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A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories
A great short story has the emotional depth and intensity of a poem and the wholeness and breadth of a novel. Amy Bloom writes great short stories. Her first collection, Come to Me, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and here she deepens and extends her mastery of the form.
Real people inhabit these pages, the people we know and are, the people we long to be and are afraid to be: a mother and her brave, smart little girl, each coming to terms with the looming knowledge that the little girl will become a man; a wildly unreliable narrator bent on convincing us that her stories are not harmless; a woman with breast cancer, a frightened husband, and a best friend, all discovering that their lifelong triangle is not what they imagined; a man and his stepmother engaged in a complicated dance of memory, anger, and forgiveness. Amy Bloom takes us straight to the center of these lives with rare generosity and sublime wit, in flawless prose that is by turns sensuous, spare, heartbreaking, and laugh-out-loud funny.
These are transcendent stories: about the uncertain gestures of love, about the betrayals and gifts of the body, about the surprises and bounties of the heart, and about what comes to us unbidden and what we choose.
A blind mand can see how much I love you --
Rowing to Eden --
Lionel and Julia (Night vision, Light into dark) --
Stars at elbow and foot --
Hold tight --
The gates are closing --
The story
Real people inhabit these pages, the people we know and are, the people we long to be and are afraid to be: a mother and her brave, smart little girl, each coming to terms with the looming knowledge that the little girl will become a man; a wildly unreliable narrator bent on convincing us that her stories are not harmless; a woman with breast cancer, a frightened husband, and a best friend, all discovering that their lifelong triangle is not what they imagined; a man and his stepmother engaged in a complicated dance of memory, anger, and forgiveness. Amy Bloom takes us straight to the center of these lives with rare generosity and sublime wit, in flawless prose that is by turns sensuous, spare, heartbreaking, and laugh-out-loud funny.
These are transcendent stories: about the uncertain gestures of love, about the betrayals and gifts of the body, about the surprises and bounties of the heart, and about what comes to us unbidden and what we choose.
A blind mand can see how much I love you --
Rowing to Eden --
Lionel and Julia (Night vision, Light into dark) --
Stars at elbow and foot --
Hold tight --
The gates are closing --
The story
161 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 2000
About the author
Amy Bloom
58 books1,143 followersAmy Bloom is the New York Times bestselling author of White Houses; Come to Me, a National Book Award finalist; A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; Love Invents Us; Normal; Away; Where the God of Love Hangs Out; and Lucky Us. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Short Stories, The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, and many other anthologies. She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, O: The Oprah Magazine, Slate, Tin House, and Salon, among other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews
February 12, 2011
once i was answering phones at small business that did catalog sales, and someone called to make an order and said her name was amy bloom. and i said, not the famous writer amy bloom? and there was this long pause, and then she sort of chortled and said, well, yes, i guess it is.
she stayed on the line and talked to me for five or ten minutes about writing. she was so lovely. if i hadn't already read all her stories, i'd have gone out and bought them on the strength of what she had to say about her process. her work isn't my favorite in the world, but it's so consistently touching that i'm humbled by it.
she stayed on the line and talked to me for five or ten minutes about writing. she was so lovely. if i hadn't already read all her stories, i'd have gone out and bought them on the strength of what she had to say about her process. her work isn't my favorite in the world, but it's so consistently touching that i'm humbled by it.
January 30, 2010
This is the kind of collection that makes people hate short stories. Bogged down with all kind of typical, unspecific tragedy--a dead baby story, of course, because you couldn't possibly be a successful female American story writer without one of those in your bag, breast cancer story, TWO improbable and dishonest I-slept-with-my-stepmother stories (?), and a few more cancer/Parkinson's/someone died stories.
What is frustrating about this isn't that these aren't worthy topics for fiction--they are. But these topics are also very familiar territory for the short story form, and if you are going to go into that familiar territory, I think you better have a good reason--such as, I have something very weird and interesting to observe about the emotions of this character in this situation. And that applies to only one of these stories--the final one, called "The Story."
This is the kind of collection that makes me feel bleak and completely isolated from what, apparently, most people enjoy reading.
What is frustrating about this isn't that these aren't worthy topics for fiction--they are. But these topics are also very familiar territory for the short story form, and if you are going to go into that familiar territory, I think you better have a good reason--such as, I have something very weird and interesting to observe about the emotions of this character in this situation. And that applies to only one of these stories--the final one, called "The Story."
