Model World and Other Stories

Rating:
Summary: good collection
Review: I chanced upon an old hardcover copy of Michael Chabon's 'A Model World' at a used bookstore, leafed through a couple of pages and bought it, essentially, on an impulse. I'd never read Chabon before (I've got three of his novels abiding peacefully on my bookshelf), and thought: Why not start with some early material, and, from there, progress to his more mature work. After finishing, I can say that I all in all enjoyed this collection of short stories. (Many appeared in the New Yorker, which can very well stand as a testament to their value.) Contrary it seems to most reviewers, I myself enjoyed the first half of the compendium--which is divided into two parts; the second half of the stories revolve around the tribulations of a young boy in a broken home--over the second. I found the beginning stories to be fresh and witty, though sometimes redundant in theme. The latter half were good too, especially the last story titled The Lost World, but I was for some reason not as interested in the protagonist. (Coming from a broken home myself, I get tired of always seeing divorce as some kind of malevolent entity that sucks all the life out of happy human beings.)

Something I believe worth noting in these stories is Chabon's refreshing prose style. He seems to have fun with words--the type of author you can picture deliberating wizardly behind his monitor screen, trying to find the perfect adjective that won't stifle the airy structure of the text.

In all, a good collection of stories from an obviously talented writer.

Rating:
Summary: Great characters...not too happy
Review: I must say, I'm a huge Michael Chabon fan. His books are always filled with dynamic characters in fascinating situations, and A Model World is no different. But where some of his books have a more airy feel, the stories in this collection are dark. the underlying theme to almost every story in this colelction is family breakdown. the worlds in Chabon's book are certainly not the model that anyone would like to follow.

That being said, the writing is as strong as ever and the stories are engaging. From the dark, satirical humour of the first story, to the tense nail-chewing fear in the last, Chabon takes us on a ride.

Chabon is a writer who, in a rare case, is actually living up to his hype. Read A Model World; it's worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Collection of Stories
Review: Like a lot of people, I got into Michael Chabon's work after reading Kavalier and Clay. This collection of his early short stories is undoubtedly very good, but it took getting used to. The stories are never as imaginative as Kavalier and Clay, or even Wonder Boys and Mysteries of Pittsburgh. However, they are very well-written, and Chabon emerges as a wonderful chronicler of the difficult paralysis known as youth. Sure, there are downbeat stories, but I think that shouldn't stop people from diving in. This may not be as memorable as his other work, but there are quiet moments of brilliance that hint at the fantastic work that would later come from Chabon.

Rating:
Summary: Each story seems unfinished
Review: Michael Chabon is a very talented author, but you don't get the impression by reading this weak collection of stories. Each story is written with no apparent finale. When it does have an ending, it tends to baffle the reader rather than offer closure. I especially disliked the title story where the first person narrator is omniscient only half the time. It's more annoying than innovative. It seems that Chabon didn't have enough materials to write a novel, and thought, "why not write a bunch of stories with disputable continuity and call them vignettes?" I suggest that you skip this book, or you'll be thinking less of a great writer.

Rating:
Summary: The Lost World
Review: Michael Chabon is about as good a short story writer that you are going to find today. This is unfair because he is also America's best new novelist. Nobody has any business writing novels and short stories equally well. This is Chabon's first collection of short stories and it is not quite as good as his subsequent collection, Werewolves in Their Youth, but it is still excellent.

The book is divided in halves - A Model World and The Lost World. Ultimately, the second half of the book is better because it is a series of connected stories about Nathan Shapiro, a boy growing up and dealing with divorce.

If anyone is interested in the craft of short story writing, A Model World is a model collection.

Rating:
Summary: The Lost World
Review: Michael Chabon is about as good a short story writer that you are going to find today. This is unfair because he is also America's best new novelist. Nobody has any business writing novels and short stories equally well. This is Chabon's first collection of short stories and it is not quite as good as his subsequent collection, Werewolves in Their Youth, but it is still excellent.

The book is divided in halves - A Model World and The Lost World. Ultimately, the second half of the book is better because it is a series of connected stories about Nathan Shapiro, a boy growing up and dealing with divorce.

If anyone is interested in the craft of short story writing, A Model World is a model collection.

Rating:
Summary: Follows Me
Review: Sometimes I read reviews of records, etc. where the reviewer states, before anything else, that they shouldn't be reviewing the record, etc. because they're too close to it. I try to avoid writing anything about the records, books, etc. that I really love, since I can't be objective.

