Emerald City

It's tough to articulate why Jennifer Egan is my new favorite author -- I suppose she has edged out Ian McEwan, finally. This collection of short stories is a terrific way to get to know her as a writer. I've also really enjoyed "Look at Me" and "The Keep" from Egan, and look forward to "A Visit from the Goon Squad."She is able to avoid clichés like hardly anyone else can, invoke emotional responses about the most unconventional concerns, make me smile and laugh at the strangest moments, and keep me turning pages.Some would call her a postmodern writer, I'm sure, because of her constant pushing at the edges of convention. To me, she makes reading exciting again.

I gave this three and a half stars rounded to four. It was a good collection of short stories, a few that were memorable, the others less so. It did depict sensitive human situations and realistic dilemmas faced by the protagonists. I found many of the stories sort of reached a crescendo in the middle and then tapered off to where the ending seemed a bit of a let down. But perhaps this was a deliberate technique used by the author and a misreading on my part. Overall, I would recommend this book as a good read.

I've been re-reading or reading her early work, trying to see how she got to "The Candy House:. It has been an interesting trip. I can see the seeds of later work in the earlier work and her writing style gets more concise and less florid. I bought my copy of this book second hand through Amazon. the entire book was underlined with incredibly stupid comments by someone who then sold it. It was listed as in "very good condition". it was not.

Thefts and adultery are frequent themes in these stories about the rich and the beautiful, set in China, Chicago, Kenya, Mexico, Spain, Bora Bora, New York and San Francisco. The protagonists vary in age and sex but somehow always have the same quality of being bored and disappointed in their relationships. They do not seem to enjoy traveling; trust is always misplaced; wealth brings no satisfaction. That makes the book sound depressing, but it's not. Humor comes from sharp observations of human foibles, the plots are strong and the stories are entertaining.

... don't expect a cheery, uplifting experience in reading them. Many of the characters are sad, disillusioned, looking for something to fill the inner emptiness. Some of them are monied, with lots of stuff ... beautiful homes, nice cars, exotic travels abroad, private schools for the kids. But it isn't satisfying. They seemed to not have figured out that happiness is an inside job.

After reading several of Egan’s novels I read her short stories. They’re brilliant in how they capture my full attention, too, in how they pull me onwards and further into the characters and story... I need to read more of Egan’s body of work as I don’t quite yet know what to make of her work other than she’s a great writer and she provides a good read...

Egan does a wonderful job blending her characters. For me, only the masters successfully erect a fully-generated character in a few pages. Egan flirts with mastery in a few of her vignettes but occasionally cuts a corner or two for the sake of the story: something I did not find bothersomeOverall, very enjoyable of short stories.

While reading “Emerald City” I felt a certain rhythm in words and phrases. It was like a piece of music with variations. I enjoy clever and interesting books by Jennifer Egan very much.

Every story,familiar or not familiar, as a short video of some individuals' daily life today. A really joyful reading book that inspires you to think over life itself.