PositiveThe RumpusWashington...has always shined when describing cooking and eating ... At times feels like a reworking of a well-known recipe, drawn from a pantry of ingredients Washington has used in previous works ... Cam’s narrative voice is more spare than others who have told the stories in his previous work, the lines short and staccato ... Some of the loveliest writing in the novel belong to the short sections woven throughout that belong to Kai ... At times I found myself wondering what new themes, settings, different items on the menu so to speak, he might try next.
Samanta Schweblin, Trans. by Megan McDowell
MixedThe Washington Square Review... eerie and at times thrilling ... The stories never quite reach the same strange and thrilling peaks as Fever Dream. But with twenty stories crammed into just over 200 pages, the collection offers the chance for readers to watch a younger Schweblin mapping her obsessions, and seeking out different modes to explore those landscapes ... Reading the collection is like watching a magician honing her act in smaller venues. Occasionally she lights her sleeve on fire, but at her best, we have the pleasure of watching her discover the power to hold the audience rapt that will serve her so well once she moves to the main stage ... there’s fun to be had in tracing the different ways that Schweblin’s themes reappear in different guises across the collection ... There is also something timely, but often surprisingly flat, about these stories’ consideration of violence ... what these stories sometimes lack is the ability to move beyond the interesting spark or conceit at their center and find a way to surprise or dazzle. Too often I found that the intriguing concept on the first page of the story was all I was left with by the last ... But even when the stories don’t elevate the reader, there is still something exciting about seeing the author at work, trying things out. If Fever Dream is required reading, then the stories in Mouthful of Birds are the deep dive for the reader who can’t get the novel out of their head, and is willing to look more closely to try and understand how Schweblin pulled it off.
