense that people are much more or less than they seem, and a liminal state of mind where a certain sinister or magical something is just around the corner, in the shadows, out of reach and that, depending on which side of the razor's edge you fall off of, you might find heaven or hell.

No, "After the Beheading" is not some kind of literary click bait. It is one of Millhauser's most morbid tales to date. But the shock doesn't come from the act of the beheading itself. It comes in the slow cessation of outrage and spectacle. The true horror here - and it is truly horrific - arises quietly, long after the execution. It is the slow swelling and expansion of indifferent acceptance, another common theme in his work.

Having taken a couple of guided tours in Europe last month, Millhauser's "Guided Tour," about a highly accurate historical tour of the town of Hamelin hit close to home. To quote from this macabre tale, "Stories have teeth . . .", and this one will take a chunk out of you. Fabulous, frightening stuff. Here Millhauser leaps from the merely strange into the truly horrific.

"Late" is what you'd expect from a story that appeared in Harpers magzine: Highly neurotic entitled city dweller obsesses about the arrival of his date to the point of insanity. Not my favorite Millhauser piece. Clever, but more than a little tedious.

Millhauser's best stories are often about community and it's complications. In "The Little People," a series of vignettes and encyclopedic entries about Greenhaven, a city within "our city" whose inhabitants are an average two inches tall, he addresses the joys and challenges, the loves and the prejudicial hates that arise between "our" culture and those of Greenhaven's residents. Though the community trope feels a little stretched at times, it's a fascinating reflection on human nature within a society.

In "Theater of Shadows," we continue with the theme of community, but this time, a community that embraces darkness and find themselves, purely by their desires and choices, in a liminal state somewhere between shadow and light. We refer to this state (though Millhauser does not) as a "Twilight Zone," and for good reason. This story is reflective (pardon the pun) of the best of Rod Serling's masterpieces. There was a sliver of a hint of folk horror in this story, as well, and it stuck in my brain long after I finished reading; always the sign of a solid story.

"The Fight" reminds us that coming of age stories can be fraught with fear and testosterone, when the fight or flight response is being honed in at such a visceral level that we don't even realize what is happening and the line between fact and fantasy blurs both for our relationships with others and for our image of our selves. Moving into proto-adulthood is no easy transition.

"A Haunted House Story" channels Robert Aickman in all the right ways. haunters and the haunted are indistinguishable, and a view of utter happiness brings on a dark gloom of despair. This story will affect you, deeply, and you will not even understand quite why. But it burrows into you. And it stays. It's terrifying by not being terrifying at all . . . until it's over.

One thing Millhauser does well is magic realism. "The Summer of Ladders" is a great example of this. The population of a town become obsessed with climbing ladders, with results that affect all the inhabitants, directly or indirectly. And an apotheosis might have happened. Maybe, just maybe. Or a disappearing act? As with most magic realism, it's so hard to tell. And in that ambiguity lies the magic. But, as I outlined in the beginning, a magic of mimesis.

"The Circle of Punishment" begs comparison to the short fiction of Borges, Kafka, and Calvino. But Millhauser here turns "kafkaism" inside out while pushing "kafkaism" even deeper into the soul in such a way that the reader is unsure whether to be relieved or even more disturbed. I've coming away thinking far too much about the interiority of social prisons, punishment we impose on ourselves, deserved or not. Again, though, I felt like this story was not "his own". Ridiculous, I know, but it was a distraction from the fiction itself, like focusing on the girders of a roller coaster rather than enjoying the ride.

The communal theme continues (yet again) with "Green" where changing fashions in landscaping (or the destruction thereof) swing wildly, with neighbors making bizarre changes to "keep up with the Jones's" in a strange display of conspicuous consumption. If you love to look good to everyone around you by following the latest trends, regardless of their utility or even sanity, well, this story is for you. And if you're an HOA board member, you're going to absolutely love this one. I was not very impressed, as the subtlety was completely worn off by the fine this tale made it to the printer.

