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Love Stories In This Town (2009)

by Amanda Eyre Ward(Favorite Author)

3.32 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0812980115 (ISBN13: 9780812980110)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Ballantine Books

review 1: Wonderful, oft times poignant, writing, but not what I was expecting from the title. It should have been titled: "Unloved Stories in this Town." The Lola stories had a tiny bit of happy light, but they were heavy and an emotional spiral into if not down right depression, then general malaise. If you like realistic fiction, which is well written, thought provoking, and bittersweet, you will love this collection of stories.
review 2: I first gave this three stars, then in looking over my past reviews, I realized I generously gave 3 stars to some pretty crappy books (Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult? Seriously?) Clearly, I'm an easy grader. So I'm upping this to 4 stars. I agree with previous reviews that this book is compulsively page-turning. I read this while lai... mored up with pneumonia and stayed awake far later than was healthy or advisable, anxious to see what would happen next. However, some of the story endings left me going: "Huh?" They just ended so abruptly, with some random sentence. One mentioned "dinosaurs" and other one I had to read over and over again (about the librarian and the masturbator). I still don't know what the hell that story was about. When I read the interview with the author at the end the "dinosaur" ending finally made sense to me. I also got tired about hearing about infertility and/or trying to get pregnant. It certainly made me appreciate my three children but it seemed to be a predominant theme. I like some escapism in my reading, so any character that drives a minivan just makes me want to run and hide. "Nan and Claude" was my favorite story and I loved the last sentence, so sometimes she nailed it. The Lola stories, in general, had some really believable characters. I also liked when the author tried to write from a male perspective. Her story about house hunting in The Woodlands was great. So, in summary, I think any book that compels you to stay up late earns 4 stars. less

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