Believers : A novella and stories

Rating:
Summary: ...PLUNGING, SALMON-LIKE, AGAINST THE APPARENT CURRENT...
Review: ...sorry, folks. While I recognize Baxter's talent for mood and description, I found very little about this collection that I liked. The quote on the back of my hardcover edition from Ann Beattie says 'Some form of spirituality has always waited quietly beneath the surface of many of his stories', and that 'Baxter is a master of articulating the quiet confusion of despair, and of subtly suggesting that despair may, at times, be redemptive...' There is despair to be found in all of these stories, for sure -- but I found nothing redemptive in it. The characters that populate these stories seem to me to be almost soulless -- their pain and despair are real to them, but they are so completely unappealing to me that I don't really care.

Another reviewer stated that the story 'Reincarnation' allowed him/her to know the meaning of love. The views on love expressed by the characters in these stories are worlds away from the way I view love -- they strike me as self-centered and hollow, like the conversation at the dinner party depicted in 'Reincarnation'. The very fact that they could bear to sit around and have such a discussion makes me want to know them even less -- I would have made some lame excuse and fled the gathering early. From some of the descriptions of the sexual attitudes of the characters in 'Kiss away', 'Reincarnation', 'Saul and Patsy are in labor', 'Flood show' and 'The cures for love', the relationships come off as so purely physical that they were probably doomed from the start -- and we're supposed to mourn this, to ache along with these people over the loss of something that was much less than it should have been in the first place?

'The next building I plan to bomb' reads like a script that never made it onto 'Twilight Zone' -- when I came to the last section, I could hear Rod Serling's voice as clear as if he were standing in the room with me. If this was Baxter's intent, then he was successful.

In general, my impressions after reading these stories are of an assorted group of sad, empty people, unable -- or unwilling -- to recognize or deal with some serious issues. They are either blind to serious dangers in their lives or incapable of letting go of emotional threads connecting -- tying? -- them to pain or dead relationships from their past (and in some cases, their present).

Thanks and a tip of the reading cap to Half-Price Books for only asking me to pay $4.95 for this.

Rating:
Summary: Surprising! Fresh and Real
Review: Charles Baxter is a great storyteller and this collection of seven short stories and one novella is no exception. For the most part, Baxter produces empathic characters and manages to transport the reader into the story with his clear and occasionally insightful prose.
This collection begins with "Kiss Away", the story of a young woman looking for love who's granted three wishes by an unlikely genie in a bar (as opposed to a likely genie in a jar). Not surprisingly, she doubts the barfly's veracity and is somewhat hasty with her wishes. This is a curious story of love and relationships (past and present), and the reader is left without any real sense of conclusion. Nevertheless, the story is a good start to this fine collection.
"Reincarnation" is next, and is the one story that could've been skipped. It's the story of three annoying couples' incessant banter about death and reincarnation. Few (if any) insights are proffered and the characters in this story could be reincarnated as mutes as far as this reader was concerned. Fortunately, the collection redeems itself from this point.
"The Next Building I Plan to Bomb" is a story with no resolution about an unendearing bank employee's inner turmoil invoked by the discovery of a mysterious piece of paper. Somewhat disturbing but well-rendered.
"Time Exposure" is a whirlwind of a story about a drunken confession and a neighbor's obsession and possible retaliation.
"Saul and Patsy are in Labor" provides a glimpse into a couples' struggle with the change parenthood brings into life and its implications.
"Flood Show" is a fascinating story of love on several levels and perhaps the best of the short stories in this collection.
"Cures for Love" documents the thoughts of a young woman recovering from a love gone bad and the role an old copy of Ovid's "Remedia Amoris" plays in her effort to move on with life. Both humorous and insightful, this was a story that could've made the genesis of an interesting novel.
Lastly, this collection ends with the brilliant novella and title story, "Believers". This is the story of an ex-pastor's childhood, years in the priesthood, and life as a father to the narrator of this insightful story. Reminiscent of some of the great Russian literature of the last century, this story brings the collection to a worthy conclusion.
A good collection of stories with an excellent novella at the end. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Ambitious new collection by underrated American master.
Review: Charles Baxter is a writer's writer; his prose is dazzlingly precise, his dialogue is unerringly sharp, and his themes are big: God, love, and the loss of both. He's they type of writer who inspires envy among other writers (his fans the acknowledged contemporary queen of short fiction, Alice Munro.) So why is his latest collection so unsatisfying? Baxter's writing is as sharp as usual, but the tone is darker, relentlessly darker at that. Most of the stories are devoid of hope; most of the characters are guilty of the basest acts (misplaced revenge, lust for ex-spouses, and fascism all rear their ugly heads.) I don't mind darkness, but Baxter finds little relief in these pieces; there are no contrasts, no moments of light to make the darkness stand out. Still, the stories hang in the memory. "Time Exposure," in which a husband, acting out of a false sense of justice, nearly murders a neighbor for an imagined crime, gets under the skin

Rating:
Summary: Luminous and funny -- this is fiction at its finest!
Review: Having read A Feast of Love, I was compelled to read another Charles Baxter book. This book is quite funny and touching -- Baxter has the ability to move people's hearts with his unique language and precise coming timing. The short stories are great; my favorites are "Reincarnation," "The Next Building I Plan to Bomb" and "The Cures for Love." These stories are extremely funny and thought provoking at the same time.

Believers, like The Feast of Love, has a timeless quality that establishes Baxter as one of our most gifted fiction writers of today. I strongly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great prose but missing heart
Review: This book of seven short stories and one novella by Charles Baxter was difficult to rate because on one side the prose is so exceptional as to merit a 5 but as another reviewer noted, it is difficult to care about the lifeless characters that he has created and what appears to be a lack of some type of conclusion or redemption. As an example of his writing skill, from the novella Believers, the narator characterizes his father as follows.

