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Hot Pink (2012)

by Adam Levin(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1936365219 (ISBN13: 9781936365210)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

McSweeney's

review 1: Who is this person and what the heck did I just read??? This is one of the most bizarre anthologies I have EVER come across. Some of the stories were incredibly vivid and seemed to be perfect little character capsules, but others seemed to drag on, and I quite frankly lost the patience to deal with his rambling monologues. The majority of these characters are seriously delusional, which is sometimes entertaining, but other times just exhausting. Be prepared for one crazy freakshow (the first story is my favorite).
review 2: This collection is closer to a 3.5 then a 4 but I chose to round up. I found nothing wrong with the collection, I enjoyed reading them, but I doubt they'll be memorable enough for me to retain in the long run. The first piece about a dad who... more becomes obsessed with creating an anatomical doll that eliminates wastes to help bulimic children was imaginative and well fleshed out. A lot of the other stories started off well: like the eponymous hot pink: angsty teenager unable to espouse love to a girl takes her to the wrong party and the one where a kid huffs butane the problem is the stories don't end complete and you feel like it's the beginning of a long work that stops where a chapter break should be. The shorter works are definitely even more pet projects and feel like promising scraps that the writer didn't come back to. I picked up this book after I finished reading Levin's the Instructions and find the author is more successful with long works. This is true for most writers, however, because short stories is a very specific type of writing and requires a compactness in prose that most writers are not adept at. Levin is an MFA who currents works as a professor. The acknowledgement section at the end confirmed my suspicion that many of these short works were written during his MFA and were assignments for class. The stories felt like they were things compiled from various assignments because they vary so much and do not follow any theme that makes it a cohesive collection. Having said all that Levin is a talented writer and while the works may not be new/revelational/&c &c they are enjoyable and a good way to while away a long afternoon. less

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