Elated By Details: Award-winning Short Stories

Rating:
Summary: An engrossing cavalcade of human drama
Review: Elated By Details is the debut collection of award winning short stories by Adam Freedman. Combining sharp-witted satire, word play with a twist, and cast of dysfunctional characters speeding to their self-determined dark fates, Elated By Details reads in a deliciously extravagant and indulgent manner, luring one in for more despite the compelling grip of self-destructive human nature that so prevades the tongue-in-cheek tales. An engrossing cavalcade of human drama leaving the reader hungry for more.

Rating:
Summary: wise, witty and well said
Review: I recently picked this book up and only put it down because I was late for work. Freedman's fresh, wise, and witty stories are simultaneously dark and delightful. I highly recommend Elated by Details and look forward to the author's future work.

Rating:
Summary: wise, witty and well said
Review: These stories are really, really funny, especially for people who appreciate clever ways of using the language (puns, palindromes, etc.).

The pieces in the book poke fun at Americans' obsession with reinventing themselves. The main characters are always trying to make themselves into something they are not. They're escapist by nature (think Walter Mitty), looking for ever more creative ways to avoid the messy business of growing up. For them, "coming of age" isn't something you do once, but rather a repeated outcome of the battle between grandiose ideas and hard reality.

In the title story, for example, a smart-alecky high school student tries to break free from his midwestern family while visiting a college. Another piece features a lawyer who wants to join the aristocracy by marrying an heiress. Others follow a salesman who dreams of becoming a dot-com magnate and a struggling playwright tries to become a show biz legend. Anyway, you get the picture, but to understand why all this works so well on the page you have to get the book yourself. Do so. Now!!!

Rating:
Summary: Adam you¿re a madman. (Inside joke, read the book.)
Review: Very funny indeed. Elated by details kept me up late several nights snickering until my wife hit me with a pillow. Highly recommended.