This is probably my favorite collection of short stories. My copy has been following me around since it came out and I have read and re-read every line of this thing many, many times. The Nathan Shapiro stories are so carefully written; each sentence seems constructed, each word perfectly placed. These stories are too accurate, too true to be sentimental. Art. This stuff is art.

I have a difficult time believing that everyone doesn't already have a copy of this. I'd recommend this collection to anyone, escpecially those who are familiar with Ethan Canin, Thom Jones (although Jones may seem a little "tougher"), and (maybe) late Richard Ford.

The modern sentence as art.

Objective? No. Not at all.

Rating:
Summary: Makes me want to write
Review: There is something about really good short stories that makes me want to write. I am not looking at writing a novel that will define a generation, but a simple story. For some reason a short story seems to be a good small attainable goal. Who doesn't have a story in him that is worth telling? The trick, I suppose, is to tell the story in such a way that someone will want to read it.

In thinking about working on a short story, I am afraid if I try I will only be disappointed because the end result would not be Michael Chabon's "A Model World." His stories feel so real, with a touch of quirkiness that either make you jealous of the characters' lives, or make you feel glad that your life is normal by comparison. I have absolutely no reservations in recommending this collection to anyone. A perfect read to get you out of whatever funk you are in.

Rating:
Summary: Unhappily Ever After
Review: To be honest, I don't read short stories very often; I'm a novel person usually. But I couldn't think of anything else to read and I'm a fan of Chabon's writing so I thought I'd give this a shot.

The first half of "Model World" almost made me wish I hadn't. It wasn't that the writing was poor, but every story seemed almost the same until in my mind they all blurred together. Some young, troubled man gets with some not-very-nice girl and nothing good comes of it. The only one that stood out in my mind was "Smoke", largely because I'm a baseball fan and so I found it more interesting than the others. I found the title story to be very confusing; it seemed funny to me that the runt of the litter was selected as the title piece.

The second part of the book, "The Lost World" is better. This is a series of short stories about the disintegrating Shapiro family, told from the eldest son Nathan's perspective. Here the continuity helps avoid the redundancy of the first part. Only the last story (again the title story for the second part) goes back to the much-repeated tale of Nathan getting with a not-so-nice girl on the night before she leaves town forever.

If you want happy endings, look somewhere else, there are none to be found here. Some people find that distressing, but I didn't mind. What I wish is that the author or publisher would have included some notes before the stories to give a little background on them. I found the introductions to the short stories in John Irving's "Saving Piggy Sneed" to provide a lot of insight into the stories and the author; it's sort of like the director's commentary on certain DVDs.

Anyway, the writing as always is flawless; Chabon's writing always makes me so jealous, because I will never EVER be that good. It also exposes my lack of a decent vocabulary, which I find, er...bad. ;-)

I would say that if you're a fan of Chabon, then go ahead and read this collection of stories. If you aren't then--like all the stories in the book--there will be no happy ending for you.

Rating:
Summary: Unhappily Ever After
Review: To be honest, I don't read short stories very often; I'm a novel person usually. But I couldn't think of anything else to read and I'm a fan of Chabon's writing so I thought I'd give this a shot.

The first half of "Model World" almost made me wish I hadn't. It wasn't that the writing was poor, but every story seemed almost the same until in my mind they all blurred together. Some young, troubled man gets with some not-very-nice girl and nothing good comes of it. The only one that stood out in my mind was "Smoke", largely because I'm a baseball fan and so I found it more interesting than the others. I found the title story to be very confusing; it seemed funny to me that the runt of the litter was selected as the title piece.

The second part of the book, "The Lost World" is better. This is a series of short stories about the disintegrating Shapiro family, told from the eldest son Nathan's perspective. Here the continuity helps avoid the redundancy of the first part. Only the last story (again the title story for the second part) goes back to the much-repeated tale of Nathan getting with a not-so-nice girl on the night before she leaves town forever.

If you want happy endings, look somewhere else, there are none to be found here. Some people find that distressing, but I didn't mind. What I wish is that the author or publisher would have included some notes before the stories to give a little background on them. I found the introductions to the short stories in John Irving's "Saving Piggy Sneed" to provide a lot of insight into the stories and the author; it's sort of like the director's commentary on certain DVDs.

Anyway, the writing as always is flawless; Chabon's writing always makes me so jealous, because I will never EVER be that good. It also exposes my lack of a decent vocabulary, which I find, er...bad. ;-)

I would say that if you're a fan of Chabon, then go ahead and read this collection of stories. If you aren't then--like all the stories in the book--there will be no happy ending for you.