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Report to the Men's Club and Other Stories
What if the world ended on your birthday—and no one came? What if your grandmother was a superhero? Recommended to readers of Judy Budnitz, Geoff Ryman, Aimee Bender, and Grace Paley this fourth collection by the wonderful Carol Emshwiller includes the Nebula winning story "Creature."
282 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2002
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197 people want to read
About the author
Carol Emshwiller
143 books91 followersCarol Emshwiller is an American writer of avant garde short stories and science fiction who has won prizes including the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards. Ursula K. Le Guin has called her "a major fabulist, a marvelous magical realist, one of the strongest, most complex, most consistently feminist voices in fiction." In 2005, she was awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. Her most recent novel, The Secret City, was published in April 2007.
She is the widow of the artist and experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller . Their son is the actor, artist, screenwriter, and novelist Peter Emshwiller .
She is the widow of the artist and experimental filmmaker Ed Emshwiller . Their son is the actor, artist, screenwriter, and novelist Peter Emshwiller .
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 24, 2014
“Report to the Men’s Club” is a collection of short stories by Carol Emshwiller that spans her career from 1977 to 2002. I was curious about Emshwiller, having come across her name in numerous places; none of the summaries of her novels especially interested me so I decided to discover her via this collection.
There is no theme that connects the stories in this collection but there is discernible similarity in the writing style. The 19 stories, seven of which had not been previously published, cover several different genres - mythic fiction, science fiction, fairy tales/folklore.
“Acceptance Speech,” about a woman who is kidnapped by aliens to write poetry, is perhaps the story that falls most clearly into the science fiction genre. “Grandma,” a sort of tall tale variant of mythic fiction, is the recounting of a woman’s years as a superhero as recalled by her granddaughter. In the folklorish “Creature” a man adopts a monster that isn’t quite what it seems to be.
The ideas are imaginative and clever but for whatever reason the stories did not resonate with me. I was never captivated by a story. I never felt the bewitching enchantment of the author’s storytelling skill. I never felt the lingering echo of the stories still resounding in my heart days later in the way a truly masterful story tends to do.
“Report to the Men’s Club” is a good collection of short stories - solid, respectable, and well written - but for me they were unremarkable and forgettable.
There is no theme that connects the stories in this collection but there is discernible similarity in the writing style. The 19 stories, seven of which had not been previously published, cover several different genres - mythic fiction, science fiction, fairy tales/folklore.
“Acceptance Speech,” about a woman who is kidnapped by aliens to write poetry, is perhaps the story that falls most clearly into the science fiction genre. “Grandma,” a sort of tall tale variant of mythic fiction, is the recounting of a woman’s years as a superhero as recalled by her granddaughter. In the folklorish “Creature” a man adopts a monster that isn’t quite what it seems to be.
The ideas are imaginative and clever but for whatever reason the stories did not resonate with me. I was never captivated by a story. I never felt the bewitching enchantment of the author’s storytelling skill. I never felt the lingering echo of the stories still resounding in my heart days later in the way a truly masterful story tends to do.
“Report to the Men’s Club” is a good collection of short stories - solid, respectable, and well written - but for me they were unremarkable and forgettable.
Read
December 27, 2022this was a really smooth, interesting read. carol emshwiller is impressively entirely herself; or maybe i'm just not well-read enough in new wave/weird fiction; but her voice, her way of looking at the world and of expressing that perspective, came through as uniquely personal to her in this very stunning way.
i was tantalized (if a little personally discouraged) and also again impressed by how she manages to finish off every story with such a wild amount of loose ends/ambiguity/etc. without it coming off as abrupt or frustrating. i do think i read this whole collection way too fast; each story felt like it deserved like 3-4 passes or like a book club to digest and figure out where the story Would have gone if it hadn't ended ambiguously. similarly the perspectives she uses are a little sly; you never can tell what the POV is thinking, or the perspective of the POV chara is not that of the main chara, or the POV chara is addressing another chara in second person and drops the context a third-party reader would need to explicitly 'get it' ... this collection defo needs a exegetic reading is all i'm saying, and it's so writerly of a collection. really enjoyed the craft here.
thematically a lot of these stories are about women, or womanhood in a neurotic way that she pulled off really well. the women in her stories are trapped by their societal roles as women, but she adds this neat twist where if there are patriarchal jailers, we don't get to see them, so their trappedness and their need to escape feels in a way self-inflicted, neurotic. also the 'role' isn't just classic 50s domesticity all the time (though it often is); the collection starts out strong with 'Grandma', a story about an old woman who is neglected by her loved ones but mostly because she chooses to be -- she used to be Wonder Woman and could fly and rescue people, and now 'doesn't want to be a bother' and only allows her child-aged grandchild to help her out of bed and stuff. i loved this piece, it felt very resonant to how when (especially) mothers take on the caretaker role, they can never let it go even when they need to be the ones taken care of. this is a kind of societal trap that exists and is less depicted than the woman toiling in the kitchen narrative, i guess.
my favorite work this read was "one part of the self is always tall and dark", which is about some sort of house wife who is definitely not getting enough sex and her husband is too busy and she feels neglected and there are too many kids around, but has this constant refrain about how she's waiting to go crazy; this pot about to boil over energy that resonated so hard, of like, need to just fucking lose it but there not being an appropriate moment to do so. it ruled.
read this collection!
