Anonymous says:

OK, here’s the deal; I’ve read all of the reviews and agree with all of the non-five star reviewers. Every “less-than-favorable” review is dead-on. Unfortunately, these reviewers are too polite.
I too listen to NPR. I too have read Paul Auster. I’ve also read this book. This book really tries. Unfortuately, every ’story-teller’ seems to have graded poorly in High School Creative Writing. The quality of the writing completely disctracted me from the content. I’m no elitist snob – but I am not that far off here. I agree with a previous reviewer who compared these stories to content in Reader’s Digest. With one exception: Reader’s Digest uses actual writers – not the old man at the end of your street.
Rating: 1 / 5

Keith Levenberg says:

If you’re like me and you sought out this collection because you enjoy Paul Auster’s books, you will probably be disappointed. This is a book for the supermarket checkout line that evinces none of the ominous twists and keen language that make Auster’s own stories so compelling.

The book’s stories are sorted by category. Under “War,” for example, you will find the sort of self-indulgent reminiscences that belong in one of Tom Brokaw’s insipid “greatest generation” tomes. Other categories are similarly disappointing. There are love stories as stale as Hallmark cards. And there are the obligatory saccharine Christmas stories as wretch-inducing as “A Very Special…” episode of a bad sitcom. (The movie /Smoke/ features Auster’s own “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story,” suggesting he may have a soft spot for this genre–but it takes a talent as formidable as Auster’s to execute such pure schmaltz competently.)

There is also a very subtle pretension in each story. In the context of the volume, each seems to present itself as a slice of Americana–to suggest to readers that in its simplicity a deeper truth about who we are is buried. That would have been fine were it not so deliberate. But each story, evidently fashioned with that goal in mind, has the character of a tall tale about to beat you over the head with a Deep Insight. Consequently, many have no more credibility than an Internet chain letter, which some will undoubtedly become at some point in the future.

As such, what I found most bothersome was that they all purport to be true stories, but many simply do not pass the smell test. NPR’s National Story Project, we are told, solicited listeners to submit their own true stories touching on such themes as fate and family–”true stories that sounded like fiction,” notes Auster in the introduction. In their zeal to be read aloud on National Public Radio it appears many contributors attempted to craft fiction that sounded like true stories.

Although a handful of the very short stories here are interesting enough to merit folding a corner or placing a yellow stickie, the majority are a waste. I do not even feel comfortable shelving it beside the Paul Auster volumes in my bookcase. The Publishers Weekly review on this page dubbing this a “bathroom book” may have stumbled upon a solution to that quandary.
Rating: 2 / 5