Rating: 
Summary: NYTimes Review
Review: I think that it is amusing that the one sentence from James Young's NYTBR (otherwise very positive) review which Amazon has selected to "showcase" above ("It turns out that Nathan Englander is as human as his brilliant stories are humane") in fact refers to Englander's human _failings_. Here is the sentence in context (NYTBR April 25): "Of the nine stories in this collection, only the last -- too obviously based on the author's experiences in Jerusalem during a series of bombings -- disappoints. It opens as exquisitely as the others, the explosions coming in ''three blasts. Like birds. They come through the window, wild and lost. They are trapped under the high-domed ceiling of the cafe, darting round between us, striking walls and glass, knocking the dishes from the shelves.'' But compared with the compactness and clarifying control of the preceding stories, the rest of this one seems a little full of itself, its teller too flattered by the sound of his own voice in its nearness to death. Still, as the only rough stone in a volume of polished gems, the story came as a relief. Sustained perfection in such an emerging talent, wise beyond his years, would have been unbearable in its own right. It turns out that Nathan Englander is as human as his brilliant stories are humane."
Rating: 
Summary: overhyped
Review: if you want to read great short stories without the hype and hyperbole read Ken Kalfus' "Thirst" and Andy Plattner's "Winter Money." Two great collections that come with minimal endorsements and maximum pleasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary, a book to read, then re-read
Review: What is is with all these people below saying this story is good, that one isn't? As for the readers who review the hype and the marketing, I say get a life, your words stink of envy. This is a collection of wonderful stories, of course every reader will have favorites and like others less, impossible not too, but on reading this collection it seems to me that one way or another I have read a book by an extraordinary and wonderful new writer, a writer whose reputation will outlast his lifetime. I hope it's just the beginning of many more books by Nathan Englander, I for one would like to line a bookshelf with his words, there is something in each and every story that I will always carry with me.
Rating: 
Summary: Feh on overhyping this book
Review: i endorse the earlier reader who said there are 3 good stories in this book and 6 mediocre/ middling ones. amen, brother. the great three stories are the first two ("27th man" and "the tumblers") and "The last one way." ("The Wig" left me cold.) they are masterful, as if written by a superbeing from beyond the stars. the rest seem as if they're written by just another young bright sensitive chump from a writing program with a good agent. (meaning: not so special.) for this we pay so much money? feh on the money and feh on the marketing departments for overhyping this book. do yourselves a favor: go to the library and read the three good ones, savor them, and then save yourself the time and money. nathan englander has a lot of talent but the collection is spotty, not earthshaking but better than most. it's sad, i guess, that to make waves in the publishing world one must be billed as "the great white hope" to make a dent and then spend the rest of one's career living in the shadow of what the marketing department says about you.
Rating:
Summary: run n' buy it!!!
Review: an amazing new book from a new writer who has done an amazing job in bringing these people to life and making us get the chills while reading the stories.
Rating:
Summary: Three excellent stories
Review: Englander has three excellent stories here - and an even better publicist at Knopf. Aside from "The 27th Man," "The Tumblers" and "The Wig," which are simply stunning, the stories in this collection are mediocre to good, but not great. A few have a slight or incomplete feel to them. When there are only 9 stories in 205 pages, and the book has been overhyped as the best debut since I don't know whose, you expect every story to blow your mind. Three of them did, and this book is worth getting for those three truly great stories. Is Englander a talented writer? Unquestionably. Is he a writer on par with Malamud and Singer? No. But if he gets three excellent stories out of his next few books as well, he will one day have a wonderful "Collected Stories" volume worthy of 5 stars. If you want to read a truly remarkable, beautiful and haunting 5 star book, worthy of Englander type hype, read Joseph Skibell's A BLESSING ON THE MOON.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous--beautiful, quirky, smart; would've pd. full price!
Review: An incredible group of stories; every story that uncanny mix of the strange and the familiar. I can't help thinking of Poe and his way of exposing the weirdness--and humanity--beneath what seems at first generic and every-day. There's a kind of insight here that makes these stories incredibly satisfying to read...I've got everyone at work reading them!
Rating:
Summary: A stunner. A must read.
Review: I won't forget where I was, how I felt, or how I was made to feel, as I read each of these stories. They are simply stunning. Hilarious and yet emotionally shattering, who could ask for more from a book? Wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Such pleasurable story telling
Review: This book is full of wonderful, old-fashioned heart-touching stories---with all the power of fables, and none of the silliness of Chicken Soup for the Soul. In this time of conflict, Englander makes medicine for the mind!
Rating:
Summary: Two hairdresser stories, two WWII stories, etc.
Review: I first read "Twenty-seventh Man" in "Story", and thought it amazing. Then I read "Tumblers" in "American Short Fiction" and thought that amazing too (but somewhat overplodded, not "overplotted"). Now I've read the whole book. Only two stories fail, in my opinion, but I'll not say which ones. These unsuccessful stories were considerably "off" from all the others, which means Englander can write, and when he's on he's fabulously tight and yet idiosyncratic, perhaps intentionally idiosyncratic, but when he's off, he's like most of the rest of us. The off stories just need some more work.
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