Phone-tree hell is portrayed quite vividly in "Thank You For Your Patience". The person listening to the annoying repeated messages while waiting to speak to a human being shows her patience, even gives a practical sermon on her experiences with patience, revealing secrets to an uncaring machine. It's a sick twist on the tale of the suburban housewife, sick because it reveals just how pathetic some peoples' lives are.

The residents of a small town all fall asleep for three days in "A Tired Town". The narrator struggles to stay awake and, in so doing, experiences a silent moment on the cusp of something indescribable, but then succumbs to slumber. He awakens to the "cleanup" afterword with a sense that he somehow missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but he's not sure what it was. Serves as a reflection on busy-ness and calm. This one was a little too "on the nose" in its criticism of modern American society.

"Kafka in High School, 1959" gives us snippets of Kafka (yes, that Kafka) as an awkward nerd going through the clumsy growing pains of a teenager. It's all too normal of an alternate history, bland, with sideways glimpses of how this teenager could turn into the author we know. One can see how the awkwardness could be magnified into the bleak work we already know. And in the end, things do go strangely.

Millhauser embraces outright surrealism in his story "A Common Predicament," which is anything but common. The narrator's strange relationship with a woman whom he loves (and who loves him), though never faces him. Ever. The speculations as to why she exhibits this behavior haunt him, but he accommodates this strange quirk for the sake of their love. Definitely a story worthy of the label "disruption".

A disruption of a far more disturbing kind takes place in "The Change," a modern re-telling of the myth of Daphne, the nymph who turns into a tree to avoid the unwanted sexual advances of Apollo. But this is no myth, it's a frankly horrifying story of what it means to be a young woman in a world of hyper-charged sexuality and the rule of testosterone that mirrors the rule of the jungle. This needs a trigger warning! It's no wonder that this, unlike most of the stories here, was original to this collection - no one in their right legal mind would want to publish it in their respected literary magazine. Too chancy!

Millhauser's experimental piece, "He Takes, She Takes" jockeys back and forth using the simple phrase: "He takes the (insert thing here, she takes the (insert other thing here)". It is tediously repetitive, but between this iterative bouncing back-and-forth, a story actually seems to emerge, though it is up to the reader whether this is a story of two individuals or the story of all couples.

And we end the collection with, guess what? Yes! Another story about a strange community, "The Column Dwellers in our Town". I rather liked this slightly-surreal take on a town where some inhabitants choose to live a solitary life atop a high rock or cement column (not to exceed 140', per code). It does cause one to think hard about asceticism and social pressure in new ways. Though the subject matter was bizarre, the reflections on people's reactions to the town's setup was more subtle and believable than the other community stories in this volume. I quite liked this strange "story".

But did I like the whole collection? Sure. I guess. But not nearly as much as Millhauser's earlier work. Maybe it's him, maybe it's me, but I was longing for something with the power to immerse me in one of his little worlds, something like Enchanted Night (which I strongly recommend). Sadly, my intense love affair with Millhauser's writing may have run its course. Am I tired of it? Not entirely. But, like the inhabitants of "A Tired Town," I feel a dolor coming on. Maybe it's time to rest on Millhauser for a while?

[Ned · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purchased this hardcover in Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs, NY during vacation in July, upon the recommendation of a fine lady who welcomed my questions. I sought a “local” author, and she recommended Millhauser’s latest book of stories – he taught locally at Skidmore, and it seemed like a college town to us. We enjoyed a warm summer day shopping the streets, but my highlight was this superb bookstore. I’ve had a few experiences asking for recommendations in new bookstores, and they are generally positive if you find the right person which I can often predict by their age, dress and comportment (or perhaps I flatter myself, as my wife would suggest).

