My favourite author is such and such, this guy or that gal. We list them off like old friends, knowing we share a
private stash of memories; even if someone else was present their experience of
the same moments will have been different. The list becomes commonplace, and we
become complacent in our recitation of it. It’s easy to remember that we may
like something, but more difficult to remember why we liked that something in
the first place. And when that something is a Jeffrey Eugenides book, with
countless yawning years between each release, the remembered joy of the pages
remain while the words that caused it may fade.
So, good to see you old friend. I have a
fresh complaint – that you don’t visit more often! There wasn’t one story in
this collection I didn’t enjoy. They’re all vignettes of sometimes poignant and sometimes mundane moments in life. There’s life and
death and tragedy, apathy and sex and emotional dysentery. Each story is best experienced spoiler free, so what I’m going to
do is just take a favourite line from each for you to enjoy.
