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Title: Key West Tales by John Hersey, Sarah Burnes ISBN: 0679772634 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: August, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6
Rating: 4
Summary: A fine career capper for a veteran story-teller
Comment: I was somewhat baffled and unimpressed by THE CHILD BUYER (1960) when it was assigned to me in high school and never bothered to read another thing by John Hersey. I bought KEY WEST TALES because (a) I had recently been to Key West, and (b) being a collection of short stories, I knew I could jump to another story if I didn't like the one I was reading.
This collection of stories, more than anything, reminded me of Sherwood Anderson's WINESBURG, OHIO. I have become distrustful of fiction writers who load up their characters with endearing (or annoying) idiosyncrasies in order to make them more memorable (as much as I enjoyed Berendt's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, I suspect he indulged in this vice a bit). Like the citizens of Winesburg, Ohio, Hersey's Key West natives are believable people experiencing a plausible share of dissonance with the world they seem trapped in. The result is often poignant, as in "The Two Lives of Consuela Castanon," the story of an obese young receptionist who resists, then acquiesces to the advances of a handsome young man not from Key West. In fact, Hersey comes close to replicating the eeriness and desperation of Shirley Jackson's "The Daemon Lover." The best crafted story in the collection is "Fantasy Fest," a story about a woman who has been contacted by the son she had put up for adoption when he was an infant. In his letter to her he suggests that they each dress up as "their own particular fantasy" about themselves and join in Key West's Halloween parade. He is confident that using this ploy they will both be naturally drawn to one another. Does it work? Do they meet? I wouldn't dream of spoiling the story for you. The longest story in the collection, "Get Up, Sweet Slug-a-bed," is the story of a gay man dying of AIDS and of the people in his life. This is no TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. The relationships are complex and unsentimental. Like Anderson, Hersey does not people his world with saintly or purely wicked folk. It's a fallen world, for sure, one peopled with sinners, many of whom act with the best intentions.
Intercut with the short stories are fictionalized glimpses of Key West's history and legends. Neither Hersey, his widow, nor his editor reveals the publication history of the pieces that make up this collection, but I suspect the "historical" pieces were items Hersey wrote for the local newspaper. Taken together, they give the reader a sense of place. Key West is more that the southernmost town in the United States, a tourist destination, or a gay haven. It's a place with a history, a place that has always honored independent thinking. The historical vignettes bring more than color to this collection, they provide its spine.
This collection is Hersey's swan song...and he sings it well.
Rating: 5
Summary: Key West is amazing and Hersey captures the place perfectly!
Comment: Hersey's book is much like Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific." Of course the destiny of the world isn't on the line here, but the sense of wonder, so much a part of Michener's tales, permeates this book. Anyone who loves a place with a unique and special local history or stories of real people in an exotic locale, should relish this book. It may be a bit slow for a few, but for many the rewards will be great.
Rating: 1
Summary: Can I give it 0 stars?
Comment: What the hell was this? I think this has got to be one of the most boring books on the planet. I was looking forward to some short stories so I could read quickly in my lunch break but after skimming through the first 3 pages and then trying to read about a dying AIDS patient and finally settling on a story about a girl who was so fat that she was shocked when someone wanted to marry her and then he took off when she decided to lose weight (sorry to spoil that ending, but that is as good as it gets!)..I knew that I could not continue reading such boring drivel. What was the point of these stories? I have no idea, except maybe to cure insommnia.
PLEASE do yourself a BIG favour and DO NOT get this book!
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Title: Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford, Henry Morrison Flagler ISBN: 0609607480 Publisher: Crown Pub Pub. Date: 24 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Mile Zero (Vintage Contemporaries) by Thomas Sanchez ISBN: 0679732608 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: October, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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