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Smart writing.....
“"Like You'd Understand Anyway" - Stories is quite the collection, a smart, witty collection.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-01.
Jim Shepard is famous for his short stories and I wanted to be the next person to say that his stories are amazing, I'll go with good and I can say that after reading them, I think Jim Shepard has an incredibly brilliant mind.
My favorites-
The Zero Meter Diving Team
Proto-Scorpions of the Silurian
Trample the Dead, Hurdle the Weak
Ancestral Legacies
The First South Central Australian Expedition
The downside of this book to me, were the really boring stories that literally put me to sleep and there were only a few.
Smart writing, good reading!
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excellent
“Jim Shepard's Like You'd Understand Anyway is a collection of wildly diverse short stories that are brought together by the major dramatic question "am I my brother's keeper?" upon which each story hinges.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-03-07.
Shepard manages to tie topics as unrelated as summer camp and Chernobyl together through his analysis of brothers, usually genetically related, though sometimes tied just emotionally and philosophically.
In Shepard's work these ties are fraught. And the reader is given the sense that these relationships and questions (and questionable relationships) are perpetually being worked out throughout our lives, as is illustrated in this passage from the story "Proto Scorpions of the Silurian" where a father chastises his younger geeky son for ignoring an older son's violent outburst while the two are playing cards:
""Is he your brother or not?" my father is asking me.
"Yeah," I tell him.
"So you wanna help him?" he wants to know.
"Yeah," I tell him, tearing up
"Well then why don't you help him?"
Because there's what we want and what we do, I'd figured out even then.
"You want to help him?" he asks me again.
"Not really," I tell him sitting there. Not really, I tell myself now."
In the story The Zero Meter Diving Team, a man responsible for making administrative decisions about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant visits his two brothers (who worked there) in the hospital after the accident.
The stories hang on the many ways tiny things kill, radiation, cruel words, ignored sentences, unexpressed or conflicted loyalties. His work can be interpreted as making broad universal statements about the nature of exploitation and gain and the ineffectual emotional state of being self aware in a system that is broken--in this case the sense of `brotherhood.' The love and solidarity and loyalty embodied in this sentimental concept is laid bare in story after story. Each protagonist, of different social type, personality, nationality, and era having something to say about it.
In "Courtesy for Beginners" Shepard ties all these elements together and exposes himself, the story teller as benefiting from his own pain and the pain of his brother:
"My story is: I survived camp. I survived my brother. I survived my own bad feelings. Love me for being so sad about it. Love me for knowing what I did. Love me for being in the lifeboat after everyone went under. And my story made me feel better and it made me feel worse. And it worked."
Like You'd Understand Anyway is subtly damning of the damage done to boys by the conflicting messages that they compete with and kill, and care for and love their fellow man. Shepard makes the conflict timeless, taking this thread through every era and character, an incredibly effective way to tie a collection together.
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Superbly written journey thru time and space
“As others have mentioned, each story is from a different place and different era. And this is good, since it keeps one interested: if you don't like reading about American football protagonists, maybe you'll like to read about a Roman empire soldier.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-06-29.
What is really mind boggling, and it takes some time to realize it - is that each and every story has also a different writing STYLE. It is subtle, but once you get it - you realize what an excellent, gifted author Jim Shepard is.
Well researched, eclectic, and an absolute must read.” -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Reflection
“The funniest thing happened while reading "Like You'd Understand, Anyway". I didn't like it. I was telling myself how absurd these stories were and I should just put this thing down. I wasn't connecting with the book. The characters were weird and the endings were weirder.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-05-08.
After plodding through the book, I found myself thinking about the stories. The tsunami in Alaska, the weird family in The Zero Meter Diving Team, the soldier with the wacko father. I actually enjoyed reflecting in those stories and characters. It was like Shepard wrote the book that way. It was so far out that it burned onto your psyche.
It makes me think of some of the other books that I didn't finish because I wasn't into them. What did I miss?
Bravo! Bravo for Like You'd Understand, Anyway. It's the finest book I ever hated.” -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Appropriate title
“He's right, I don't understand. Are these his views on historical events? Are they just made up tales? The stories were entertaining and well written, but I just can't figure out if they are just made up or have some real and true ties to past events. The whole time I'm reading I was trying to figure this out, but I never did. I still don't know. If you know then read it, they are quite unique. Maybe I'm just complicating something that is simple.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-04-30.