This is the kind of collection that makes me feel bleak and completely isolated from what, apparently, most people enjoy reading.
July 29, 2014
3.5 stars
Violent with grief. That's the phrase I kept coming back to while reading Amy Bloom's short stories. In "Rowing to Eden," a woman with breast cancer calls her nurse a "stupid bitch" because of her clumsiness with a needle. In "Hold Tight," Della deals with the death of her mother, and in the process she thinks about how her friends argue with their moms about stupid things like boys and clothes - Della wishes she could "stab them to death." A mother watches her son go through sex reassignment surgery, criticizing everyone around her while coping with her pain.
I loved the brutal honesty in Bloom's short stories. She shows people at their weakest and cruelest, fighting against illness and crippled by grief. Her characters come alive right away - they react to bad news with anger, sadness, and a gamut of emotions other authors tend to shy away from. From unreliable narrators to cheating spouses to somewhat incestuous relationships, Bloom throws her characters into extreme scenarios and forces them to survive.
I wanted more depth from a few of the stories. While I connected with the emotional complexity of "Stars at Elbow and Foot," my favorite story in the collection, I felt like some of the stories ended right when I got a grasp of the characters, such as "Lionel and Julia" and "Hold Tight." Still, Bloom's experience as a psychotherapist shows through her penchant for creating vivid, three-dimensional characters.
Violent with grief. That's the phrase I kept coming back to while reading Amy Bloom's short stories. In "Rowing to Eden," a woman with breast cancer calls her nurse a "stupid bitch" because of her clumsiness with a needle. In "Hold Tight," Della deals with the death of her mother, and in the process she thinks about how her friends argue with their moms about stupid things like boys and clothes - Della wishes she could "stab them to death." A mother watches her son go through sex reassignment surgery, criticizing everyone around her while coping with her pain.
I loved the brutal honesty in Bloom's short stories. She shows people at their weakest and cruelest, fighting against illness and crippled by grief. Her characters come alive right away - they react to bad news with anger, sadness, and a gamut of emotions other authors tend to shy away from. From unreliable narrators to cheating spouses to somewhat incestuous relationships, Bloom throws her characters into extreme scenarios and forces them to survive.
I wanted more depth from a few of the stories. While I connected with the emotional complexity of "Stars at Elbow and Foot," my favorite story in the collection, I felt like some of the stories ended right when I got a grasp of the characters, such as "Lionel and Julia" and "Hold Tight." Still, Bloom's experience as a psychotherapist shows through her penchant for creating vivid, three-dimensional characters.
May 19, 2009
A collection of terribly, terribly sad short stories. Puts death and angst in perspective. Made me want to line up every member of my family and hug each one of them, then watch them hug each other. At knife point, of course.
September 22, 2023
My second collection by Bloom this year, after Where the God of Love Hangs Out; somewhat confusingly, the latter reprints two of this volume’s Lionel and Julia stories, so there were actually only six stories here that were new to me (5 x first-person; 3 x third-person). However, they’re all typically great ones. The title story has a mother accompanying her daughter to the medical appointments that will transform Jessie into Jess, her son, and also taking a chance on romance. “Rowing to Eden” explores the dynamic between best friends, one lesbian and one married to a man; the one has already been through breast cancer treatment so can counsel her friend from experience.
In “Stars at Elbow and Foot,” a woman whose baby died goes back to the children’s hospital to volunteer with the disabled. “Hold Tight” also reflects on loss and accidents (but is probably the throw-away story if I had to name one). “The Story,” which closes the book, had me hunting for autobiographical correlations what with its mentions of “Amy.” By far my favourite was “The Gates Are Closing,” in which D.M. is having an affair with the synagogue president’s husband, who has Parkinson’s disease. As Yom Kippur approaches, he gives his mistress an ultimatum. The minor assisted dying theme in this one felt ironically prescient of Bloom’s own experience accompanying her husband to Dignitas (the subject of In Love). As always, Bloom’s work is sensual, wry and emotionally wise.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
In “Stars at Elbow and Foot,” a woman whose baby died goes back to the children’s hospital to volunteer with the disabled. “Hold Tight” also reflects on loss and accidents (but is probably the throw-away story if I had to name one). “The Story,” which closes the book, had me hunting for autobiographical correlations what with its mentions of “Amy.” By far my favourite was “The Gates Are Closing,” in which D.M. is having an affair with the synagogue president’s husband, who has Parkinson’s disease. As Yom Kippur approaches, he gives his mistress an ultimatum. The minor assisted dying theme in this one felt ironically prescient of Bloom’s own experience accompanying her husband to Dignitas (the subject of In Love). As always, Bloom’s work is sensual, wry and emotionally wise.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
August 12, 2007
I feel actors should read this book because I've never read stories with such clear, complete characterizations. And its not simply descriptive - from the very beginning it's as though the characters appear right before you; like really great actors have seeped themselves in their roles and made all the right choices. My only problem is the stories are SO devastating that it's difficult for me to go on to the next story.
