Salt Water and Other Stories

Rating:
Summary: A good work of fiction
Review: I really liked the stories in this book, especially the first one, "Salt Water," and "Suit of Leather," one of the rewritten fairy tales. Most of the stories are quite sad, dealing with the loss of love or two people never really coming together, such as "Salt Water." That held-back emotions and isolation are represented through the figure of the German woman in this story is perhaps a bit of cliche, but the ways in which the American woman learns about loneliness as a part of life and partially changes her outlook on relationships though this encounter still comes across as convincing. "Suit of Leather," then, is much more upbeat and romantic. All the stories taken together, I would say that they represent the many painful and wonderful facets of love relationships, which the author presents in a profound and touching way.

Rating:
Summary: A mix of good and boring stories
Review: There are nine stories in this book, ranging from only a few pages long to over 100. The title story is the longest; in my opinion it was longer than it needed to be. The story is about a woman's infatuation with a German painter, but I found myself wondering what exactly attracted her to this woman so much. I was never sure what was going on in the relationship. Maybe that was intentional, though -- maybe the confusion is the point. The shorter stories in parts 2 and 3 were better, I thought. Part two covered a range of themes, from domestic abuse in "We Didn't See It", to the generation gap and disillusionment in "Archaeology". Personally, I think Part 3, with the rewritten fairy tales, was the best part of the book. The earlier stories, especially the first, seemed kind of drawn out and the characters never changed. If you've heard the old saying that the two kinds of endings are "realize" and "fails-to-realize", most of these are the latter. The characters never seem to grow or change.