"...his moods were almost weightless, and the shifts in his emotions were often so quick that watching him was like being stationed in a field over which clouds were rapidly passing, creating patterned successions of shadow and light.
I was the child in that field, over which the clouds passed."

Is there a better picture that could be painted describing the effect of the father's moods on his son!

The reader should bear in mind that the title is not meant to just echo the name of the novella, but applies to every story in the book. In most of the short stories an incident occurs which triggers a change from a comfortable existence to one of questioning of beliefs. Every story is really about a loss of belief. We've all lost belief in something sometime in our life and Baxter is exploring this concept with his different stories. Overall, the novella, Believers, is the best of the book. The story, told from the perspective of the son of a former priest, discusses the downfall of his father caused by his association with a rich and devious couple. We follow the son's descriptions of the events leading to his father's downfall and his attempt to learn more. Of the short stories I enjoyed Flood Show the most and on the other side could find little value to Reincarnation.

In summary, I enjoyed his prose but was wishing for more from the story. However, I will still try another of his books.

Rating:
Summary: Great prose but missing heart
Review: This collection of seven stories and one novella landed in my hands as a gift, knowing that I have an interest in authors residing in my geographical area (lower Michigan)... but after reading the collection, I plan to read more Baxter, regardless of where he lives, regardless whether the books arrive in my hands as gifts or as my own purchases. I will plunk down my hard-earned dollars for a bit more Baxter, because he knows how to tell a story, and he knows how to write one.

No, that is not one and the same thing. I have found that some authors can weave a yarn very well, peaking suspense, captivating intrigue, taking the reader from beginning to middle to climactic conclusion, but not necessarily with words that are breathtakingly new. These are the storytellers. Others, I find, may not be the best at keeping the varied and many strings of a storyline teasingly tangled yet taut, but they are wonderful writers. They are word artists. They have a talent for choosing fresh phrases that amaze, painting colorful images, bringing about those special a-ha moments for the reader by framing something in words never quite framed that way before. I love that. Maybe even more than a taut storyline.

But oh, the pleasure when finding a word-artist who can also tell a good story! Baxter can do this. Granted, not always in equal measure. "Saul and Patsy Are in Labor" leaves me unconvinced, even wincing a bit. In theory, I believe it is possible for a male writer to write as if with the voice of a woman, for a female writer to write as if with the voice of a man - and convincingly so. But it's hard, it is tricky. For a male writer to write as if a pregnant woman.... well, let's just say, it didn't break my water. The story lost me, a female reader, in its first pages of Patsy feeling as if she were "reeking with reproduction." Um, no. "Cures For Love" perhaps has a similar problem, again with a female as main character, suffering the pangs of a broken relationship by wearing her ex's cap backwards as she bathes, as she cooks. Instead of feeling her anguish in these images, I end up grinning. The image was amusing more than painful. I did not feel her pain. This woman just doesn't hurt like a woman to me. I wish, instead, Baxter had enlightened me on the male perspective of this break-up. Surely men feel pain worthy of a storyline, too, and I suspect it would have been more authentic.

In this very same story, however, I can point to what makes me now officially a Baxter fan:

"She was not a romantic and did not like the word romance. They hadn't had a romance, the two of them. Nothing soft or tender, like that. They had just, well, driven into each other like reckless drivers at an intersection, neither one wanting to yield the right-of-way."

Now, that I like! Baxter writes often (too often?) about the ups and downs, ins and outs, of love in its many forms, always a difficult topic to address in fresh words, and this is just one of many examples of how well he accomplishes just that. Love can indeed be at times like a head-on collision, all parties injured and whiplashed, tires left spinning, engines smoking. Hurrah! I have my a-ha moment.

Indeed, I have moments that Baxter reminds me of other authors whose work in the short story genre I admire very much: Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike. He can evoke a certain mystery, even eeriness, tinge of evil intention, as Oates does. He can amuse with human antics as Updike does. In this collection, he does it best in the novella, "Believers."

"We cannot imagine the soul without its clothing of flesh," he writes in his novella. Simple words, written with artistry.

By the time I had finished reading this introduction to Baxter, I had already visited the bookstore to purchase his "Feast of Love." I'll be back for more.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful and profoundly moving,
Review: Until a long-awaited follow-up proves me wrong, "Believers" is Charles Baxter's finest collection of short fiction. Many writers choose similar themes as Baxter -- midwestern life, midlife romance, middle-distance observation -- but none, in my reading, handle the short fiction form with such aplomb and dexterity, making it look easy. The novella in this collection that gives it its name is outstanding, insofar as it grapples with such enormous themes of trust, belief and the mystery of people in the number of pages it does. Until we get another novel or short fiction collection from C. Baxter, there is the rereading of these stories, a thoroughly enjoyable and edifying experience.

Rating:
Summary: An American Master Outdoes Himself
Review: What makes Charles Baxter's stories beautiful, beyond the understated brilliance of the words he finds to tell them, is the deep respect and sympathy he obviously feels for his characters. Reading, you enter the minds of the most random people--a small-town English teacher, a middle-aged housewife with growing doubts about her husband's secrets, a man who owes his life to the failure of his father, a priest, to keep his vow of chastity. Each character is revealed in all his or her complexity and humanity, with absolute fidelity: there is no patronizing moral judgment or reducing people to "types," just an understanding sadness at people's failings and a quiet admiration where admiration is due. One of the most unexpected and satisfying things about his writing is how funny his stories can be--they've made me laugh out loud, but even Baxter's highly developed sense of the absurd never overwhelms the underlying feeling of a story.

I love Charles Baxter's writing, and for me, Believers is the best he's done so far.