October 24, 2009
This collection was a finalist for the national book critics circle award and the back jacket was full of lines of praise from the New Yorker and the New York Times, but I didn't connect with the stories. I felt like they were written with a lot of polish and there was a lot of cleverness in the stories, but it all felt pretty glib to me and I wasn't able to connect with any of the characters emotionally. They seemed empty to me, shiny but without substance. I don't know. I guess lots of other people liked the collection but it wasn't for me.....
October 20, 2010
Yes, these are very sad stories. But Amy Bloom seems to write about sadness in a revelatory way, rather than join-me-here-in-this-mucky-mess-of-desperation. The story "The Story" is so excellent, I was happy I read all the way through the collection to finally end on this sentence: "I have made the best and happiest ending that I can in this world, made it out of the flax and netting and leftover trim of someone else's life, I know, but made it to keep the innocent safe and the guilty punished, and I have made it as the world should be and not as I have found it."
August 25, 2023
2.5 Stars: I was just sort of humming along reading these short stories when my husband asked me which was my favourite story. In that moment, I couldn’t really answer as I felt all but one story was sort of forgettable. The title story is the one that stuck with me.
March 8, 2015
I don't even know what I can say about this book to do it justice. Each story was so moving, some left me breathless, others like sharp talons were tearing at my heart.
November 9, 2023
1.5/5
“Sophisticated readers understand that writers work out their anger, their conflicts, their endless grief and rolling list of loss, through their stories.”
The autor must be really into incest and terminal diseases, because almost every story in this collection is centered around at least one of these themes.
The stories seem to have a beginning, a body, but no discernible ending. I couldn’t figure out which ones were intertwined and which ones were separate pieces.
The whole read was confusing and, frankly, debilitating (call me what you may but I don’t enjoy reading misery porn and/or incestuous love stories).
But to Bloom’s defense - there were a few good passages and the writing itself wasn’t half bad. The plot on the other hand… I don’t think I need to comment on it any more than I already have.
“Sophisticated readers understand that writers work out their anger, their conflicts, their endless grief and rolling list of loss, through their stories.”
The autor must be really into incest and terminal diseases, because almost every story in this collection is centered around at least one of these themes.
The stories seem to have a beginning, a body, but no discernible ending. I couldn’t figure out which ones were intertwined and which ones were separate pieces.
The whole read was confusing and, frankly, debilitating (call me what you may but I don’t enjoy reading misery porn and/or incestuous love stories).
But to Bloom’s defense - there were a few good passages and the writing itself wasn’t half bad. The plot on the other hand… I don’t think I need to comment on it any more than I already have.
June 1, 2021
Hold tight was the best.. Others ok.
July 27, 2019
There were only a couple of stories in this collection that I maybe wanted extended — not even to a full length novel though; just a few more pages. Other than that, not much resonated with me from this book; the stories, the writing, the characters were all meh for me. After having been graced with incredible collections such as “What it means when a man falls from the sky” and “Friday black,” this one sadly didn’t work for me as strongly.
October 2, 2023
I liked it and at times it touched me.
July 4, 2010
Amy Bloom. I have never read anything of hers before. I mean, I worked at a bookstore at the height of her Away's popularity, but I never did much more than crack the cover and read the book jacket. So why I chose this collection (A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You) of her short stories to start with, I'm not entirely sure. The first story is about a mother's love extending to her daughter as the girl becomes her son. I had just finished this when someone (at a gathering of J's family) asked me what I was reading and if I liked it. I wasn't sure what to say to a woman whose favorite books include all of Dan Brown's novels. I said I wasn't sure.
