About book My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, From Chekhov To Munro (2008)
Hmm, this is supposedly a great anthology, but is it safe to trust the tastes of an author I don't care for? I'll have to find out. Perhaps he's a better reader than he is a writer, which is too often the case. It would seem not. Two stars for two happy introductions to writers I hadn't considered before: Miranda July ("Something That Needs Nothing") and David Bezmozgis ("Natasha"). As for the rest:Erg, the obviousness of some of these choices irritates me (Joyce's "The Dead," Chekhov's "Lady with the Little Dog/Lapdog"): is this an anthology for a literature course? It certainly isn't meant to open our eyes to new discoveries. other choices by famous authors I'd never read before surprised me by their ignorance of their message, how what they intended to convey fell so far from what they actually expressed (Brodkey's first story, Maupassant's "Mouche"). Eeks, Denis Johnson is an awful writer. His story, "Dirty Wedding," had tinges of James Frey, John Banville (I say this not as a compliment, but in reference to Banville's being disingenuously coy about not knowing exact ages or locations or types of writing utensils--"What tree was that? A pine?"), and a third whom I can't mention but whom I consider the worst writer I know. Suffice it to say, I'll never read any work by Johnson ever in my life. Wow, that was a nonsensical, pointless, and embarrassingly scrap thing to publish. Give it to the rats! Amazingly, Frank had read it to me a few nights ago, but we were both on sleeping pills, so we didn't remember reading it and, when some lines seemed familiar, we assumed we hadn't finished it out of fatigue, and when we got to the end and realized we'd read the awful thing *twice*, you can only imagine our horror at not having been more memorably mortified the first time we read it. (spoiler warning)I'll also have to disagree with Chekhov about the ending of "Lady with the Little Dog, or as I knew it as a kid, "Lady with the Lap Dog." The ending's tone is completely out of place in the story. Chekhov's friend wanted a more concrete ending, but I found it much too optimistic an end in a story that suggested no optimism at all and no real love between the two characters. End the story two paragraphs early, when the man tells her to stop her tears, we'll talk it out, and the story's great, if not quite a love story. But to lop on a falsely hopeful ending wasn't fair to the reader or the characters. On the positive side, Kundera's 'Hitchiking Game" I've always loved and can't begrudge its place here, but then I don't go to anthologies to have all my favorites together. I go to discover new treasures, which I've yet to find. but I'll read more and see if some do surprise me with their voice, humanity, and insight. Maybe I'll even change my opinion of Deborah Eisenberg's writing. . . .But it's inherently flawed, to have such a pretentious introduction, to try to convince others that such a mediocre Catullus poem could have inspired a career, to suggest that the obscurity of Chekhov's last line makes it great, to remark that Dave Eggers is the Bono of literature. What to say? My opinion of Eugeneides has only degraded with this. I don't think him profound for choosing these works. I think instead of stories that more obviously belonged in an anthology of love:Lynn Freed's "The Curse of the Appropriate Man"Haruki Murakami's "The Window"Robert Stone's "Bear and His Daughter"Etgar Keret's "My Man"Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" (a bit long admittedly)Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain"Salinger's "For Esme - with Love and Squalor"Obvious choices to other readers perhaps, but at least these I can stomach. I'll add in Kundera's story because I do love it. I'll title my own anthology after another, but better, Catullus poem, "Odi et amo," I hate and I love. But no, I won't call anyone the Bono of literature or say Catullus inspired me to write.
