Twilight of the Superheroes

Deborah Eisenberg is almost unmatched in her mastery of the short story form. In this, her seventh collection, she demonstrates her virtuosic abilities in precisely distilled, unflinchingly honest studies of human connection and disconnection. From a group of friends whose luxurious Manhattan sublet becomes a front-row seat to the catastrophe of 9/11; to the Roman holiday of a schoolteacher running away from the news of her ex-husband's life-threatening illness; to the too painful love of a brot...

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latekelem28 апреля 2012 г.
At last I am actually reading through the list of the twenty best books of the 21st century.
I've started with the Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg. It is a collection of short stories.
The structure of the stories is quite unusual to me, Deborah Eisenberg isn't much concerned with the traditional structure. Her stories are very intimate and sudden, as life itself. She ponders problems, inner crises and unspoken feelings of small people.
The stories are in some ways distinctly american, but when one continues reading the gentle tapestry of the sorrows, breakdowns and losses transcends nationality. These stories are very vividly and gently human. They are about all of us, even the structure of the stories is lifelike. Nothing happens in a linear fashion, from start to end. Sometimes, it takes concentration to actually understand when this is going on..
It is a very sad and a very beautifully written collection of short stories. They left a strong impression on me. And, despite all the sadness there is hope. There always is hope.
I will quote one of the praises for the book, listed at the of the book. I quite agree with it.

“Reading Eisenberg makes you wish, as you study the family in front of you in the grocery line, that you could see their thoughts rendered as one of her stunning inner monologues … . Eisenberg, with her wide embrace of metaphor and keen sense of the eternal—the endlessly renewing cycle of human puttering—understands that behind every unexceptional face are notions and visions no one else has ever known.”
—Judith Lewis, Los Angeles Times

Judging by the quality of this book, there is hope that other best books of the 21st century, are at least very worthy of this title.
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latekelem28 апреля 2012 г.
It’s incredible, I can’t ever quite wrap my head around it—that each life is amazingly abundant, no matter what, and every moment of experience is so intense. But so little evidence of that exists outside the living body! Billions of intense, abundant human lives on this earth, Nana’s among them, vanishing. Leaving nothing more than inscrutable little piles of commemorative trash.
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latekelem28 апреля 2012 г.
It’s pretty clear, he was saying, the things people know about each other in an instant are the important things. But all right, let’s say the important things aren’t everything. Let’s say the unimportant things count, too—even a lot. The point is, though, we can spend as long as we like learning those unimportant things about each other. We can spend years, if we want, or we can spend a few hours. If you want, I can bring you back here tomorrow We can say goodbye now, if you want.
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latekelem28 апреля 2012 г.
Harry sipped a cognac and regarded them with melancholy affection. They were still young, almost young. For an instant he could see, as if it were incandescently mapped, the path of years that lay ahead of each of them, its particular sorrows, joys, terrors …
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