Speaking With the Angel

Rating:
Summary: a stunning collection of text
Review: a truly stellar 'cast' composes this collection of short fiction - each piece a small vacation from your everyday. not only is it a great text, but it benefits an excellent charity to boot. you'll likely not be disappointed as this is one fine read.

Rating:
Summary: A completely entertaining collection of stories
Review: Author Nick Hornby has collected eleven first-person narrative short stories by mostly British writers (including one of his own) into a delightful, entertaining and almost completely satisfying addition to any short story library. First off is the cover art, of cake toppers and doll figures as personality icons. Inside are stories by authors made famous mainly by their novels, condensing their thoughts into short narrative prose.

Helen Fielding of Bridget Jones' Diary fame is short and sweet in the story Luckybitch. Actor Colin Firth proves a worthy writer in The Depth of Nothing. My personal favorites are Last Requests by Giles Smith, and The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank, which manage to encompass the most depth in the least amount of space.

I recommended this book for those who are both fans of the writers featured, or not familiar with their work, since this is a fabulous introduction.

Rating:
Summary: I left this book on the train
Review: First, the bad part: I expected to really enjoy this book. Despite an all-star list of contributing authors, it ends up being less than the sum of its parts. I got the feeling (especially from Dave Eggers' and Helen Fielding's stories) that some of the contributions were throw-away stories that the authors happened to have lying around. I had to skip over Colin Firth's Department of Nothing after the first two pages (is it possible for a short story to drag that much?).

And now, the good part: Part of the [money] I spent went to a charity for autistic children, so there's not much to complain about there. And Nick Hornby, Melissa Bank, Patrick Marber, Giles Smith and Roddy Doyle's stories were the best of the bunch. Hornby's "NippleJesus" is probably the best story in the book. I wish there had been another 2 or 3 pages to Zadie Smith's "I'm the only one"; it was entertaining, but very short.

If you happen to find a used copy somewhere and have [some money] burning a hole in your pocket, it might be worth picking up. I ended up leaving my copy on the T in the hopes that someone would pick it up and enjoy it more than I did.

Rating:
Summary: Great way to learn about other authors
Review: This collection of shorts is wonderful. Almost every story was enjoyable and all were well written. Many of the stories give the reader a glimpse into the styles of some authors that one may have not read. Most of the stories are only long enough to help you decide whether you want to read a novel by the same author. A few stories run long enough to understand more about the authors storytelling ability than just their writing style. The collection is highlighted by Nick Hornby's own addition. Dave Egger's story was the only one that left me dissapointed for all the others if the story itself did not do it for me the writing style and voice made me want to try the authors' novels. This is a book that should not be passed up by any readers who enjoy the works of any of these authors or readers who are lloking for new and upcoming authors to read.

Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: I bought this book trusting that Nick Hornby would be sure to solicit stories from writers of a high calibre. He was the only one of the group that I had actually read before. I usually read literature that is at least 50 years old but more likely 100 or 200 years old -authors such as Tolstoy, Henry James, H.G. Wells, Balzac, Hawthorne, Mann, etc. But I get a craving for something contemporary every once in a while. Well, the first three stories were fine. They were certainly not deep stories but they were entertaining and well written (the authors were Robert Harris, Melissa Bank, and Giles Smith). I thought, if this keeps up I will be able to recommend this book. The next three stories however (by Patrick Marber, Colin Firth, and Zadie Smith) were abysmal duds. Still, three out of six in a collection of new stories is not bad. The seventh story was "NippleJesus" by Nick Hornby and it was good. But that was the last good one in the book. The efforts by Dave Eggers, Helen Fielding, Roddy Doyle, Irvine Welsh, and John O'Farrell were execrable latrine scrapings. Who told those people they could write? These are the sort of stories you might expect from a sneering junior highschool detention class. It is not surprising that the point of view of many of the dud stories in this collection is that of a child or adolescent. These writers (and I use that term loosely) are suffering from arrested development. Some of the profits from the sale of this book go to a worthy cause (schools for autistic children). If you want to do a good deed, donate some money to a similar school in your area, but don't buy this book -these people should not be encouraged in any way. Oh well, I think I'll start "The House of the Seven Gables" now. Old literature has successfully passed through the filter of time. The chaff in this Hornby collection will not be around in 10 years much less a hundred.

Rating:
Summary: a modern fiction collection that's good? no way!?!
Review: There's only a few misses here. For the most part you get some great, albiet mostly British, short stories. From a funny story about the prime minister, to a loss of virginity with a buzzcocks soundtrack, to a story told through the mind of a dog. Everything is in here. The Irvine Welsh is truly wonderful, and the David Eggars is interesting in light of his other work. Check it out.

Rating:
Summary: a great sampler but no home-run
Review: having studied in london for three years during the "cool britannia" renaissance years, i was already familiar with the work of many of the contributors to this collection.

In many ways this collection is a fine reflection of the heady mood of that time and could be well worth the investment (both in time and money terms) as just that -- a sort of sociological time-capsule of a confident-again, hip nation.

The reason why it is 3 stars is that the talent pool here is immense and these stories - while most having great 1st class ideas at their core- are in comparison shoddily crafted. like they were rushed through or worse, rescued from the "reject" tray to help make money for a good cause.

there are exceptions of course. Nick Hornby's Nipplejesus is one of them (see previous reveiews). the roddy doyle story from the dog's POV and Robert Harris' deadpan high-necked satirical piece "PMQ" (short for Prime Minister's Question Time) of a British head of state trying to explain away a bizarre night of scandal involving an underage girl driver and a stolen car are solid stand-out pieces.

For me the biggest disappointments were Helen Fielding, who is increasingly looking like a one-hit Bridget; and also Patrick Marber with his "Peter Shelley".

Of all the writers in this book, he is the one most Americans will probably least acquainted with, having never written a novel, let alone one published in the U.S. He has however written, directed and staged "Closer" the most powerful debut(theatre) plays i have ever watched. in "closer", marber took a well-used theme -- the (vain) search for intimacy in modern life -- and an almost prop-less set and made a helluva story.

my advice here is don't get this book for its stories.
get it only if
(a) you want to get a sense of the london and its painfully hip end-90s noveau-Brittishness; or
(b) you think 3 stories i've mentioned above are worth the price of the book

for a true estimation of the talent in today's british writers, you're better off getting the books these writers made their names in: for those who haven't read "Trainspotting", "High Fidelity", "fever pitch", "closer", " the woman who walked through doors" and even "Bridget jones' Diary" BEG, BORROW AND STEAL your own copy and save your money on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Stories are at minimal enjoyment
Review: Speaking With the Angel is a not so diverse selection of stories. Most of the stories seem to posess the same somehow boring quality. It seems as if during most of them, nothing happens and characters aren't well developed, the ideas are the best things about the stories, but even those aren't well enough developed to fully understand.

But, there are some good ones in there, After I Was Thrown In the River, Before I drowned is written from an amazing perspective, that of a dog. It's the only story, book etc. that has done a satisfactory job of coming from an animal's perspetive. Others such as NippleJesus are humerous, but something in the story is missing.

These stories are entertaining, and aren't extremely boring, but at the same time while reading them I had almost no desire to keep turning the pages.

Rating:
Summary: Project Week at Putney
Review: This collection of modern short stories can be surprising, clever and amusing. I also found a few of the stories overly negative to bring out humor, that doesn't always work for me. Other stories were just plain hilarious with writing styles that bring out the essence of the outrageous characters.

One of my favorites in this collection was the short story, "After I was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned" by Dave Eggers. I was tickled from the first sentence by the witty character Egger's formed from his interpretation of a dogs mind.

There was a wide range of stories, but this clever feel remained throughout the book. I found unpredictability to be a recurring tool in several stories, often being the highlight of humor and shock.

If you are not fazed by vulgar language you have met your match and will most likely have a lot of fun flipping through this book. There are also stories to suit those who prefer positive humor. Who ever you are, you're bound to enjoy a few plus.

Rating:
Summary: A Joy
Review: This collection of short stories written by great modern day authors was brilliantly put together. Each story has its laughs and sorrows, and they are each very different and unique, which makes reading through them an absolute joy. One of the best short story collections I have ever read!