For the most part, anthologies blow. I only picked this one up because of the diversity of the authors. They put Faulkner, De Maupassant, and Chekhov on the same bill as Saunders, Munro, and Miranda July. Sounds like one of Dave Barry’s loony debacles to unite the literary world. And I’m not so far off. Eugenides in his introduction attributes his focus on love stories to “the Bono of Lit,” himself. But despite my petty contrivances, this is a damn good collection.There are some stories that I have read before and forgotten, like “A Rose for Emily” and “The Necklace.” But isolating them, away from the author’s original anthologies gave a fresh approach. These are love stories. And he puts stories in new perspectives, like James Joyce’ “The Dead” and Denis Johnson’s “Dirty Wedding.” These are love stories too. This is a compilation of love stories, and you never even knew some of them were love stories!I was surprised by writers I never heard of, David Bezmozgis and Robert Musil; because in “Tonka” and “Natasha” there is a Eastern-European female fragility they handle so well. It takes the role of slut as the indigent ragdoll, like Lars raping “the real girl.” But it shows also the pathetic atrophy of the Western male’s role as aggressor when his pride and his romance and his social roles conflict. It’s the emotional stoicism of mail-order brides versus Ken dolls:Tonka lay there, with eyes shut and her face turned to the wall, for an endless age, in terrible lonely fear. When at last she felt him beside her, her eyes were wet with warm tears. Then came a new wave of fear, dismay at her ingratitude, a senseless word uttered as though in search of help, as though stumbling out some infinitely long, lonely corridor, to transform itself into his name—and then she was his.I like the cutesy introspective experiments in Miranda July’s work, like when a girl, throws herself down on the bed and asked us if we were girlfriends or what? An appalling emptiness filled the room. I stared out the window and repeated the word “window” in my head, I was ready to window window window indefinitely, but suddenly, Pip answered.Yeah.I also respect the choice of Miranda July’s story, as it is the only homosexual story in the book—and this as an effective tool to shape the question of Love is great. Though I think her story “Birthmark” or "How to Tell Stories to Children" are better love stories. But this adds the distinct flare, the gay one, to the collection. It shall pass.There’s also the inventive faux-authoritative approach of Lorrie Moore’s “How to be an Other Woman,” her how-to style has built in emotional invective, so to pull that off objectively, she just has to talk about action and reaction. It strangles the phrases. And I have to say that “The Hitchhiking Game” by Milan Kundera is probably the best short story I’ve ever read. It’s so taut with emotional friction and careful, unintimidating analysis that it makes you feel like a CSI detective exploring the crime scene as it happens. It’s terrifying and pulsating, not as throaty as Brodkey’s “Innocence” which is one of the most vibrant, and laymenly scientific sexual explorations I’ve ever gone through or Saunder’s “Jon,” a love-story so paralyzed by the eugenics of consumer polarization it makes Brave New World look like Walden; but it’s good, they’re all good.What this is, is good stories. Check it out. It won’t bite ya!
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Jeffrey Eugenides, the editor of this collection of short stories begins by saying: “I offer this book as a cure for lovesickness and an antidote to adultery. Read these love stories not to confirm the brutal realities of love, but to experience its many variegated, compensatory pleasures.”He takes the title from the poetry of Catullus, who writes of his mistress’s pet sparrow as a rival for her attention. When the sparrow dies and fortune seems to be going his way, he is really no better off; her grief becomes the new rival.“There s a sparrow in every story,” Eugenides teases mysteriously. What he means is that in every one of these stories, the nature of love shifts and changes: whether it’s a man giving his lover her first orgasm, a casual affair becoming serious, a marriage turning violent, or a woman surrendering her identity for love and, in the process, losing her lover. Driven by passion, in pursuit of fulfilment, these characters are as often surprised as devastated by love.The finest short story writers are included: Chekhov, Nabokov, Babel, Faulkner, Kundera, Brodkey, Munro. Each approaches the theme of love uniquely, and yet the stories have something in common: their characters “seek a paradise that recedes endlessly before them”.
—Adair
It's ridiculously difficult for me to rate this book because there is such a vast difference between the stories that I relished and the ones that I had to trudge through. I adore Eugenides as an author, but his editing skills in regards to a collection of "great" love stories leaves something to be desired. There are certainly stories that, to me, expressed the epitome of love, such as Munro's "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," in which a husband begins to lose his wife of several decades to both dementia and another man. There are a few stories that are wonderfully innovative. "Jon," written by George Saunders, takes place in an alternate reality filled with virtually imprisoned adolescents who exist only as permanent focus groups for constant advertisements. Oh, there's a brave and bizarre romance in there, trust me. But then there are such entries as Robert Musil's "Tonka" which primarily features a tediously shallow and self-centered inner monologue that seems to drag on indefinitely. There are a few other stories too bland for me to even remember, let alone mention. I expected too much, I suppose, but the few gems that are between these covers made the overall roller coaster quality of the read worth it.
—Sarah Jo
A few stories are conservative choices with ubiquitous homes(Checkov, de Maupassant, Faulkner) but other selections here are fresh and innovative. Eugenides has chosen stories that explore the many wondrous facets of love rather than simply targeting the romantic. On the down side I've always found Guy de Maupassant dry and dated and the story 'Mouche'only further confirmed this for me. Nabokov's story 'Spring in Fialta' is excessive; Moore's second person story 'How to be Another Woman'is difficult to digest (although that may relate to a natural aversion of mine towards second person narratives)and Denis Johnson's'Dirty Wedding'falls flat. Other than these all other works are strong. Absolute standouts that I'd recommend to any reader include: 'First Love and Other Sorrows' by Harold Brodkey, 'The Hitchhiking Game' by Milan Kundera, 'Jon' by George Saunders (which in my opinion should have won a Hugo, WFA and Locus Award), 'Red, Rose, White Rose' by Eileen Change, 'Fireworks' by Richard Ford, 'Something that Needs Nothing' by Miranda July, 'The Magic Barrel' by Bernard Malamud and 'The Bear that Came Over the Mountain' by Alice Munro.Rather than recommend it for readers of love stories, I'd recommend My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead for all lovers of the short story.
—Anthony Panegyres
