Status
Available
Call number
Description
Schweblin's stories have the feel of a sleepless night, where every shadow and bump in the dark take on huge implications; they leave your pulse racing and the line between the real and the strange blurring. In the tradition of Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor, Schweblin's stories move on the boundary between the real and the fantastic. This selection, chosen by the author, is an indispensible piece of contemporary Argentine literature.
User reviews
LibraryThing member pomo58
Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin is a collection of stories, translated from Spanish, that fall under the genre description of the fantastic. They are also somewhat linked not only by their atmosphere, which is mostly dark and foreboding, but also by their social and cultural commentary.
Most
I would recommend this to readers who enjoy dark stories that make some kind of a statement, usually a statement you will need to wrestle with in your own mind. If elements of the fantastic put you off then you might want to skip this although I would suggest you give it a try anyway, these are very accessible stories where the fantastic serves more to enhance the story than tell the story.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.
Most
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readers will find at least a few stories they particularly like here, I actually found none that I disliked or even didn't care about. Every one spoke to me to some degree and a few will stay with me. For a collection to be this compelling throughout is not as common as one would like even if it is completely understandable.I would recommend this to readers who enjoy dark stories that make some kind of a statement, usually a statement you will need to wrestle with in your own mind. If elements of the fantastic put you off then you might want to skip this although I would suggest you give it a try anyway, these are very accessible stories where the fantastic serves more to enhance the story than tell the story.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.
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LibraryThing member msf59
“My god, Sylvia, your daughter eats birds!”
“I can't do it anymore.”
“She eats birds! Have you taken her to the doctor? What in the hell does she do with the bones?”
Sylvia stood looking at me, disconcerted.
“I guess she swallows them too...”
^Obviously, that was from the title story,
“I can't do it anymore.”
“She eats birds! Have you taken her to the doctor? What in the hell does she do with the bones?”
Sylvia stood looking at me, disconcerted.
“I guess she swallows them too...”
^Obviously, that was from the title story,
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[Mouthful of Birds], which was one of the only highlights here. I so wanted to love this story collection. I like dark, slightly bent and inventive. These contained all those traits but nothing ever really sang out to me. I am thinking it could possibly be the translation, but I don't want to put the complete blame on that. I will have to just write it off as a rare misfire for me and see what she does next. Of course, I still love that cover art. Show Less
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Samanta Schweblin is an Argentinian author whose work is finally being translated into English, first with Fever Dream and now with a collection of short stories called Mouthful of Birds. The stories in this collection are varied, but share a sense of discomfort, of things being off-kilter, of the
Each story is odd, unsettling, and none of them are interested in answering any questions a reader might have. Stories begin in the middle or stop before or during the the moment of crisis. Backstories are hinted at. These are not stories to rush through, but to read singly, with time to mull over what happened or didn't happen or might happen later. There's often the sense of the environment being destroyed or turning against the people living in it. Intriguing and not necessarily satisfying, I'm eager to read more by this author.
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ordinary rules not applying. A man murders his wife and stuffs her body into a suitcase only to find that his actions are badly misunderstood. A father comes to terms with his daughter's changing diet needs. An unhappy woman meets a merman. Each story is odd, unsettling, and none of them are interested in answering any questions a reader might have. Stories begin in the middle or stop before or during the the moment of crisis. Backstories are hinted at. These are not stories to rush through, but to read singly, with time to mull over what happened or didn't happen or might happen later. There's often the sense of the environment being destroyed or turning against the people living in it. Intriguing and not necessarily satisfying, I'm eager to read more by this author.
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LibraryThing member alanteder
A few too many feel bad stories for me
Review of the English translation paperback from Oneworld Publications Feb. 2019
Casual brutality in writing, whether to animals or people, has become a real turn off for me. So even stories that are meant as parables or as a symbolic commentary on society, that
Still, several of the stories here were excellent. I especially liked the kickoff lead of Headlights with its ambience of a twilight-zone world by the highway. The Size of Things with a quirky toy-store worker who makes nightly re-arrangements of the products and shelves to the delight of the owners and customers was the real stand-out highlight.
