Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Debut
Review: Anthony Doerr's collection of short stories, The Shell Collector, touches the heart in complicated, moving ways. Thes stories span the world and are told from a multiplicity of viewpoints ranging in age, sex and ethnicity while always feeling true and honest in their varied characterizations. "The Hunter's Wife" is the best example of the way most of these stories connect people with nature and through nature with each other in a circle that while often causing pain is also a means of healing. The charm of these stories is how they are seemingly simple but are actually rich and emotionally complex. "For a Long Time This Was Griselda's Story" does not intertwine the characters with nature as do the others but it is my favourite. It reverberates with a quietly building strength. A fantastic collection of stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice stories, but poor natural history
Review: Anthony Doerr's The Shell Collector is a collection of wonderful stories, each with characters that have a mystical connection to the earth. The world these characters inhabit has an additional dimension, has a bit more depth than the mundane world, yet there is nothing outlandish about these stories. These stories make me very curious to see what Doerr will produce next, particularly what he would do with a novel. Enjoy these wonderful stories.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Stories
Review: Anthony Doerr's The Shell Collector is a collection of wonderful stories, each with characters that have a mystical connection to the earth. The world these characters inhabit has an additional dimension, has a bit more depth than the mundane world, yet there is nothing outlandish about these stories. These stories make me very curious to see what Doerr will produce next, particularly what he would do with a novel. Enjoy these wonderful stories.
Rating:
Summary: Power of the Natural World.
Review: Doerr's excellent collection of short stories transports us from the coast of Kenya to the Montana winter, from Liberia in West Africa to Oregon, from Tanzania to Ohio. Three of the best for this reader are the title story "The Shell Collector", "The Hunter's Wife" and "Mkondo" where the characters Doerr creates exist in natural worlds suffused with a power that is palpable. Add "The Caretaker" and you have four mesmerising stories from a very powerful creative imagination.In "The Shell Collector", Doerr draws inspiration from the world of science. The blind collector trawls the beaches and coral reefs of Kenya, his retreat from the world, spending his time sifting through the sand granules in search of rare shell specimens, his life long study - but his private world is overturned when he happens on a cure for malaria, strangely enough from the lethal poison of a cone snail. Soon, he is overrun by relatives of the sick and other outsiders when word quickly spreads about the miracle cure. "The Hunter's Wife" has the gift of psychic commune with the spirits of earth's creatures and this poses a challenge to their life together in the harsh Montana winterscape. In "Mkondo", Doerr explores the theme of people caught between different cultures: a newly married couple from the rainforests of Tanzania and the suburbs of Oregon respectively, discover how love can first blossom - and then wither, depending on where they are: "She was learning that in her life everything - health, happiness, even love - was subject to the landscape".
"The Caretaker", a refugee from civil war in Liberia, now in Oregon, struggles to recover from the trauma of witnessing atrocities and being forced to carry out an execution. In contrast, "4th July", recounts the comical misfortunes and escapades of American anglers involved in a fishing contest with Brits. In "For A Long Time This Was Griselda's Story", two sisters take divergent roads in life, one seeking her fortune assisting a metal eater in a travelling sideshow, the other remaining at home with their mother. "A Tangle By The Rapid River" is reminiscent of some hunting stories in Annie Proulx's "Heartsong's and other stories", an excellent collection of gritty stories set in rugged country.
Rating:
Summary: A moving and incredible collection of stories
Review: I have just finished reading Mr. Doerr's Shell Collector. What a wonderful book. Each story had a life of its own. I have forgotten the beauty of the short story and how full it can be. The book was beautifully written, the deatil and description were so wonderful to read. This book makes other books I have read pale in comparison. I understand now what it means when people say, "The book is beautifully written." I look forward to reading Mr. Doerr's future accomplishments to the literary world and applaud his efforts. Buy your own copy, it is the kind of book you will want to read and reread.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not GREAT
Review: I read this book in one day. I could not put it down. I loved the story of the blind shell collector. The descriptions were wonderful. As in any collection, you will probably perceive some stories as weaker than others, based on your tastes. I found the story of the hunter and his psychic wife somewhat precious, and I didn't find Mkondo very believable- but even with those provisos, I'm really glad I read the book, and I would recommend it to anyone who liked good literature.