Anyhow, there was a great deal I enjoyed about these stories – but a lingering thought disturbed me that I wasn’t quite following the artistry, like it was aimed at other authors or professionals who understood the symbolism. In other words, these seemed stories to be discussed, where fresh readers would likely have very spirited discussions as to the symbolisms and use of metaphors. The word that comes to my naïve mind is “fabulist”. I’m just not a big fan, somewhat reminiscent of my time with Borges, where I admired the quality of the construction and the mystery, but it didn’t completely satisfy my craving (whatever that is). A retelling of the pied piper through the modern eyes of a tour guide who abandons his charges in the center of a cave in the mountain is a perfect example of what this book includes. I did enjoy it, just didn’t love it. This is why I give it an average rating. I read the author is best known for a novel, Martin Dressler, which I think I might enjoy more based on the blurbage suggesting more of a storyline and little or no fairytelling.

Here's an example of the depth of feeling and excellence of his prose (p. 234): “I try to imagine the shadows of her lower lashes on her high cheekbones, the perfectly chiseled groove between her narrow nostrils and her upper lip. But why should a beautiful woman remain with her back to me? Maybe she’s so beautiful and beauty has become a burden to her. There are women who attract men so powerfully though the sheer perfection of their loveliness that they come to distrust their outward appearance and long to be admired for qualities less accidental and superficial.” This contains a great deal of insight, nestled within a fable about a man who courts and marries a woman who never turns her front to him (this creates all sorts of problems which the author addresses with creative solutions). Another story is about a community of 2 inch “small people” who learn to co-exist in the small town – very creative and hilarious in parts (e.g. when a couple gets married and consummates the act, described in anatomical detail).

Perhaps Millhauser is just applying his craft to less inspired topics, doing what writers do with their fading muse – I still listen to the great Bob Dylan too, though not as often now as I did from the intense heat of his youth. So I respect this author, and appreciate his devotion to his craft. I’ll look for his earlier stuff.

[Lisa Weldy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Publication date: 8/1/23

I was expecting to like this collection way more than I actually did. The description sounded like a perfect match for me, but I was consistently bored while reading the stories, and had to force myself to finish the book.

I think part of my issue was that the stories, while all unique and very quirky/creative, just felt like they were too heavy-handed. The theme of each story was kind of beaten to death, and that turned the quirkiness into annoyance for me.

I will say that some of the stories were incredibly unique, and I appreciate that one author could come up with all of these ideas for short stories, and have them seem different from other collections out there. Ultimately, this book didn't live up to my expectations, but I do feel that the author would be an interesting person to learn more about.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've enjoyed a fair number of Millhauser's smalltown fables and intellectual games in the past. ("Eisenheim the Illusionist" and the story about flying carpets, which may or may not be titled "Flying Carpets", are favorites.) The bulk of this collection is taken up by the smalltown tales. I'm having more trouble with more of the pieces than anticipated. Maybe I've had enough of Millhauser's work, which doesn't change that much. Or maybe the smalltown Americana just seems such a blithe disconnect with what's been happening in our world in the last few years.

My favorite so far is "A Haunted House Story". The arc is similar to Mariana Enriquez's incredible "Adele's House", and for much of it sustains a similar atmosphere of tension and impending disaster. But the darkness just falls away at the end. It's Millhauser's intention, but I can't help but be disappointed.

[Christopher Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mixed bag of decent ideas that usually involve something relatively banal being taken to a distressing extreme. I had hoped to love this much more, but the tone is fairly dry and documentarian throughout most of these oddball accounts. Often times it manifests as this: a regular town has a strange new fascination — ladders! columns! shadows! plants! — the origins and facts are plainly explained, and then we move on. The overuse of this format made for a repetitious read where most tales resemble one another. A few highlights did break the mold in tone or subject, which I do recommend: Guided Tour, The Change, and A Haunted House Story. The rest are enjoyable enough taken alone, but in concert they blur together and become far too predictable in their form of strangeness.