Others, like e.g. Mouthful of Birds, The Test, Heads against Concrete were turn-offs. The closer The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides left an especially down note as the finale, which probably distorted my view overall.
The stories here are presumably from quite an early period of Schweblin's writing as they are a translation of 2009's "Pájaros en la boca" (literally: Birds in the Mouth). It seems an odd choice for her English translations after 2017's breakthrough of "Fever Dream" which had impressed me quite a lot.
I received this book as part of Shakespeare and Company's 2019 Year of Reading subscription package.
Review of the English translation paperback from Oneworld Publications Feb. 2019
Casual brutality in writing, whether to animals or people, has become a real turn off for me. So even stories that are meant as parables or as a symbolic commentary on society, that
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use these actions or incidents become somewhat abhorrent.Still, several of the stories here were excellent. I especially liked the kickoff lead of Headlights with its ambience of a twilight-zone world by the highway. The Size of Things with a quirky toy-store worker who makes nightly re-arrangements of the products and shelves to the delight of the owners and customers was the real stand-out highlight.
Others, like e.g. Mouthful of Birds, The Test, Heads against Concrete were turn-offs. The closer The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides left an especially down note as the finale, which probably distorted my view overall.
The stories here are presumably from quite an early period of Schweblin's writing as they are a translation of 2009's "Pájaros en la boca" (literally: Birds in the Mouth). It seems an odd choice for her English translations after 2017's breakthrough of "Fever Dream" which had impressed me quite a lot.
I received this book as part of Shakespeare and Company's 2019 Year of Reading subscription package.
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LibraryThing member Perednia
Vibrant, stirring, weird and wonderful stories.
LibraryThing member streamsong
This is an odd, offbeat, and sometimes downright creepy collection of short stories.
It starts out with a roar with a bride left causally at a roadside stop – only to find that she is not the only one there.
And then there’s the aid worker who arrived at a town to find things are very wrong.
Or
Of course not every story was a home run; and there were those that I was left wondering what that was about.
But, this collection had more hits than misses for me. And the hits were very good.
It starts out with a roar with a bride left causally at a roadside stop – only to find that she is not the only one there.
And then there’s the aid worker who arrived at a town to find things are very wrong.
Or
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perhaps you’d rather ponder what one does when your beloved daughter begins to eat live birds?Of course not every story was a home run; and there were those that I was left wondering what that was about.
But, this collection had more hits than misses for me. And the hits were very good.
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LibraryThing member Eoin
An unsettling pleasure.
These stories each approach their worlds with eerie humor and rich horror - like Clarice Lispector writing a Flannery O'Connor short or Shirley Jackson writing as Bruno Schulz. Inventive, alluring, surprising, and still with the feeling of inevitability. Vibrant, strange, and
These stories each approach their worlds with eerie humor and rich horror - like Clarice Lispector writing a Flannery O'Connor short or Shirley Jackson writing as Bruno Schulz. Inventive, alluring, surprising, and still with the feeling of inevitability. Vibrant, strange, and
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supremely enjoyable. Show Less
LibraryThing member VioletBramble
Twenty strange and quirky short stories from the author of Fever Dream. My favorites were; Mouthful of Birds, Olingiris, Heads Against Concrete, and Toward Happy Civilization. Much like Fever Dream these stories are strange and hard to put down.
LibraryThing member amillion
This is an odd collection of stories. They are compelling and well written, but twisted. I’d hate to live in Schweblin’s imagination... but I’m weeks since finishing this book, and some of the stories are still with me, carrying along big question marks.
Publication
Riverhead Books (2019), Edition: Translation, 240 pages
Awards
Shirley Jackson Award (Nominee — Collection — 2019)
The International Booker Prize (Longlist — 2019)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2019)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2008 [original Spanish]
2019 [English: Megan McDowell]
Physical description
8.34 inches
ISBN
0399184627 / 9780399184628
Other editions
Mouthful of Birds: Stories by Samanta Schweblin (Hardcover)