Rating: 
Summary: Chabon offers masterful snapshots of the human condition.
Review: In each of these nine stories, Chabon--particularly noted for his stylistic accomplishments--manages to flesh out a variety of characters in only a few pages, and sometimes in a few words. His sentences frequently seem to reach perfection, each word fitting precisely with a satisfying snap like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle, without the disappointing sting of over-cleverness. As I read each wholly original story, I couldn't help but respond frequently with a knowing smile and the warm realization of recognition. I've smelled that smell and heard that sound ("There was a stink of chlorine from the waterfall in the atrium where the chimes of the elevators echoed all night with a sound like a dental instrument hitting a cold tile floor"). I've seen that place, even though I've never been there ("Plunkettsburg was at first glance unprepossessing--a low, rusting little city, with tarnished onion domes and huddled houses, drab as an armful of dead leaves strewn along the ground"). I've felt that feeling ("The next day I lay in bed, aching, sore, and suffering from that peculiar brand of spiritual depression born largely of suppressed fear"). And I most assuredly know that person ("Oriole was a big, broad-backed woman, ample and plain and quadrangular as the state of Iowa itself. Hugging her, Eddie felt comforted, as by the charitable gaze of a cow"). Each page proffers several such stylistic gems, which serve to draw you into the story without putting you off with their brilliance. Chabon has the ability to hook our heart by ripping the skin off some of the more devastating aspects of contemporary dysfunctional life--divorce, rape, alcoholism, mental illness--while giving us permission, even encouraging us, to laugh at the absurd behavior of these human beings who remind us so much of ourselves. These stories are bitingly funny because we know them, we've been there, or we've imagined them ourselves. They are fresh and original, and yet they resonate with familiarity. Perhaps you had to have been a boy once to fully appreciate the haunting title story. Poignant and powerful, it prodded many of my own boyhood memories, stirring up emotional coals that still smolder in this 44-year-old body. "Werewolves in Their Youth" captures at once the magical imagination of youth--playing super-hero, android, or werewolf--and the harrowing, confusing reality that insists on breaking in when those childish fantasies go too far. It reads like a mature, modern Ray Bradbury, yet with a more satisfying and non-artificial ending. In fact, the endings of all these tales transmit a note of surprise, but without disingenuousness. Here are ordinary people in ordinary situations--a graduation party, a bris, a night at a ramshackle island bar--who are revealed as twisted and awry because of their inner fear, violent anger, or confusion. Yet these are stories that repeatedly strike a chord because, after all, there's a little of the werewolf in each of us.
Rating: 
Summary: Werewolves in Their Youth
Review: Man, maybe I'm a jerk for saying so, but I don't understand the practically unanimous assertion among reviewers who didn't like the book that Chabon's language is ever particularly ornate -- or "flowery", an adjective toward which so many people on Amazon seem to be inclined -- I thought that, in the way of vocabulary, he was actually rather spare, and although his sentences did some twisting and turning, they never failed to guide the reader in the right direction, were never excessively clever. The stories themselves are elegant, laconic, and insightful, if occasionally contrived; the lattermost of which attributions Chabon was doubtless consciously striving to avoid, but which, like some malicious, depredatory creature, keen to the evasive instincts of the short-story writer, managed to catch up to him at least once or twice. I'll say this: he's better at writing novels, but these stories, as well as, perhaps to a lesser degree, those contained in A Model World, are quick, sharp, maybe a little depressing sometimes (I know from having read some of his personal essays that Chabon endeavors to rectify any erroneous notions readers might entertain regarding the degree to which his stories are autobiographical -- after The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, for example, there were a lot of people who assumed he was gay -- but one can't help but wonder about the state of his real-life marriage when very few of his characters seem to be able to get their love lives together), but overall worth reading... and more than that, worth reading again.
Rating: 
Summary: Good enough writer but bad at short stories.
Review: Michael Chabon is a talented writer but this collection is terrible. He is shrill, he is trying too hard, it just isn't there; it isn't working. I want my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Chabon's stories are great!
Review: Michael Chabon is mostly known for his novels (Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), but I think his short stories are little gems. The opening sentence of the title story alone is wonderful. His writing sparkles with characters, settings, detail, and vivid turns of phrase. The final story, a Gothic tale written in the style of an author-character in The Wonder Boys, was perfectly done. A perfect book to keep in the car or briefcase for reading while you wait--but you may not be able to stop reading when it's time to go!
Rating:
Summary: a good collection of stories
Review: Michael Chabon is one of my favorite writers, and this collection of stories did not disappoint. It, however, is not his best writing, as I think he's a much better writer of novels. But there is some fun to be had here like in the title story "Werewolves in their Youth." Chabon's portrayal of children and young men is one of his most prodigious strengths (see "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay"), and in this story the unstrained imagination of the children is both funny and poignant. To escape is an important, salient theme in this story as it in his novels. In other stories, however, his portrayal of adults fails, especially married adults. His sagacity and insights into the world of young men, just does not translate. Although these stories are not lifeless, they lack the zoetic spirit of the stories about children, and his insistence to overmanage the fates of these characters, for lack of a better word, is annoying. Does a story about a couple house hunting and having martial problems, have to be solved by them expelling their sexual energies in the house they are looking at? But that is the only complaint I have for otherwise excellent book of short stories.
Rating:
Summary: This guy has the goods!
Review: Michael Chabon is one of those writers who always leaves me wanting more. These short stories are beautifully crafted with Chabon's knack for the ironic teamed with a powerful sense of nostalgia that carries me away each time I delve into another story. Thank God for Michael Chabon. I can't wait for his next!
Rating:
Summary: Second only to Carver
Review: This collection of short stories will be joining my well-thumbed collection of Raymond Carver stories on my most perused bookshelf. Chabon's descriptions are melt-in-the-mouth delicious--like the best dark chocolate-- bittersweet with a memorable aftertaste. Both The Wolfman's Son and The Black Mill (although quite different in style and content)are worth multiple readings. Chabon is a fascinating and perceptive writer (okay, I'm jealous). I look forward to more of the same and more of the different.
Rating:
Summary: Matter-Eater Lad Lives Again
Review: This is a solid collection of short stories. The title story is by far the strongest, followed closely by the Son of Wolfman story. Although dealing with a number of rather serious issues, the collection is fun and light, a good day's read
Rating:
Summary: Howling at the Moon
Review: This is a superior collection of stories to Chabon's earlier "Model World". While the first half of that collection all seemed like carbon copies of each other, "Werewolves"--though each story centers around a marriage that has either fallen apart or is in the process of falling apart--has enough variety that reading all the stories back-to-back does not become tedious. "Son of the Wolfman", where a woman who has been having trouble conceiving with her husband is raped and impreganated by another man, is the most memorable story because of the issues it deals with. All the other stories are good as well--I won't go into describing each and every one. "The Black Mill" is an interesting little horror yarn, but it's pretty tame by today's standards. I'd suggest Chabon stick with the genre he knows best. There's not a lot to pick on with this collection of stories. The writing is flawless, the characters are all unique oddballs, and the stories are all interesting. One thing I grew tired of was the constant description of what every room looks like and every person is wearing. A lot of description can add to the atmosphere of the scene and such, but going into what everyone is wearing is irrelevant and becomes tedious after a while. Anyway, "Werewolves" is howlingly good collection of stories (thank you, I'll be here all week) that I would recommend over "Model World". But I still prefer his novels.
Rating:
Summary: Howling at the Moon
Review: This is a superior collection of stories to Chabon's earlier "Model World". While the first half of that collection all seemed like carbon copies of each other, "Werewolves"--though each story centers around a marriage that has either fallen apart or is in the process of falling apart--has enough variety that reading all the stories back-to-back does not become tedious. "Son of the Wolfman", where a woman who has been having trouble conceiving with her husband is raped and impreganated by another man, is the most memorable story because of the issues it deals with. All the other stories are good as well--I won't go into describing each and every one. "The Black Mill" is an interesting little horror yarn, but it's pretty tame by today's standards. I'd suggest Chabon stick with the genre he knows best. There's not a lot to pick on with this collection of stories. The writing is flawless, the characters are all unique oddballs, and the stories are all interesting. One thing I grew tired of was the constant description of what every room looks like and every person is wearing. A lot of description can add to the atmosphere of the scene and such, but going into what everyone is wearing is irrelevant and becomes tedious after a while. Anyway, "Werewolves" is howlingly good collection of stories (thank you, I'll be here all week) that I would recommend over "Model World". But I still prefer his novels.
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