[Kristen Bookrvws · Rating 5 out of 5]

eerie stories about American life, exploring norms, subversion, peculiarity, etc. My favorite story is either Beheadings or Theatre of Shadows

Really enjoyed most of these, I found them to be well-paced and cohesive. Only note is that they some are a bit repetitive

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man dates a woman for two years while seeing her only from the back, never her face. A town decides to tear up all its greenery and replace it with stone, marble or other hard surfaces. Another town has a history of building stone columns 60 to 140 feet tall, atop which certain people decide to spend the rest of their lives.

Welcome to Millhauser territory.

Millhauser presents stories that aren't really fantasy, but in which strange behavior is presented and often normalized. His characters are continually questioning themselves: Why are we doing this? How should we think about this? Should we think about it differently? There's a lot of contemplation in a Millhauser story.

And that's the lovely thing about it. He's questioning you, the reader: How do YOU think about this? Should you think about it differently? Is it really strange to you, or does it seem to make sense in a certain way?

I love how these stories could actually exist in real life. As I said, there's no overt fantasy involved, it's just a different way for humans to behave or to think.

So how do you think? Perhaps you should read Millhauser and learn to think differently.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird how I couldn't keep the title straight in my head over three months, like, "Oh, I have a moment, maybe I should plunk down and read a story from Distractions?"

Detected a note of bitterness amongst the trademark Millhauserian late 50s Madison Avenue teenage bobbysoxer Coca Cola ad meets Twilight Zone nostalgia. Perhaps because many of these tales were written at the height of Covid-19 cocooning?

Sequencing needs to be as strong as possible in a collection, and this one ends on a weak note. "Kafka in High School 1959" should have been the send-off.

[Rhiannon Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from the publisher




Don't you just love it when you read something out of your comfort zone and it pays off? I'm not usually a fan of short story collections, and I had never heard of Steven Millhauser, but this collection being described as a glimpse "beneath the placid surface of suburban life into the elusive strangeness of the everyday" really caught my attention. I read the first story to get a feel for the author's style (after which point I often give up) and felt like I discovered a hidden gem. Then I found "it." You know "it"...that short story that just really sticks in your brain. In this collection, it is "Guided Tour." I haven't been this mesmerized by a short story since reading Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. Such a treat!



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[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're good at waiting, you and me. It's what we do. Me and you, girls. It's what women do. Boys take, girls wait. Put that on your bumper. p165
from the story
Thank You For Your Patience

Beneath the surface of the pleasant, ordinary neighborhoods presented in most of these stories, it doesn't take long for the one anomaly to surface, changing everything. At least for the time it takes to change perspective.

Even when we don't wait, we wait. p171 ibid

SM skillfully blends creepiness with humour. Whether he is exploring the nature of obsession or talking back to the machine, his unflappable narrators are the survivors of the everyday bizarre.

We do not really know what they are doing up there. p250
from the story
The Column Dwellers of ourTown

[Geoff Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book comes out on the publish date of Monday, July 31, 2023, ad I understand.

was so pleased with Disruptions. I have been reading Stephen Millhauser since his 1997 Pulitzer Prize winning Martin Dressler novel.

But if you know Millhauser’s work, you know he succeeds most fully in the short story format. Disruptions is a master deck of brief, odd universes. I am so pleased with the variety of settings here, as well as the trademark MillHauser intricacies of the worlds he creates.

The author has never been as obsessive as he is in the MUST-read “Summer of Ladders” (my fave of the collection). His story of miniatures, “The Little People” is a deeply disturbed, wildly wrought love story between the land of giants and the hearts of tiny fairy men and women.

I heartily commend this collection. It is about half new stories, and about half previously published elsewhere.

Special things to Net Galley for the early access to this title, in exchange, for an honest, unbiased review.

I will be purchasing my own copy of this book. I am thrilled with it.

[Jaksen]

Short stories, which are something I do love. But read a few of these and couldn't really get into them. Some are horror, others snippets of life seen through various lenses, but with an overall bland sense of...vagueness. When I read a short I don't want to keep looking to see how many pages to the end. When this starts to happen...

