This is the second book of short stories I have reviewed recently, and certainly the one I enjoyed the most. This is Sana Krasikov’s first effort, and while it has its problems, it is a very promising beginning.

Krasikov is a Russian writer and this collection of short stories is all about immigrants and their families and struggles. Some are set in the US, some in Russia, but it’s all about parents and children, husbands and wives, the new country and the old country. It reminded me a lot of Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri – also stories about immigrants – but happier and more hopeful. Instead of seeming powerless against their misery, Krasikov’s characters make choices, change directions, and make the best of bad situations.

One of my favorite stories in the collection is “Better Half”: Anya marries Ryan too soon in their relationship, to get her green card more quickly, and when the marriage sours, she finds it hard to let go of him. I felt Krasikov did a great job of capturing all the conflicting feelings of the end of a relationship – the longing to stay together, the drive to be apart, the anger and the fondness and the familiarity. I also enjoyed “Debt”, a story about a couple that has made a happy, prosperous life here in the US, but is struggling with their family ties. The way the couple values what they have together and makes a difficult choice, knowing the consequences, was really touching.

The only thing that keeps this from being a really stellar work is the focus on infidelity. It seems that the women in every story are either having affairs with married men, or their husbands are having affairs, or their husband has a second wife somewhere. The only saving grace is that in at least some cases, the women are able to break out of these bad relationships and change their course.

My copy was an Advanced Reader Copy; you can pre-order your copy here.

I often get book recommendations from friends – we all do, I suppose. You generally know whose taste in books is in line with your own and you sort the recs out that way. In the case of Haruki Murakami, my reading friends are at different ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, a friend with excellent taste (but no great love for Japanese culture) hates him. On the other, a well-read friend whose taste usually runs pretty parallel to mine not only loves him but has given me one of his other novels to read. The only option here was to dig in and see for myself.

I’m afraid I have added this to the abandoned book pile. The writing is top-notch – Murakami does a fabulous job of creating strange, surreal atmospheres for these stories. The problem was the formula. In “UFO in Kushiro”, you have a damaged person (Komura’s wife has left him), in a weird situation (sent to a strange city by a coworker to deliver a package, entertained by the coworker’s weird sister and her weirder friend) who has a revelation (there is nothing inside him). The End. In “Landscape with Flatiron” you have two damaged people (Junko, a runaway, and Miyake, an artist, both estranged from their families), in a strange situation (watching Miyake obsess over building the perfect bonfire on the beach), who have a revelation (Junko decides she is empty inside, Miyake tells her they can die together). The End. Story after story seemed to develop the same way until I had no interest in the next one.

I will still give the novel a try – a different format, a different formula, and I could see his work being a very interesting read – but this particular set of stories was not for me.

In the introduction to this book, Christopher Golden says of the author: Joe Hill is one stealthy bastard. Indeed he is. This is a nice assortment of stories – some obviously horror, some strange and disturbing, some rather sweet. The title piece read more like a love story than a ghost story. “Best New Horror” makes me think a bit about what it would be like to drop by and visit Ed Gein and family. “Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead” is bizarre and funny, while “My Father’s Mask” is just bizarre. All in all, a good collection and it ends on a very high note, with one of my favorite stories in the book, “Voluntary Commitment.”

In “Voluntary Commitment”, Nolan is a fairly typical teenager, maybe a bit of a screw-up, with some shady friends and a very odd younger brother. Morris is a strange little boy in a world of his own, building Dixie cup towers and marvelous cardboard forts in the family’s basement. The story has that feeling of dread about it – you know something bad is going to happen, you’re pretty sure you know how it’s going to happen, you’re just waiting for the axe to fall. I worried about Morris; he seemed awfully vulnerable, you always are when no one really understands you. And the ending is what you were afraid it was going to be, what you knew it was going to be, all along.

My favorite story of the bunch was “Pop Art”, a story about a kid whose best friend in high school was an inflatable boy. Yes, inflatable – it’s one of those weird genetic things that skips a generation. The way everyone just seems to accept this, the practical difficulties of being inflated, the way Art is terrorized by the local bullies (easy when every thumb tack is a potential lethal weapon) …maybe I just have a soft spot for vulnerable boys. It also contains perhaps my favorite line in the whole book: “I’m sorry, but realistically, what are the odds you’re going to get beat up by the grand champion of the spelling bee?”

“You Will Hear The Locust Sing” is a great metaphor for boys growing up – all of a sudden you’re a whole new creature and none of your parts will do what you tell them to and even if you want to go back, you can’t. “The Black Phone” and “Abraham’s Boys” are first-rate scary stuff. I enjoyed each and every one.

There is one detail that is very carefully not mentioned – not in the author biography, not in the acknowledgments, not anywhere – so I won’t spoil this bit of mystery by mentioning it here. After all, if you can look at the picture on the back of the book and not see the resemblence…well, there’s no help for you.

And one more thing – you’ve surely had friends tell you recently that when you go to the theater to see Iron Man or one of a handful of other current movies, be sure you stay to the end – all the way to the end. You don’t want to miss the last, hidden treat at the very end of the film, after the credits. The same admonition applies here. Don’t miss it.