I kept reading. The dark family secret that divides a family and drives a stepson and his stepmother to quietly struggle through quiet family moments. The mistress unsure what to do with her dying lover's family. The mourning mother struggling to love the most unloveable child she can find. Such twisted, unhealthy, subnormal love, written with such beautiful sentences. I didn't know whether I loved or hated it I felt so disturbed. (Can no one with within healthy boundaries?)
But.
The last story. Not really a story so much as the deconstruction of a story. The deconstruction of a story into bits and pieces so believable I just looked Amy Bloom up online to see if that was actually her story. That story was worth the whole book. Let me see if I can explain.
The very first image Bloom gives us in Story is that of the declining house market. She describes how the homeowners for sale signs become more and more desperate, more blunt, and then she says "I have thought that I could buy that house." The narrator is talking about the house that no one wants, whose owners are desperate to have off their hands...and then she tells us a pretty story about how she would live in that house no one wanted. Then we are told a story about a neighbor couple and their daughter, which she revises, taking out all the pretty details, and then revises further, adding grotesque features to both their marriage and her place in its demise. When the story finishes, we find "Amy" the narrator who is but isn't Bloom herself, living in that house [marriage:] that she perceived as unwanted, even though she had to reduce it to its most desperate to make room for herself in it.
It's a terrible image. An awful, uncomfortable story. But SO beautifully written, with lines like this:
There is no such thing as a good writer and a bad liar.
I don't know. I both wanted to give this book five stars and one star. I think I'll go read something happy now.
I kept reading. The dark family secret that divides a family and drives a stepson and his stepmother to quietly struggle through quiet family moments. The mistress unsure what to do with her dying lover's family. The mourning mother struggling to love the most unloveable child she can find. Such twisted, unhealthy, subnormal love, written with such beautiful sentences. I didn't know whether I loved or hated it I felt so disturbed. (Can no one with within healthy boundaries?)
But.
The last story. Not really a story so much as the deconstruction of a story. The deconstruction of a story into bits and pieces so believable I just looked Amy Bloom up online to see if that was actually her story. That story was worth the whole book. Let me see if I can explain.
The very first image Bloom gives us in Story is that of the declining house market. She describes how the homeowners for sale signs become more and more desperate, more blunt, and then she says "I have thought that I could buy that house." The narrator is talking about the house that no one wants, whose owners are desperate to have off their hands...and then she tells us a pretty story about how she would live in that house no one wanted. Then we are told a story about a neighbor couple and their daughter, which she revises, taking out all the pretty details, and then revises further, adding grotesque features to both their marriage and her place in its demise. When the story finishes, we find "Amy" the narrator who is but isn't Bloom herself, living in that house [marriage:] that she perceived as unwanted, even though she had to reduce it to its most desperate to make room for herself in it.
It's a terrible image. An awful, uncomfortable story. But SO beautifully written, with lines like this:
There is no such thing as a good writer and a bad liar.
I don't know. I both wanted to give this book five stars and one star. I think I'll go read something happy now.
February 14, 2008
I really like Amy Bloom's writing. I discovered her via The L Word, she was mentioned by Jenny in one of the episodes. I looked her site up and read some excerpts from her short stories and knew I wanted to read more of her work.
Bloom has a comfortable, conversational way of telling a story. I'm not one for short stories, whether they're good or bad. Bad short stories because they're a waste of time, and good short stories - because you want them to be more than just a short story. This is how I felt about this collection of Bloom's.
The characters are intense and feel so real within a few pages that you almost feel like you know them. The first story 'A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You' was my favourite and I almost wish that she had fleshed this one out into a full length novel. The characters were 3D, flawed and fabulous.
With short stories, I usually read one of them from beginning to end and leave some time until I read the next, because I have a tendency to mix characters and get confused. With Bloom's stories, I find that I can chew through the entire collection and not have this problem. She takes on fresh approaches to each piece, the people are unique and the subject matters are complex (though rather distressing).
I loved each story in this book for varying reasons. Bloom is a bold, fearless writer and so far, I love everything about her writing.
Bloom has a comfortable, conversational way of telling a story. I'm not one for short stories, whether they're good or bad. Bad short stories because they're a waste of time, and good short stories - because you want them to be more than just a short story. This is how I felt about this collection of Bloom's.