Just not the book for me.

DNF. Did not finish. No rating.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these stories! Lots of echoes of one of my favorite Millhauser stories, “The Maker of Miniatures.” Most of these are about weird stuff that happens to whole towns: everyone getting rid of their sidewalks, people deciding to live on top of giant columns, a contagious obsession with ladders, everyone becoming very sleepy. My favorite story was the adult version of The Borrowers. So fun and imaginative!

[Ellen M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book felt a bit like realizing your parents don’t know everything (sorry dad).

Millhauser has been my favorite author for a decade. Voices in the Night and Knife Thrower changed the way my brain works. His ability to hypnotize you into a fever dream is unmatched. No need for characters or even a plot necessarily, just language that lets you hear, see, and feel everything with perfect clarity. It’s amazing.

Something you learn quickly, though, is that he has his favorite things. Runaway brilliance/invention, the co-dependency of two opposing forces (Cat and Mouse is one of the best pieces of American fiction, I think), suburbs in the summer, hazy discontented ambition, miniatures/automatons, and especially the manifestation of social malaise into observable phenomena like trees, ladders, and hysterical laughter.

I love that stuff! He does it very well and I eat it up every time! This is, however, the seventh or eighth book that stays almost exclusively in those bounds. Seeing as this is likely his last collection, it was a bit of a letdown to see that he stayed firmly in his comfort zone. Three of these stories were basically carbon copies of each other, and his now almost constant use of suburbia as a setting and central narrative device is a sad departure from the creativity he’s used before.

There were some gems though! Theater of Shadows was good, and Circle of Punishment was FABULOUS. Late and A Common Predicament felt like a continuation of Thirteen Wives in a good way.

If you’ve never read Millhauser before, you’ll enjoy this but should consider starting with some of his other collections. If you’ve read Millhauser before, just prepare mentally for “the usual.” Enjoyable read and I will love his work until I die, but wasn’t the final hoorah I was hoping for.

[Pop Bop · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a selection of well written stories, all of which bear the distinctive Millhauser imprint. There are some fine lines, a few well-conceived set pieces, a fair share of perceptive and insightful observations, and occasionally a lean and edgy narrative drive. That said, try as I might I found neither the characters, nor their situations, nor the overall thrust of the stories engaging enough to arouse or hold my curiosity and attention. Apart from two or three stories that broke new ground, most of the stories followed a similar structure, with similar surreal centerpieces around which whimsical narratives could be constructed. Each story would probably be quite satisfying if encountered alone, say in a magazine or a general anthology. But when collected in one book the similarities became so obvious as to be distracting. As a consequence, it doesn't seem fair to write much more of a review, apart from encouraging inquisitive readers, especially those unfamiliar with Millhauser, to give the book a try.

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What struck me first was the resemblance to Twilight Zone stories, or Sci Fi, or Washington Irving. But, as I progressed through the fourteen stories, I began to think there was something Kafkaesque about these stories. I'm no Kafka scholar, but my impression was then confirmed by Millhauser's story of Kafka in High School as if told in 1st person by Kafka himself. These are great stories, and, if they were inspired, even in some small way by Kafka, that's alright with me. The stories are full of wonder, and social commentary. The commentary never intrudes on the stories. The stories provoke you into thinking of our societies and habits, our foibles, and eccentricities. And, more than once, intrude on our complacency. All of which simply flows from the storylines, which are impossible not to enjoy. The stories intrigue. The stories shock at first but become normalized, rational, and hard to ignore. What thoughts these stories provoked in my simple brain! Millhauser writes outside the box, far outside the box, perhaps from the top of a tall stone pillar, observing us from above.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see why steven won a pulitzer.

I wasn't sold on the first story, nor the second, when i frankly almost DNF'd. But after putting this aside a few days and figuring, okay let's power through it, i hit the third story, "Tour Guide."

