PositiveThe RumpusIf the first stories are testaments to the squirmy vitality of youth, the later stories become decidedly more grim and existentially despairing ... One of the more impressive things about the book is Szalay’s range of portraiture and ventriloquy. He is just as adept at portraying a loafing youth on holiday in Cyprus, as he is a wheezing, alcoholic Scotsman, or a tender, muscle-bound bodyguard. Equally impressive is Szalay’s ability to convincingly describe specific fictional milieus...So why then, I wondered, as I read the book, given Szalay’s clear versatility and range, are his female characters so flat? The clichés and stereotypes are so abundant as to seem almost absurd...given the outsized role women play in these stories, it begins to seem odd, if not downright problematic, that Szalay’s female characters should so consistently be characterized as something far less than their richly drawn male counterparts ... a little more complexity and nuance would have been nice. Because otherwise, this is among the best books I have read all year.
