David James Poissant

Cuando terminé de leer [b:Stoner|166997|Stoner|John Williams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320600716l/166997._SY75_.jpg|1559207] comenté en Twitter que el libro me había impactado y pregunté cual fue el último libro que había impactado a mis seguidores. Recibí decenas de respuestas, lo que me extrañó porque no me sigue casi nadie.

Uno de los libros recomendados fue esta colección de cuentos.

Les puedo decir que el libro también me impactó y que si bien son cuentos hay un tono o una temática que los une. No me gustan, por general, las colecciones de cuentos porque siempre hay uno o dos excelentes y otros, bien o mal escritos, que son olvidables. Pero recuerdo todos estos cuentos. Todos me produjeron algo.

Compré el libro en Google Play Books en un impulso porque estaba a $250. Me gustó tanto que acabo de pedir en una librería amiga el libro físico y en castellano para tener en casa.… (mais)

The Starling family are taking a short vacation break at the lake cottage owned by the parents, Lisa and Richard, before they sell it and retire to Florida. On the first day there, the family witnesses a traumatic accident, and over the next several days there are tragic reverberations as family secrets are revealed--affairs, alcoholism, death of a child, unwanted pregnancies, etc.

I usually like family dramas, but there were a few things here that just didn't ring true for me. Take older son Michael. He and his wife Diane are in financial difficulty while trying to come to a decision about Diane's pregnancy--she wants the baby, he doesn't. But on top of this Michael has a drinking problem, and in-your-face drinking problem. He begins drinking at 10 in the morning (that's good, it's not 9), always has a coffee cup full of "something" he sips on all day. We also know that at home not on vacarion he visits several bars before going home after work, also uses coffee cup gambit, and is basically always drunk. But Diane has never noticed and his parents are also oblivious to his problems. (At least until the end when they are sorting out all the problems, and after he has been arrested.)

Younger son Thad and his partner Jake also have problems. One wants an open relationship, the other does not. Currently Thad is fretting because he can't find his comic collection which has been stored at the lake house. He thinks his mom might have thrown it out in preparing the house for sale. As it happens, Lisa is afraid to admit that she did in fact dispose of the comic collection. So what does she do? About to retire, somewhat financially insecure, Lisa goes to a memorabilia store and asks them to recreate the comic collection, at a cost of thousands. Not to mention that clearly whatever the store is able to recreate it would be gapingly obvious to the owner of the collection that things are missing, things are added, things are different, it's just not the same. As a mom who stored my son's baseball card collection in boxes in the garage until he was well into his 30's, I can't imagine throwing something like this out without asking, but more, if it happened not admitting it.

I could go on about things that bothered me about the book, but I'll leave it at these two things. I guess as I get older I'm more of a curmudgeon, but I want things to ring true in a book, and little things like this--would people really be so oblivious and surprised about Michael's problem? would a mom throw away a prized possession and then try to hide it?--pick at me and bring me out of my enjoyment of the book.

2 1/2 stars… (mais)