i was tantalized (if a little personally discouraged) and also again impressed by how she manages to finish off every story with such a wild amount of loose ends/ambiguity/etc. without it coming off as abrupt or frustrating. i do think i read this whole collection way too fast; each story felt like it deserved like 3-4 passes or like a book club to digest and figure out where the story Would have gone if it hadn't ended ambiguously. similarly the perspectives she uses are a little sly; you never can tell what the POV is thinking, or the perspective of the POV chara is not that of the main chara, or the POV chara is addressing another chara in second person and drops the context a third-party reader would need to explicitly 'get it' ... this collection defo needs a exegetic reading is all i'm saying, and it's so writerly of a collection. really enjoyed the craft here.
thematically a lot of these stories are about women, or womanhood in a neurotic way that she pulled off really well. the women in her stories are trapped by their societal roles as women, but she adds this neat twist where if there are patriarchal jailers, we don't get to see them, so their trappedness and their need to escape feels in a way self-inflicted, neurotic. also the 'role' isn't just classic 50s domesticity all the time (though it often is); the collection starts out strong with 'Grandma', a story about an old woman who is neglected by her loved ones but mostly because she chooses to be -- she used to be Wonder Woman and could fly and rescue people, and now 'doesn't want to be a bother' and only allows her child-aged grandchild to help her out of bed and stuff. i loved this piece, it felt very resonant to how when (especially) mothers take on the caretaker role, they can never let it go even when they need to be the ones taken care of. this is a kind of societal trap that exists and is less depicted than the woman toiling in the kitchen narrative, i guess.
my favorite work this read was "one part of the self is always tall and dark", which is about some sort of house wife who is definitely not getting enough sex and her husband is too busy and she feels neglected and there are too many kids around, but has this constant refrain about how she's waiting to go crazy; this pot about to boil over energy that resonated so hard, of like, need to just fucking lose it but there not being an appropriate moment to do so. it ruled.
read this collection!
September 2, 2010
delightful magical realism with very simple, quirky twists. Emshwiller manages to achieve a level of simplicity to her prose and story ideas that can be disarming - what if superheroes aged? what would two lonely sister spinsters do if they found a humanoid lab experiment? each is presented with a child-like wink, and many are done just as quickly. the characters are conflicted but persistent, sometimes they are quite oblivious to their own situations - and endearingly so. sometimes monsters act like children. it's that winking, again. unfortunately, as charming as they were, many of the stories were somewhat forgettable.
December 23, 2025
Report to the Men's Club is a collection of personal stories from the author (Carol Emshwiller). While many of these did get a small chuckle out of me in the descriptions of certain characters or background moments, I found most of the overall stories very forgettable. None of the stories were tied together (in any way really), so it was also easy to get details of each mixed up with each other. There were plenty of interesting points brought up about the author's personal thoughts on complex topics (such as the nuances of male and female relationships), and many of these make for great discussion. Good read if you're into science fiction or for a book club looking for open discussion topics.
March 31, 2011
If you care about women, or animals, you should read this! It is soooooo good. Emshwiller writes deeply sympathetic characters who struggle with mental illness, patriarchy, identity, belief, and other huge issues, but in such a creative and beautiful and winsome way, I could barely put the book down. In particular I loved "Venus Rising" and "Foster Mother" - both were so sweet and sad I'm having a hard time returning this little book to the library. The stories are a mix of sci fi, mythmaking, and very believable first-person narrative. The quality of the writing is excellent; Emshwiller seems able to put herself into the shoes of the most implausible characters with the most imaginative and challenging states of mind and language use, and yet remains eminently readable.
July 5, 2019
The stories in this collection are not all of equal quality. Some- like the novella Venus Rising- are wonderfully imagined but had some pacing issues that challenged my ability to remain enthralled with the narrative. The stories at the center of the collection, i.e. "It Comes From Deep Inside," "Prejudice and Pride," "Report to the Men's Club," "Water Master," "Abominable," and "Desert Child" are phenomenal, offering commentary on gender, perception, and community. Many of the stories, specifically the ones that open the collection, as well as the last two, feel like they are missing something. Those stories felt sketchlike, but not postmodern or minimalist enough where they compel me as a reader.
July 21, 2016
Love her writing style. Got a visual in my head of a gleeful cloud just about to unleash a tornado funnel. Some of the stories are poignantly personal: After All in particular. The Water Master is a favorite; Grandma. It's unusual and welcome to find a short story collection with all of the entrants excellent reading. Will be reading her other short story collections in the near future. For those who'd like a sampling to savor, here's a link, including a couple that are in the Men's Club collection. http://www.freesfonline.de/authors/Ca...
August 14, 2007
An aged superhero and her granddaughter. Bickering sisters whose lives are altered by the discovery of a small winged male. A woman in search of art. A tale from the time when humans lived in the sea. These stories and the others that make up Carol Emshwiller’s Report to the Men’s Club are all very different in many ways. But they have their similarities, too, namely an intense interest in how folks (human or otherwise) relate to one another and an impish sense of humor.
September 26, 2008
I expected more from this book, because I'd read a couple of the author's short stories in the past, and also really enjoyed The Mount, one of her novels. These stories were interesting enough, just not arresting or overly memorable.
August 27, 2017
Great collection of short stories, with some very interesting premises. Even the ones that didn't grab my attention so much were well written. Also a good mix of styles in the different stories, from funny to smart to creepy.
July 1, 2017
Most of the stories in this collection are written in first person with the same voice. By about 50% of the way I was weary of it.
November 29, 2017
Eh, I found one or two of them okay, but most didn't do anything for me.
December 22, 2020
Emshwiller is So. Freaking. Weird. I say that as a compliment. I have no doubt many readers will give this 1 star and be unable to finish, but for me, the absurdity of it all, combined with the completely believable characters, makes her unlike any other writer.
September 17, 2024
A lovely set of stories, even when they deal with heavy subjects (and they do, and often). Some of it is practically mythic, some is heartbreaking, all good, all great.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews