Rating: 
Summary: A Pleasure to Read and Ponder...
Review: The stories in The Torturer's Apprentice are beautifully written and well-crafted. Biguenet has the ability to draw the reader into his unique and thought- provoking universe; allowing each tale to reveal uncharted emotional territory. Although a quick read, readers will find themselves pondering the questions raised by the author long reading the last word.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing!
Review: This book caught my attention because of the unusual title and I love to try out picks off the mainstream list! Am I glad I did!!!I was stunned at how haunting each of these stories were...a friend and I talked about the significance and meaning for hours! I cannot recommend this book enough, this book will stay with you and will unexpectedly surprise you! You will savor these stories and find yourself thinking about them unexpectedly throughout the day. Now, that is powerful! I will not be lending my copy to friends!
Rating: 
Summary: Worth your time.
Review: This is a book of short stories that are tied together by the subtle way they address the disparity between the world we want and the world we have and the humanity that lies, like an itch, just under the surface of our daily life. It explores human motivations that are rarely so well communicated.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasure to Read and Ponder...
Review: This is a lovely collection of finely crafted stories, each different from the next in tone, pace, place, and length. Characters are richly drawn, with unique and true voices which I find lingering long after I put the book down. Images linger, too: Lola framed in her lover's window, a rose-red sunset observed with indelible clarity at the moment of awful discovery, the fading image of a Jewish infant on a grave marker in a dark German cemetery, talking heads on pikes? Great images--I think the storyteller has more than a dash of the poet in him. Given the considerable range of these stories I found it hard to read this book straight through, as one would a novel. I enjoyed pausing to reflect, consider, and shift gears. But I couldn't leave it alone for long.
Rating:
Summary: no apprentice here
Review: This is a lovely collection of finely crafted stories, each different from the next in tone, pace, place, and length. Characters are richly drawn, with unique and true voices which I find lingering long after I put the book down. Images linger, too: Lola framed in her lover's window, a rose-red sunset observed with indelible clarity at the moment of awful discovery, the fading image of a Jewish infant on a grave marker in a dark German cemetery, talking heads on pikes? Great images--I think the storyteller has more than a dash of the poet in him. Given the considerable range of these stories I found it hard to read this book straight through, as one would a novel. I enjoyed pausing to reflect, consider, and shift gears. But I couldn't leave it alone for long.
Rating:
Summary: Virtuouso Performance
Review: This is an outstanding collection. Somehow I am reminded of Isaac Bashevis Singer in the parable-like stories such as "A Plague of Toads", "A Vulgar Soul", and "Gregory's Fate"; and yet other stories in the collection, such as the domestic tales "Lunch With My Daughter", "Fatherhood", and "An Open Curtain" are reminiscent of Irwin Shaw or even John Cheever. But make no mistake, Biguenet is his own man and for my money this is the best story collection published so far in 2001.
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