The characters are intense and feel so real within a few pages that you almost feel like you know them. The first story 'A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You' was my favourite and I almost wish that she had fleshed this one out into a full length novel. The characters were 3D, flawed and fabulous.
With short stories, I usually read one of them from beginning to end and leave some time until I read the next, because I have a tendency to mix characters and get confused. With Bloom's stories, I find that I can chew through the entire collection and not have this problem. She takes on fresh approaches to each piece, the people are unique and the subject matters are complex (though rather distressing).
I loved each story in this book for varying reasons. Bloom is a bold, fearless writer and so far, I love everything about her writing.
May 14, 2013
I can't quite articulate how much I loved these stories, how much I admired the level of craft on display here. Characterizations are sharp, and descriptions are precise and concise. It is amazing. Consider this excerpt:
The summer Jessie Spencer turned five, she played Capture the Flag every day with the big boys, the almost-six-year-olds who'd gone to kindergarten a year late. Jane never worried, even in passing, about Jesse's IQ or her eye-hand coordination or her social skills. Jesse and Jane were a mutual admiration society of two smart, strong, blue-eyed women, one five and one thirty-five, both good skaters and good singers and good storytellers. Jane didn't mention all this to the other mothers at play group, who would have said it was the same between them and their daughters when Jane could see it was not, and she didn't mention it to her own sweet, anxious mother, who would have taken it, understandably, as a reproach. Jane didn't even mention this closeness to the pediatrician, keeper of every mother's secret fears and wishes, but it sang her to sleep at night. Jane's reputation as the play group's good listener was undeserved; the mothers talked about their knock-kneed girls and backward boys and Jane smiled and her eyes followed Jesse. She watched her and thought, That smile! Those lashes! How brave! How determined!
That single paragraph (the second paragraph in the first story) made me sit up and take notice.
The summer Jessie Spencer turned five, she played Capture the Flag every day with the big boys, the almost-six-year-olds who'd gone to kindergarten a year late. Jane never worried, even in passing, about Jesse's IQ or her eye-hand coordination or her social skills. Jesse and Jane were a mutual admiration society of two smart, strong, blue-eyed women, one five and one thirty-five, both good skaters and good singers and good storytellers. Jane didn't mention all this to the other mothers at play group, who would have said it was the same between them and their daughters when Jane could see it was not, and she didn't mention it to her own sweet, anxious mother, who would have taken it, understandably, as a reproach. Jane didn't even mention this closeness to the pediatrician, keeper of every mother's secret fears and wishes, but it sang her to sleep at night. Jane's reputation as the play group's good listener was undeserved; the mothers talked about their knock-kneed girls and backward boys and Jane smiled and her eyes followed Jesse. She watched her and thought, That smile! Those lashes! How brave! How determined!
That single paragraph (the second paragraph in the first story) made me sit up and take notice.
July 23, 2011
Each of these short stories seemed to eventually focus on a love relationship, whether or not it was obvious, socially sanctioned, or even desired. Perhaps the author's previous work as a social worker and psychotherapist had broadened her awareness of the unusual types of relationships.
These stories were generally not celebrations of love. In fact, there seemed to be an overall sense of melancholy resignation, with this attitude perceived in the characters, often before the reader knows why. Understanding the characters required some concentration, with some of the stories ending just as I felt I was getting to know them. I was pleasantly surprised that one of the stories was a continuation of the one before, allowing me to see where the plot in the former had eventually led with familiar characters.
I keep thinking about the phrase used as the title for this book: "A blind man can see how much I love you." I originally assumed it referred to obvious love. After reading this book, I believe it may be in reference to the acuteness of the non-visual senses attributed to blind people, as the amorous relationships herein tended to be disguised to outward appearances, but were obvious in other ways.
These stories were generally not celebrations of love. In fact, there seemed to be an overall sense of melancholy resignation, with this attitude perceived in the characters, often before the reader knows why. Understanding the characters required some concentration, with some of the stories ending just as I felt I was getting to know them. I was pleasantly surprised that one of the stories was a continuation of the one before, allowing me to see where the plot in the former had eventually led with familiar characters.
I keep thinking about the phrase used as the title for this book: "A blind man can see how much I love you." I originally assumed it referred to obvious love. After reading this book, I believe it may be in reference to the acuteness of the non-visual senses attributed to blind people, as the amorous relationships herein tended to be disguised to outward appearances, but were obvious in other ways.
