Rating: 
Summary: Hidden beauty and a wild romp
Review: "My Life in Heavy Metal" is most compelling story collection I've read in a long time and the best are the longer ones where Almond's brilliance truly shines through. While I was caught up in each story for what was happening to the characters, the beautiful, sad details of their situations did not escape me. I wanted to reach out and touch these people, and as a woman, I wanted to shake some sense into David, a charactor whose evolving love life was the center of three separate stories. I knew David would end up how he did and I desperately wanted to prevent him from further pain and lonliness. He is only one of many characters that will stay in my memory for years to come. I highly recommend this book to any Generation Xer and anyone else who appreciates rare beauty in writing.
Rating:
Summary: Hidden beauty and a wild romp
Review: "My Life in Heavy Metal" is most compelling story collection I've read in a long time and the best are the longer ones where Almond's brilliance truly shines through. While I was caught up in each story for what was happening to the characters, the beautiful, sad details of their situations did not escape me. I wanted to reach out and touch these people, and as a woman, I wanted to shake some sense into David, a charactor whose evolving love life was the center of three separate stories. I knew David would end up how he did and I desperately wanted to prevent him from further pain and lonliness. He is only one of many characters that will stay in my memory for years to come. I highly recommend this book to any Generation Xer and anyone else who appreciates rare beauty in writing.
Rating:
Summary: A tuning fork
Review: ..., Almond's collection made resonate memories of ... and longing past, and the parts of oneself made raw by rejection and self-doubt and vulnerability, of pride and ego and conquest (on the latter point, Steve's characters seduce and lose a sexual cornucopia of Mexicans, Russians, Poles, Chinese...and a Republican. Narcissistic gloating? You make the call.). An audacious collection, but probably one to be avoided during a dry spell ;-).
Rating: 
Summary: sexing the short story
Review: a post-modern heir to philip roth, almond is hysterically lyrical and poignant in the sack; his sad sack academically inclined male protagonists just can't seem to tame their libido. hence, love/sex/coupling inevitably curdles. not all stories here are top-drawer (heavy metal, republicam, pale lover, ex.. are the cream of the crop.) almond is weakest, surprisingly so, at the end of his stories, as if to say, he is worn-out, post-coitally exhausted. the endings don't satisfy. nor are they checkovian. they hang, so to speak, limp.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth it
Review: Almond is America's answer to Nick Hornby, but My Life in Heavy Metal is not funny, or edgy, or even that interesting. Many of the stories while being readable, often seem like recycled sitcom plots with a guy meets girl set-up. Also, I would not recommend this book to women. Too many of the female characters are one dimensional, and frankly insulting. A nice attempt, but too cliche and stereotypical.
Rating:
Summary: brave, passionate, tender stories
Review: Almond's writing is sexy, animal, anatomical, and yet deeply respectful of the women who are loved in these stories. I'm especially won over by the moments of tenderness amid the humor and lust. It's one thing to be funny and smart and to write crisp, poetic descriptions of shoulders and calves and the arch of a woman's neck. It's another thing to break the reader's heart while doing so.I like the way these stories illustrate the inseparability of body and soul in our relationships. In the title story, an intimate phenomenon of female physiology plays a role in one of the narrator's relationships. In "How to Love a Republican," one particular act of lovemaking is inseparable from the narrator's feelings of love for the Republican in question. Those feelings are in turn inseparable from his politics and personal values. Isn't that how it is for all of us? I look forward to rereading these stories in the years to come.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended book, but just ok
Review: And so is this book. Although I think that the title story is structurally the weakest, Almond's fiction is tight, decisive, full of humor and poignant moments. He's great at saying exactly what he needs to say in the way he wants to say it. The characters are great too.
Rating:
Summary: Sex is Good
Review: And so is this book. Although I think that the title story is structurally the weakest, Almond's fiction is tight, decisive, full of humor and poignant moments. He's great at saying exactly what he needs to say in the way he wants to say it. The characters are great too.
Rating:
Summary: if you want to give yourself a treat. . .
Review: couple this with "the sexual life of catherine m." and you got yourself a handful, fo' sho'!!! i felt degraded, but in a good way. you can work yourself into a real lather with these two.
Rating:
Summary: such a good read.
Review: i absolutely loved this book, despite what one critic said about it presenting women one-dimensionally... i didn't really feel that way, and i am a woman. i felt like his writing was ruthless, daring, and very edgy. i mean, with lines like "it was like having happy birthday sung to me each day: ecstatic and deeply disquieting" (my life in heavy metal) or "and now you listen to me, you people with your poise and careful judgements: These are the things I did. And I was punihsed for them, as wel are all punished, in the end, for the degradations we inflict upon those who love us. Sorrow waits, with the patience of a psalm, for the infidel." (also from the story "my life in heavy metal") In spots Almond's voice reminds me of Ewart's poetry; his lines are cutting and and truthful; I especially liked the first three. I highly reccommend this book. So good, sexy, brilliant.
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