I'm a member of a book club with very few limits. Our only limitations are to pick something in paper back so that it is more affordable for everyone, and if it is a series be sure to pick the first. So, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was chosen. This was a book I was assigned to read while in high school and chose to skip, but I did enjoy the movie with Robert Redford.
The book read like one long alcohol induced dream, everything seemed hazy around the edges and disjointed. There was never a transition between topics, and everyone was constantly drunk in a life that was nothing but a 24 hour party. I found not a one of the characters to be likable, all of them were liars and weak. The book could have been told in a short story in only a few pages and would have translated across just fine. From someone who is usually a fan of anything from the 20's era, the only thing I can think to say nice about this book is that it is short and I only had to pay $2 for it.
This review is for Alan Peter Ryan's collection in titled The Back of Beyond: New Stories.
I should begin by saying the copy I am reviewing is an advance readers copy, so the refined copy may be different.
In preparing for Halloween I wanted to read something scary. Seeing as how this was provided to me by Cemetery Dance Magazine I had high hopes. I was disappointed to find that out of the 4 stories in this collection 3 of them read like an outline. It seemed that Mr. Ryan was making notes on the stories he hoped to write, maybe trying to jot down a dream upon awaking before he lost it. Nothing in the first 3 stories is developed and there are no endings. Just as you think some thing may be about to happen the stories are over. Based on the first 3 stories this book would have received 1 star from me, but the final story earned it a second star. Mountain Man is a bit more fleshed out and does have a bit of a plot. It still reads as if it's not finished and is just the idea of a story to come, but it did have dialog between characters and did have something take place.