The rest is history.

This is such a captivating collection of stories ranging in absurdity and length, but nearly always connecting to a tenant of humanity while presenting an utterly bizarre series of events. Great for fans of Night Vale and other such pseudo-horror media.

[Richard Gorelick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading these unsettling stories. My favorite was The Change.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 :/ Well written! but the majority of the stories were simply not interesting to me personally

[Anya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book hovered between 3 and 4 stars for me. Some stories were laugh out loud funny or entertainingly odd. A lot of them felt like an episode of that old fiction podcast Welcome to Nightvale. Others were a bit lackluster or felt repetitive when I read them back to back

[Chris Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool short stories. Some were among the best I’ve ever read with imaginative worlds that felt real and a drive away, but with sinister or odd fixations of the communities that made me ponder the world my world and the rules by which we live. A few of the stories were repetitive, but still enjoyable. Fun to read in the car with a friend.

Also really cool cover art in my opinion

[Sam Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I AM LIVING OMG.
I am so thankful to Knopf Books, Steven Millhauser, Netgalley, and PRH Audio for sending physical, digital, and audio access to Disruptions: Stories before this baby hits shelves on August 1, 2023.

This is a collection of 18 different stories that depict humorous, literary, horrific, and outlandish themes all throughout the course of the book. I had the luxury of listening to this one on audiobook while doing household chores and it was the perfect palette cleanser in between the gruesome true crime depictions and horror reads.

[John Calia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I heard the author interviewed on NPR’s Book of the Day Podcast, and he was a complex and interesting individual.

Steven Milhauser’s strength as a writer is in describing the world his characters inhabit. Each short story in this volume takes place in some imaginary town, which seem like normal everyday American small towns. In each case, there is a “disruption” that is bizarre. And the characters are either the bizarre element or might be experiencing it.

In some cases, the story is fascinating, such as the town where a vacant lot is occupied by a community to two-inch-tall people. As they venture forth into the larger neighborhoods that surround them, the locals start by embracing them out of curiosity, and end by exhibiting the usual bigotry such communities are often known for.

But, in the end, I found myself bored. Each of these adventures could be written in one and a half to three pages. Instead they lasted for 8, 10, or even 30. It’s kind of like someone who gets a laugh by telling a joke, and then repeats it over and over.

Sorry, but I can’t recommend this book.

[Jack Hochstetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short stories because of the way that they leave you asking questions and wanting more. Disruptions is a collection of short stories that are surreal, odd, and unique – and for the most part, are incredibly gripping.

The author does an amazing job of painting (seemingly) normal American towns, and then adding a twist that leaves you questioning how the narrator can describe the situation in such a nonchalant way. Many of these stories remind me of a suburban Twilight Zone.

As much as I love the book, it gets 4 stars for me because some of the stories didn't give me as much as I would have liked. There's also a repetitiveness to the formula Millhauser used, but it didn't bother me too much. Overall, I enjoyed most of the stories, and some of favorites include: Theater of Shadows, Guided Tour, and A Tired Town.

[Tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m glad I’m done with this one. That “what if Kafka was a 15 year old boy in the ‘50s” story was one of the most boring and pointless things I’ve read. The rest of the stories ranged in quality. They’re just so formulaic. We live in a town - something weird happens - it escalates - here is how children/teens/the elderly react to the thing - finally everything goes back to normal. Or it’s just like, “a passing breeze reminded me of the ennui of my childhood and I stopped for a second to reminisce” and that’s the whole story. The story with the tiny people and the one about the columns were ok.

[Jeff Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“She knew only that she could no longer continue in the old way.”

So a character is described in the final story of Steven Millhauser’s new collection, “Disruptions.” But this could also be said of the collection itself, as Millhauser—a dependable master of the short story form—seems to have shifted slightly.

