Review of 'Three moments of an explosion' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The challenge with critiquing a collection, for me at least, is whether to assess each story individually and then average it out, or to pretend that there's some overall cohesiveness the author(s) succeeded or failed to attain. Because the truth is that even when the stories all share a theme or tone, I can't see the forest for the trees.
I started this collection thinking I was going to write a little critique about each story, and for the first half or so, I did; I summarized each tale, noted what the main conceit was and what I thought of the execution. At some point, though, I started feeling a bit too proud of my incisive tone and just read the rest. I'm not sure if that increased my enjoyment or not, but anyhow, it's done.
I'll be glad to share my thoughts on the first dozen or so stories …
The challenge with critiquing a collection, for me at least, is whether to assess each story individually and then average it out, or to pretend that there's some overall cohesiveness the author(s) succeeded or failed to attain. Because the truth is that even when the stories all share a theme or tone, I can't see the forest for the trees.
I started this collection thinking I was going to write a little critique about each story, and for the first half or so, I did; I summarized each tale, noted what the main conceit was and what I thought of the execution. At some point, though, I started feeling a bit too proud of my incisive tone and just read the rest. I'm not sure if that increased my enjoyment or not, but anyhow, it's done.
I'll be glad to share my thoughts on the first dozen or so stories with anyone who wants to read them, but I'd suggest that you first read the stories themselves, because my little blurbs don't really prepare you.