Rating:
Summary: A moving debut
Review: I'll keep it short and sweet. Three things make this book stand out from other short story collections: a) It is written incredibly well. The stories flow effortlessly, are written with excellent imagery and figurative language, and invoke everything from heartache to nausea. b) It is one of those books that you could read one time for enjoyment... or you could read it three times and dig up all the many meanings. c) This is not your Nora Roberts soap opera. Anybody can use sex and violence to make a book captivating, but it takes a master to weave a beautiful story from something more simple. Without becoming boring, Doerr masters this. Read it, love it, and tell your friends to do the same.
Rating:
Summary: A moving debut
Review: If you like short stories then this novel will not disappoint. You will be transported from you coffee shop all over the world and back again. We experience globalization in the workforce these days - this novel takes you around the world to other places and lets you experience a little bit of the world.
Rating: 
Summary: The Nature of Magic
Review: Man and nature. Writers have struggled to make sense of this tortured relationship since the beginning of literature. Lesser authors might shy away from attempts to tread the same hallowed ground explored by titans like Hemingway, Steinbeck or Faulkner. But Anthony Doerr, in "The Shell Collector," succeeds on his own quiet and gentle merits in portraying the pathos of human beings separated from their natural selves by the forces of civilization.
By and large each story here is a gem, revolving around a central, singular, simple character with a magical nature. In the title story, a blind recluse in the south seas becomes an unlikely and reluctant healing guru by way of a heretofore venemous shellfish. Doerr renders the man's heartache with graceful, stunning empathy as his life careens away from him, and then circles around and back, a necessary cycle of pain and redemption.
The rest of the book opens up the themes introduced with such loving artistry in the first story. "The Hunter's Wife" and "Mkondo" both weave tales about women separated by marriage from their true selves like Persephone from Demeter, living with men whose love they accept, but live to regret. In "Mkondo", the bride, removed from her home in sub-Sarahan Africa, laments of her new environment: "Nothing grew, nothing lived; even the light seemed dead, falling from naked bulbs screwed into the ceiling." From her musings Doerr evokes the vision of a vibrant, colorful plant dessicating under false sunlight.
The most powerful and and haunting story of the collection is "The Caretaker." A refugee from the Liberian civil war loses his mother and his way of life, washes up on the shores of Oregon, and carves out a new existence for himself on the inhospitable grounds of a software mogul's estate. Broken, haunted by the violent real-life nightmares that drove him from his home, Joseph Saleeby seeks solace in hiding, tending a garden fertilized by the gargantuan remains of a beached whale. His sense of life comes back to dazzling color as the garden germinates: "By mid June the stems of his plants are inches high..the buds have separated into delicate flowers; what loooked like a solid green shoot was actually a tightly folded blossom. He feels like shouting with joy". But there's another encounter in store for Joseph, one that will bring him yet again into a denatured world where he must prove his mettle.
Two of the stories--"For a Long Time This Was Griselda's Story" and "July 4th"--are a little less accessible than the others, though no reader will soon forget the unique talents of the metal eater in "For a Long Time..." "July 4th" seems more derivative than the others. It recounts the misadventures of a group of Americans as they search for the best fishing venue in Eastern Europe. Sound like a lost generation, anyone?
But these are quibbles. Even the weaker stories teach important lessons. The price of renouncing our natures is a high one, the author seems to say. But it may be inevitable in the course of human life, and it may even purchase a round trip ticket right back to where we belong. And the journey, for all its pain and trauma, can be magical.
Rating:
Summary: a must buy!
Review: The cover of Doerr's "The Shell Collector" is what first caught my eye as Randall and I entered Borders. When I opened the book,
the first line I read was: "She was a grey-eyed growth spurt, orange-haired, an early bloomer, and there were rumors about how she took boys two at a time..." Immediately my interest was piqued. Mr. Doerr's stories read (to me) like wonderfully lyric poems. He, like poet Mary Oliver, has a keen sense for the physical surroundings--Doerr gets down to the most specific detail, putting the reader Right There with his characters. I enjoy reading Rick Bass, Alice Munro, and Lorrie Moore--Doerr's stories delve into what it means to be a human, one who suffers, loves, works hard, fails, succeeds, etc. You know, we're all livin' it. These are amazing stories...I read the book in two nights and find myself thinking about it two weeks later.
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