By: Andrew Sean Greer Publisher: Picador Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Picador Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 224 Publication Date: April 07, 2001
Amazon.com: An auspicious debut of American realistic short fiction, How It Was for Me manages to strike every emotional tone from sweetness to despair, like a short symphony. The dominant tone is one of rueful self-recognition, often in retrospect. In "Lost Causes," for example, a man looks back on a four-month period in his early twenties in which he was, for the first and last time, achingly beautiful, the sort of boy who makes even straight men stare in appreciation. He had no idea at the time that he been transported into beauty, and even now, recalling his brief blossoming, remembers it only through "the evidence of my face's effect: men fixing my computer for free, paying for my bus fare, arguing over me in bars." He made no important use of this four-month window, and it passed, leaving only photographs. The handsome protagonist of "The Walker" is similarly unaware, a widower who spends the evenings of his grief escorting wealthy divorcees and widows to the opera. Deftly executed, with odd, mordant touches, Greer's eleven stories put him in the ranks of Nathan Englander. With luck, he will reach as large an audience.--Regina Marler
Product Description:
In the title story of this collection, neighborhood boys crouch in a backyard toolshed, and conspire to prove their piano teachers to be witches. In "Cannibal Kings," a disillusioned young man accompanies a troubled boy on a tour of prep schools through the Pacific Northwest, only to realize that he has lost his way in life. And in "Come Live With Me And Be My Love," a middle-aged gentleman looks back at his mannered early life as a Ivy Leaguer, married to a vivacious woman but silently yearning for his best friend -- and the sacrifices that each made to uphold their compromising bargain.With a classic storyteller's gift for nuance and understanding, and a poet's grace for language, Andrew Sean Greer makes a remarkable debut with How It Was For Me.
Lyrical I really enjoyed Greer's most recent novel, The Confessions of Max Tivoli, so I thought I'd pick this previous collection of writings after the fact.
Some of the stories, in my opinion, hit me deep inside. I felt like many of the characters and Greer did a nice job of putting me into the perspective. Other stories, however, were simply confusing and over-worded.
Overall, a wonderful read. I truly wish there were more stories. Oh well...on to Path of Minor Planets, I guess...
Magic Really fine fiction is like music in that its delivery is a delight, and its crescendo is both expected and startling. Really fine fiction is magical in its ability to recount a history and yet transcend the very notion of permanence and event. Andrew Sean Greer's stories are startling and beautiful, musical and magical. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Luminous Mr. Greer's book, "How it Was for Me," is delightful. Greer writes well, his prose has a curious luminosity, and he has a remarkable eye for those key details that make a story successful. His characters are complex and interesting, their arcs always surprising and always revealing, their conflicts never tidily resolved in that self-help way found in mediocre fiction.
In these stories, Greer tackles the different faces of longing. There's love, which Greer portrays as wistful, quiet, and companionable, and belonging to the realm of women. And then there's sexual desire, which is as sharp, painful, and fleeting as a flame. Desire belongs to men, and for men, in Greer's fiction.
My favorite story by far is "Lost Causes," and that's probably because I heard him read it in Missoula, Montana.
If I have to find a flaw in the book's, it's the way Greer spins his plots. Sort of mushy, vague, and overly pretty, the kind of plots typically churned out by graduates of creative writing programs. That said, I can't wait for his novel.
"How It Was For Me" Immensely great book to read, this author is a winner.
A strong début collection Greer is a fine writer whose stories show considerable promise. He really understands people and their foibles and portrays them with insight and affection. Some of the stories can seem a bit wispy--too much mental floating and too little basic plot--but then he wows you with sentences like these: "She realized her own sad hope that Alex would arrange things, as he always had. That her life would appear behind a door for her like a surprise party." And: "Perhaps he moved, in that moment, from the half of life when you build things to the half when they fall apart."
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