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You Are Not a Stranger Here (Today Show Book Club #2)
by Adam Haslett
Product Group: Book
ISBN: B000BARD72
Hardcover: 256 pages
Edition: Today Show Book Club
SKU: 102208000005
Condition: Very Good
Comments: B000BARD72 New, never read, may have minor wear on cover.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
The nine stories in You Are Not a Stranger Here are set in Los Angeles, the Midwest, New England and England. What unites them is the refined writing and a raw emotional power that carries the reader past the surface of the subject and into the core of the characters' lives. There is grief, passion, loneliness, humour and longing in these stories, but ultimately the book sets off the shock of recognition that takes readers past the cliched language of human suffering and brings them to understand their own experience through the characters' lives.
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Amazon.com Review
In his debut story collection, You Are Not a Stranger Here, Adam Haslett drags into the light subjects often left in the cellar. Most of his stories are told from the viewpoint of the mentally ill (though one, "The Good Doctor," shows us madness from a caregiver's perspective). The rest of the stories deal with closeted homosexuality: boys who are just learning their identity, men who have never come to terms with it. Haslett is an enormously compassionate writer, and shows a lovely, plain-written acuity about his people. His writing is a convincing inside job--he never romanticizes or oversimplifies. In "The Volunteer," an old woman at a care facility is haunted by the voice of an ancestress named Hester: "For more than two decades, Elizabeth Maynard has done exactly as she is told and the voice of Hester, which has cost her so much, comes only quietly and intermittently. It is a negative sort of achievement, she thinks, to have spent a life warding something off." Haslett has a gift for writing quietly about sensational topics: men cruising each other in the park at night; an abusive, self-hating relationship between two adolescent boys. The stories can get a bit too fancy: the writer can't resist the ironic twist or the surprise ending. Still, this is a beautifully written collection that's as heartfelt as it is intelligent. --Claire Dederer
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Customer Reviews
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One of the Best New Writers
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-12-24
After reading one of Adam Haslett's short stories elsewhere, I deliberately searched for this collection. He is a remarkably talented writer in that he grabs hold of the reader so thoroughly that there is no question you will finish each of these stories, no matter how uncomfortable you become in the process. The characters lean toward the masochistic or seriously troubled. They are struggling against their homosexuality or trying to right wrongs while trapped in a mental fog. Their unusual thought patterns channel you into the emotional maze that constructs a world to which you have somehow hitched a ride. Haslett's subject matter slides toward the upsetting and brutal, but the most disturbing moments are when it is all terrifyingly realistic. He forces us to wonder about strangers, those outside the mainstream, the disenfranchised. This author is one of the most talented of new writers of his generation. He brings powerful insight to the suffering and painful lives of others, raising moral questions for readers to ponder long after a story is finished. The last two stories were much weaker than the others, but the work represents a remarkable depth of understanding and is a promising first book by a talented new voice. I certainly recommend it.
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Great debut fiction
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-12-04
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Adam Haslett is a writer who knows how to lure you in. His stories have a melodious rhythm burnished to a high sheen by his obvious intelligence and sophistication. He is a times a writer in search of his own voice (as you'd expect in a debut collection), but the characters and plots of his stories are bold and self-assured. For all his charm and sophistication, he knows how to hit the reader with tragic stories that are too complex to be dismissed as melodrama.
The flaws other reviewers have pointed out are there (if you choose to see them as flaws). Haslett's stories mostly trade on the same handful of themes: thwarted homosexual desire, mental illness, and parental abandonment (usually by suicide). More disappointing (IMO) is the weakness of the last three stories compared to the others. I read an interview with Haslett where he said he wrote the last three after signing a contract for the book. They feel rushed and uninspired, as if they were dashed off to round out the collection. In the same interview, he said he's working on a novel. It's now been a few years since this collection came out, so hopefully his novel will be out soon. I know I'll be first in line to read it.
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the darkness of grief
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-08-11
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
My desire to read this book came, from all places, the Today Show. Jonathan Franzen was on to introduce this book club selection and the author. Besides my willingness take a recommendation from an author I admire, I was drawn to the themes. In the darkness of grief can hide the true elements of man. Haslett shows that transformation occurs when we are faced with the hardships of life and when we realize the darkness within ourselves. I've often thought that grief serves as such a dramatic turning point for people that it would make a fantastic starting point for a story, though I have yet to capitalize on this notion. Haslett tends to look at people who are stalled or so overcome by grief that they are ruled by it. While the theme sort of takes over the collection, Haslett really accomplishes great things. In many ways it is obviously a first effort, but it hints at great things to come.
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Beautifully written downer
Rating  (3)
Date: 2006-08-09
0 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book at the dollar store for, you guessed it, a dollar. Somewhere in me is this naive optimist who believes in the hidden gem theory. I'm not saying that I didn't find a gem, I'm just saying I wish I hadn't. These stories are well-written, clever, forthright and SO DEPRESSING! I'm all for exposing the reality of characters, I don't insist on happy endings or tidy plots, but I do like a bone thrown my way occasionally, just so I don't find my frown staying right side up for the duration. Seems to me Mr. Haslett was let down by his editor, who should have solicited some lighter stories to bring the book into balance.
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It never quite lifts off the field of the common
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-04-06
3 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
The reason why I picked up a copy of "You Are Not A Stranger Here' by Adam Haslett was because I stumbled on an article recently claiming Jonathan Franzen praised the author. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed.
The book is a compilation of short stories, most of which involve a man or woman in need of some sort of medical assistance (a 70+ year old Alzheimer's patient, a severely depressed homosexual - actually there are two stories of this kind, a Schizophrenic woman, a doctor who's treating a patient). The connotation of the stories borders on the bizarre, but it never quite crosses the border between unusual and exceptional. I attributed this to the fact that the author is making his debut with this book and does not want to overly expose the narrative, so instead he cautiously treads.
My recommendation is as follows: If you can find this book in a library, take a look at it, you may find something spiritually helpful. If you are thinking about spending some money on a book go for "The Body Artist" or "How To Be Alone" instead.
- by Simon Cleveland
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