January 8, 2018
I'm torn on the rating for this collection for several reasons. The first of which is that I randomly picked this book of my sister-in-law's bookshelf and started reading without checking the synopsis. I assumed that it was a novel, so I was disappointed when the characters completely changed in the second "chapter," and I just kept wondering when we'd return to them. Obviously we never did because this is a collection of short stories, not a novel.
But this brings me to my main criticism, which is more to do with me. I don't understand the modern short story. The endings feel completely arbitrary to me, and I didn't feel as though I really understood anything more about the characters' lives than I did at the beginning of the stories.
However, the character building is amazing. Bloom really understands her characters and that's why I wanted more. I wasn't quite done with them when the story was finished.
Apart from the last story; that one I did not particularly enjoy and was sad to finish the collection on that note.
I'm still giving the collection a four-star review because the writing is gorgeous and when I've forgotten about the collection, I want to remember that I enjoy this author's writing and hope to read more of her in the future.
But this brings me to my main criticism, which is more to do with me. I don't understand the modern short story. The endings feel completely arbitrary to me, and I didn't feel as though I really understood anything more about the characters' lives than I did at the beginning of the stories.
However, the character building is amazing. Bloom really understands her characters and that's why I wanted more. I wasn't quite done with them when the story was finished.
Apart from the last story; that one I did not particularly enjoy and was sad to finish the collection on that note.
I'm still giving the collection a four-star review because the writing is gorgeous and when I've forgotten about the collection, I want to remember that I enjoy this author's writing and hope to read more of her in the future.
January 2, 2020
these stories are beautiful. None of them are about conventional love in any sense of that term, and thus they are even more powerful -- the odd places in which people find love, and the unexpected strength of those connections. The opening story watches a woman at a hospital, while looking after her beloved daughter who's about to have a sex change opertation to finally become the man she's always felt she really is, unexpectedly fall in love with an endocrinologist who works in the same medical center. The next, my favorite ("Rowing to Eden"), makes an intricate triangle of a woman struggling with breast cancer, her best friend who's already been through a similar fight, and her frightened-yet-determined husband -- the love they each have for her, her own desire to be left alone with her illness, and the ways in which the husband and friend find comfort in each other, grappling with their mutual fears of loss and grief. All of the loves in this book are so fierce, so absolute, they make me jealous in a way -- but it's also a treat to be let into their worlds. (7/01)
October 7, 2010
I can understand why other reviewers seem to either love or hate Amy Bloom's collection of short stories. The characters face aberration and tragic life circumstances at every turn and in large doses this can be overwhelming for casual reading. Taken one at a time, these are little pearls with inner dialogs that open the reader to an appreciation of the human capacity for unconditional love. Go for it. You'll be forced to think about "what-would-you-do-in-the-same-situation" and that is always a good result of taking a chance on a book cover at the library.
October 6, 2014
Maybe it was the timing, but this book of short stories just did not do it for me. Don't get me wrong, it was beautifully written, but it was also tragic in so many ways. I struggled getting through some of them because they were so painful. Rather than wanting to read the next one as soon as I finished one, I kept hoping that the one I was on was the last one. Again, very well-written, but sad to read.
February 2, 2009
Amy Bloom writes about love in such a perfect, poignant, shockingly honest way that it makes me fervently wish that she'd fall in love with me for awhile and then, maybe a few years later, write a short story about our affair. That'd be the greatest thing to ever happen to me, I think.
December 5, 2008
Amy Bloom is a powerful writer, and these short stories take your breath away. Her writing is spare, so reminds me of Raymond Carver, but she's writing from a woman's eye and these stories make your heart ache. Fabulous if you like short stories. Not for someone looking for a light read.
August 3, 2016
I am a bit confused about this book. It focuses on weird people and weird behavior. I know it's fashionable, but also makes for an unpleasant read. Kind of like watching very bad porn. Skip this. There's so much other great stuff to read.
May 16, 2022
I reread this book (5/22) and could not remember reading it before. Yikes! I did enjoy some of the short stories more than I did before, apparently.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You - Nevisande : Amy Bloom - ISBN : 375705570 - ISBN13 : 9780375705571 - Dar 161 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2000
January 4, 2015
Solid throughout.
January 21, 2013
Such exquisite writing, great craft and story telling skill. Sigh.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews