All three books share Bynum’s impressive control of language and a capacious sense of how much a story can do and contain ... Bynum is finely attuned to both sensory and emotional detail, especially in those moments when characters’ observations and feelings are more conflicted than they or the reader initially assumes ... The adjectives that readers often attach to Bynum’s work — 'enchanting,' 'charming,' 'precise' — are accurate, but can give the impression that she specializes in dollhouse miniatures, masterfully crafted but bloodless. Her skills and her sensibility are deeper and darker than that.
Certain authors have such mastery over the short story form that you never forget the first time you read their work ... Likes lays out bread crumbs for the reader to follow, the fairy-tale reference deliberate given that several of the stories play on those weird fables we tell children ... Shun-lien Bynum allows her characters to believe they’ve seen the truth, but shows her readers that the characters — like us — rarely get it right. Likes is a short-story collection you should read slowly, but it’s so good, each story at such a high-wire level, that you’ll wind up tearing through it and wishing for more.
Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum’s mastery of the short story form is on immediate display in her new collection ... Mobility is a major concern in these stories, as is the act of crossing boundaries, entering territory reserved for another group, or race, or class, whether explicitly or by tacit tradition ... It is the writer’s task to grasp, and to employ, the nuances of language, but Bynum is exceptionally skilled at subtle shifts and seemingly casual details ... Bynum can wring suspense from the slightest interactions ... Several of these stories quietly acknowledge celebrities—they are seen in passing at a school event ('The Erlking'), or they are featured in an anecdote ('Bedtime Story')—but they serve only to illuminate how deeply engrossing the lives of Bynum’s ordinary, nonfamous characters are.
Bynum’s prowess here lies in her ingenious ability to elevate seemingly minor moments into the pivotal crux of a narrative ... Although the collection proves uneven, Bynum’s more dazzling tales surpass the less memorable for ultimately rewarding results.
...sparkling, transcendent ... Each story is delicate and dazzling in its own way—this is the rare collection where each entry is as good as the one that came before it ... The stories hum with thrilling detail and are touched here and there by small hints of magic ... With the exuberance of the best Elizabeth McCracken stories and the insights of Tessa Hadley, these tales are at once gorgeously rendered and empathetic. This has the feel of an instant classic.
Bynum's characters struggle to determine who they are, how they are, and how they were, in a distant time before smartphones and cyber-media ... As clean prose dissects messy lives, these stories combine an empathetic heart with acute understanding.
