Twilight of the Superheroes: Stories

by Deborah Eisenberg

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Picador (2007), Paperback, 240 pages

Description

Deborah Eisenberg is nearly unmatched in her mastery of the short-story form. Now, in her newest collection, she demonstrates once again her virtuosic abilities in precisely distilled, perfectly shaped studies of human connection and disconnection. From a group of friends whose luck in acquiring a luxurious Manhattan sublet turns to disaster as their balcony becomes a front-row seat to the catastrophe of 9/11; to the Roman holiday of a schoolteacher running away from the news of her ex-husband's life-threatening illness, and her unlikely guide, a titled art scout in desperate revolt against his circumstances and aging; to the too painful love of a brother for his schizophrenic sister, whose tragic life embitters him to the very idea of family, Eisenberg evokes "intense, abundant human lives" in which "everything that happens is out there waiting for you to come to it."… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jbushnell

Short stories. The title story is a killer, one of the best I've read in recent years.

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LibraryThing member Ibreak4books

Does everyone HAVE to be an art dealer in New York City? I wish some of these NY writers would leave the nest and check out some other parts of the country to turn their talents loose on.

LibraryThing member jawalter

Every critique I've seen of this book refers in some way to 9/11, which isn't terribly unexpected. While Eisenberg seems to dance around that date without directly addressing it, it's still clearly the dominant theme of each of her stories, chronicling worlds that have been oh-so-slightly tilted

off their axes.

So maybe the fact that I was so unaffected by her stories has more to do with a certain weariness towards that particular date as some sort of crucial indicator that the world has forever changed, rather than just another milepost in the ever-evolving parade of inanity that comprises human existence.

For the most part, I couldn't manage to gear myself up enough to care or be interested by her plots or characters. It's almost as though she only cared about telling a story as a means of talking about her feelings on the transition from a pre-9/11 to a post-9/11 world.

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LibraryThing member chrisblocker

Blech!

I tried to muddle through this collection, but it was difficult. I had no idea what the author was talking about half the time. I couldn't figure out if she just had ADHD or I had an attention deficit disorder of my own. Take, for example, the following passage from the title story
"And

actually, Russell (who seems to be not only Amity’s friend and possible suitor but also her agent) has obtained for Amity a whopping big advance from some outfit that Madison refers to as Cheeseball Editions, so whatever else they might all be drinking to (or drinking about) naturally Amity’s celebrating a bit. And Russell, recently arrived from L.A., cannot suppress his ecstasy about how ur New York, as he puts it, Mr. Matsumoto’s loft is, tactless as he apparently recognizes this untimely ecstasy to be."
Granted, you may not know who Russell, Madison, Amity, and Mr. Matsumoto are. You don't know the setting. You have no context. Neither did I. Every passage leading up to this was quite the same. Names, places, more names, and phrases that just seemed to run on and make no sense. If you read the passage above, understood it, and enjoyed it, then you should probably buy this book as quickly as possible and never read another of my reviews again. Please.

The only story that had any redeeming qualities was "Some Other, Better Otto." It wasn't the most compelling story, but it made sense. Otherwise, I really felt like I wasted my time on this one.

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LibraryThing member palaverofbirds

I think I've heard better stories told eavesdropping on people in restaurants.

A review on the back claimed that Alice Munro and Deborah Eisenberg are the only contemporary writers, "incapable of writing a bad story." Makes one really wonder where they get their books.

LibraryThing member bjellis

Short stories. Excellent. Oddly, the first one, which provides the title, is the weakest. It feels contrived. All the others are wonderful, with keen insights and excellent writing.

LibraryThing member asxz

There was very little here for me to cling to. Mostly opaque and inaccessible apart from that one story about Otto and his family that was quite moving. Not my favorite collection of short stories.

LibraryThing member steller0707

I love the way these stories seem to ramble, but slowly unfold, until towards the end you see the whole picture. First I was involved with the vividly drawn characters in these stories, then before I knew it I was engrossed. I liked them all, but favorites included the title story about the effects

of the 9/11 World Trade disaster on disparate yet connected people; Some Other, Better Otto about a dysfunctional grown family; and Like It Or Not. But descriptions don’t do them justice.

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