Realistically flawed humans populate the pages of Joshua Ferris’ collection of short stories.
They make bad decisions and act selfishly in 11 bleak tales, which follows Ferris’s acclaimed novels Then We Came To The End, The Unnamed and To Rise Again At A Decent Hour. Occasionally Ferris offers a chink of hope in the darkness or a great observation about human nature, but many of the miserable relationships he describes just seem doomed.
His, mainly male, protagonists wonder how their lives turned out this way as they struggle to connect with others, battle insecurity and treat people carelessly or sometimes cruelly.
A few unexpected twists make reading worthwhile, but it’s a challenging rather than enjoyable read, an interesting book to be endured rather than savoured.
The Dinner Party, A Night Out, The Breeze, Fragments and The Stepchild are particularly worth reading for the well-written and realistic portrayal of being and staying in a relationship, but it might be an idea to line up something more cheerful to read afterwards.