Don’t misunderstand: the stories in “Disruptions” abound with Millhauser-ian touches: the first-person-collective voice, a type of magical realism juxtaposed with everyday life, and some stories where bafflingly little happens. However, there also seems to be more of an overriding theme than before, and said theme is… (gasp!) the suburbs.

Yes, just as Richard Ford’s 2002 collection “A Multitude of Sins” was bound by the subject of adultery, so too are the stories in “Disruptions” bound by A) Suburban life’s features (marriages, families, adolescents, home upkeep, dinner dates) and B) Suburban life’s themes (stability, conformity, boredom, vague discontentedness, longing for something beyond the [ostensibly desired] safety and luxury)… Consider the title itself: what, exactly, is being disrupted?

Of course, these stories are still Millhauser’s version of the suburbs, one familiar to readers of the collections he’s put out for five decades now. Similar to how Stephen King uses a boilerplate setting for his fiction, Millhauser has a locale from which he rarely deviates: small-to-medium New England towns where residents still read the local paper, vote in local elections, and enjoy pastimes such as trips to the beach and Ping-Pong (indeed, there was something obscenely incongruent in seeing the words ‘YouTube’ and ‘iPhone’ in a Millhauser story). And that’s the key to much of his writing: Millhauser evokes a sense of the communal rarely seen in the modern era.

So, agree or disagree, but I say “Disruptions” is as much an indictment of suburban living as anything Tom Perotta’s put out… albeit in a much, much different vein.

(Highlights include “After the Beheading,” “The Little People,” and “The Change”)

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in Steven Millhauser's new collection "Disruptions" have a very distinctive style. They are nostalgic, with a touch of the fantastical and a collectivization of the narrator. In other words, the narrators are often less in the way of fully developed individuals whose experiences we learn about than windows into the town and the idiosyncrasies or trends that manage to spread like wildfire, sometimes only to pass just as quickly. A quality of the narrative voice reminded me of that of "The Virgin Suicides," where the narrator is very much a "we."

In "After the Beheading," the fixture that consumes the civic life of the town is a new guillotine. In "Theater of Shadows," the town rebels against the existence of color. In "The Little People," the longest story, in which the town has neighbors who are merely 2 inches tall with whom they must coexist, there is a rebellion against height and bigness in general in the town's milieu. In "The Summer of Ladders," the fixation is now height -- of ladders that get taller and taller and taller. In "The Column Dwellers of Our Town," certain townspeople choose to reject everyday life and spend the rest of their days at the top of a column (just as long as it's not too high). In "Guided Tour," we listen to a tour guide walk through a town after the episode of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. They all speak to the powerful control of groupthink and how it can warp civic life. I found such stories to be the strongest because of their world-building.

I'd also shout out "Late," focused on a guy waiting hours after hours after hours for his date to arrive, and "A Common Predicament," about a guy who has never actually seen his girlfriend's face, which capture the same bending of reality -- the way the stories take familiar elements and stretch them to points that untether from reality.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not much of a criticism to say that Steven Millhauser's short story collection Disruptions is kind of a mixed bag in terms of quality; that's true of nearly every short story collection. Even great ones like Dubliners or Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties: Stories have at least one story that doesn't really work as well as the others. In Disruptions, this is definitely the case with many of these selections far too quirky or idiosyncratic to leave much of an impression and others belaboring the same themes--the mindless conformity of suburban life, for example--to the point of repetition. Even so, there are some really good individual stories here like "One Summer Night", which features an awkward encounter between a young man and his girlfriend's mother, "A Haunted House Story", in which a group of high school friends grows apart over their final summer before college, and the longest story here, "Kafka in High School, 1959", which has even less to do with the Czech modernist than Murakami's well-known novel. Other stories, again, vary in quality with at least three very similar stories dealing with bizarre fads sweeping small-town neighborhoods. All in all, I enjoyed Disruptions, but I imagine that these stories would have worked better in separate publications than presented together in a collection like this.