The Palace Thief: Stories

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment! Why is this author so loved? OVER-RATED!
Review: ...my wife used to work at Houghton Mifflin whose vaunted Trade Division published Ethan Canin when he first started. All the 25 year old women of HMCO were in love with this guy who wrote beautifully, was excessively handsome (see book jacket and be your own judge...what do I know?) and was slumming at Harvard Medical School to become an MD. OK, so it has taken me about 12 years of marriage before I could bring myself to pick up Dr. Canin's work. And what do I think?

Not too bad. If you like terrific writing. If you are a fan of great American story tellers like Fitzgerald, O'Hara, Cheever.
If you like baseball. If you have ever been part of a family. If you are left brained or for that matter right brained...well you get the picture. I concede. This Canin dude has it all, and I recommend you add him to your reading table.

(Just don't let your wife see the bookjacket.)

Rating:
Summary: A Story for Every Season
Review: Ethan Canin's The Palace Thief is a collection of four short novellas that are all connected by the same themes; that of human nature and that emptiness we often feel deep within us whenever things are tough. Three of these stories are worth being praised, while the fourth might have been better had it been in a different collection.

The title story is probably the best of the whole book (and, also comes last, save the best for last right?). Here, we have a teacher who is faced with his greatest challenge, one that will span over many decades, one that will leave him changed forever. This story is touching and very affecting, about one man's struggle with morality. A real gem. My second favorite story was Batorsag & Szerelem, a moving story about one boy and his struggles brought upon being the youngest of the family. He is ceaselessly compared to his older brother, who is more intelligent and popular than he is. Living up to his big brother's reputation is one thing he will learn to try and passby in order to be happy with himself.

The story City of Broken Hearts is a very moving story about one man's realization of his life's emptiness. William is divorced and misses his son, who lives in another city. When his son comes back for a visit, he tries to come to peace with the past. But it is only when his son sets him up on a blind date that William will realize that he needs to fill the emptiness that is slowly eating him up.

After these great stories, it's kind of a downer to think back on the book's first story, entitled Accountant. Although the story is quite original and entertaining, it lacked the power and writing skills the author displayed so perfectly with the following three stories. Another story about a family man who has never been really happy with himself, this story is also one that deals with self realization and self depreciation. An enjoyable read, if only that.

Canin displays a great range of human emotions in this short collection. His writing is very affecting and powerful. His choice of words is always delibarate and purposeful. Every sentence has a meaning and leads somewhere, unlike other stories in collections by lesser authors, where half of it is composed of emptiness and the other half of a very weak plot and paper-thin characters. You will find none of that in this book. The Palace Thief is a highly engaging collection by one of the best new voice in dramatic fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Palace Thief plus filler
Review: I can rip into avant-garde fiction and potboilers like there's no tomorrow. But when it comes to something so sweet and unpretentious, I can't help but be mesmerized. Ethan Canin is as witty as O. Henry. Perhaps due to his medical training, he pens intricate and perfectly logical stories. His stories, like Raymond Carver's, have the supernatural ability to be minimalist yet breath maximum emotional turmoil in the readers. There are four novellas in this collection, my favorite being the City of Broken Hearts, about the connections between a lonely father and his pregressive-minded son.

Rating:
Summary: not bad, but not great either
Review: I grow so weary of reviewers touting the hackneyed line, "unforgettable characters". Please! The characters in this collection inspire a certain curiosity but are hardly "unforgettable". The story "The Palace Thief" would have been much more enjoyable had I not read the quintessential teacher/student story which is "Of This Time, Of That Place" by Lionel Trilling - hands down the best short story I've ever read. I wonder if Ethan Canin has read this because there is a similiarity. But where Trilling's story is a classic, Canin's is merely average.
Also, the first-person narratives in two of the stories (the first & last) sound like the same person - both are pedantic, somewhat pompous, and long-winded.
I'm beginning to worry that the reading public has become immune to terrible writing, which is why when someone like Canin comes along, there's an overflow of enthusiasm which is just not warranted. These are good little stories, but all are easily forgettable. This is easy-reading, and the neither the stories nor the writing, are particularly memorable.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful human drama.
Review: Let's face it folks: All stories have already been told. In fact, the Greeks nailed down about every possible archetypal character, conflict and plot over 2,000 years ago. So, bashing this book for being "trite" or "banal" essentially bashes every modern work of fiction. The value of literature, then, becomes how well something is done rather than how original it is. What these snobby critics (i.e. The New York Times) simply can't stand is that Canin's methods are entirely anti-postmodern. If you're into literary trickery a la David Foster Wallace or Paul Auster or Thomas Phynchon you had better stay clear of these gorgeous stories about human beings (rather than talking dogs). This is exactly what literature should be. The stories are about the characters, not the author. Writers like Wallace and Pynchon want you to remember the author. So much of postmodern fiction is about the author and the author's baggage, all rendered in a self-serving mess of psychological confession and silly pop-art trendiness. Canin's writing is about telling a profound story with beautiful language. God forbid! Canin is willing to subordinate fake originality to a supreme understanding and mastery of the world's most noble craft. American fiction needs more writers like this, willing to embrace the fundamentals of literature rather than faddish trickery. Very impressive.

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: The best of these stories were such a relief to me, after reading literary story after literary story in the "New Yorker" and elsewere that had that bland, icestuous, politically correct MFA writer program graduate stamp to it. An essay in the "L.A. Times" referred to such writers as "Stepford Writers." And to read stories like "The Accountant" where the stories actually have some LIFE and PERSONALITY and ORIGINALITY was wonderful. I was prepared to be an eternal Ethan Canin fan. But then I read some subsequent stories of his, and he succumbed to the bland MFA type story!! He became a Stepford Writer. How horrible!! Well, at least I have these stories to read again. I just don't have any FUTURE Canin stories to look forward to (Oh, please surprise me Ethan!)

Rating:
Summary: Only one gem in the palace
Review: This book contains 4 short stories that are good, but not terribly memorable (even though the back cover calls them "unforgetable"). I read this book only a couple of weeks ago and can only remember one of the stories very well: The Palace Thief.

The Palace Thief has nothing to do with a palace or a conventional thief. It was also used as the basis of the movie, The Emperor's Club. The story has the same feel as Dead Poet's Society with a professor that gets his students to dress in togas as they study Greek history and literature. The story is good but, in my opinion, the only true gem in the palace of this book.

Ethan Canin likes to infuse his stories with baseball and other diversions enjoyed by men. I suppose these are the types of things he himself enjoys when he's not writing books or working as a doctor.

Rating:
Summary: Only one gem in the palace
Review: This book contains 4 short stories that are good, but not terribly memorable (even though the back cover calls them "unforgetable"). I read this book only a couple of weeks ago and can only remember one of the stories very well: The Palace Thief.

The Palace Thief has nothing to do with a palace or a conventional thief. It was also used as the basis of the movie, The Emperor's Club. The story has the same feel as Dead Poet's Society with a professor that gets his students to dress in togas as they study Greek history and literature. The story is good but, in my opinion, the only true gem in the palace of this book.

Ethan Canin likes to infuse his stories with baseball and other diversions enjoyed by men. I suppose these are the types of things he himself enjoys when he's not writing books or working as a doctor.

Rating:
Summary: Palace Thief plus filler
Review: This collection of four (no so short) stories is uneven at best, but the title piece, The Palace Thief, is a gem. The Kirkus reviewer didn't think so, but then that reviewer's summation of the story was surprisingly simplistic. I think most readers will get more out of it than that. My advice is to get the book for this piece alone, although story number three is also a worthy read.

Rating:
Summary: Intricate and intriguing
Review: To be honest with you - the reason I picked up the book was because I knew "The Emperors Club" with Kevin Kline was based upon The Palace Thief. I decided I would read the story before going to see the movie. But I got sucked into the first story "Accountant", and I was hooked. The stories are insightful and give a short gimpse into a life during a critical time, or during a life changing event which challenges the way the character thinks and reacts. I highly recommend "The Palace Thief" to anyone! P.S. The movie was as excellent as the story in the book.