12/1/2015BookFilter | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=e1a944b1-2851-428f-bae4-ecf16315e08a&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4HomeTop Picks: All BooksVoices in the Night MoreVoices in the Nightby Steven MillhauserPrice: $25.95(Hardcover)Published: April 14, 2015Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)From the Publisher: From the Pulitzer and Story Prize winner:sixteen new stories—provocative, funny, disturbing, enchanting—that delve into the secret lives and desires of ordinary people,alongside retellings of myths and legends that highlight theaspirations of the human spirit.Beloved for the lens of the strange he places on small town life,Steven Millhauser further reveals in Voices in the Night the darkestparts of our inner selves to brilliant and dazzling effect.</p><p> Here arestories of wondrously imaginative hyperrealism, stories that poseunforgettably unsettling what-ifs, or that find barely perceivableevils within the safe boundaries of our towns, homes, and evenwithin our bodies.</p><p> Here, too, are stories culled from religion and fables: Samuel, whohears the voice of God calling him in the night; a young, pre-enlightenment Buddha, who searches for…Rate This Book|Rate/ReviewAdd To BookshelfGet This BookGo to your preferred retailer, click to choose a format and you' ll be taken directly to their site whereyou can get this book.BookFilter12/1/2015BookFilter | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=e1a944b1-2851-428f-bae4-ecf16315e08a&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4 Personalize / Add More ChoicesWhat We SayBring on the adjectives: transporting, funny, bizarre, surreal, sweet, memorable, knee-sleeping, thought-provoking,unique.</p><p> One could go on, but suffice to say Pulitzer Prize-winner Steven Millhauser delivers a new collection of shortstories, 16 tales (and "tales" is probably the right word) for shivering and laughing over.</p><p> What's he like? Perhaps RayBradbury or Jorge Luis Borges or John Collier (if you want to seem cool and namecheck an obscure but appropriateprecursor) or "The Twilight Zone" without the (obvious) moralizing or really just Steven Millhauser.</p><p> His stories arerooted in details, the here and now (wherever the here and now may be), a place so firmly imagined -- be it abackyard lawn or a palace of dreams -- that you never doubt it for a second.</p><p> It's reality, but reality shifts and thestrange and uncomfortable always slip in or linger just out of eyesight. "Coming Soon" is classic Millhauser: a manhas moved from the city to an up-and-coming small town.</p><p> Not a sleepy small town, no thank you, but a place wherethings are happening.</p><p> A Saturday morning jaunt to a favored cafe in its bustling downtown allows our narrator todescribe the pleasurable improvements taking place here and there: a new restaurant, an addition to a neighbor'shome and so on.</p><p> But the pace of change quickens and the parade of improvements becomes dizzying.</p><p> Soon, thisquiet town is a frenzy of activity and our hero gets lost simply trying to walk home because so many newdevelopments and add-ons have taken place in the past few minutes.</p><p> A row of townhouses replace a park perhapsor homes are remodeled beyond recognition and on and on.</p><p> Desperate to orient himself, he's in his car now, trying tofind his way.</p><p> Construction is everywhere, even on his own block.</p><p> Change is now a constant and our hero barelyknows where he is anymore.</p><p> Panicked, he asks for directions from a man in a hard hat and is sent fleeing up a newlybuilt ramp onto a newly built highway headed God knows where.</p><p> It's disturbing, bewildering, scary...and funny.</p><p> And itcan't be spoiled by describing it because Millhauser's writing is so diamond-sharp and distinctive. "Phantoms" usesone of his favorite devices -- a report or summary or some such official document -- to describe a town where peopleapparently see (sometimes or often or or once in a great while, depending on the person) other "people" who are notreally people, but phantoms that walk away the moment they're spotted.</p><p> This phenomenon is described andanalyzed, explanations are offered but ultimately it's left as a dark puzzle.</p><p> And on the stories come: a retelling of"Rapunzel" in which she and the Prince have their misgivings about the whole affair, a riotously amusing newadventure for Paul Bunyan that's pure pleasure, a moving story spun-off from the Bible tale of Samuel answering thevoice of God and my favorite: a lovely, subtly impassioned, fanciful depiction of the soon-to-be Buddha as heawakens from pleasure to the possibilities of a contemplative life.</p><p> Magic realism is a phrase crafted for Millhauser; it'sthe phrase of choice for refined critics discussing great writing that involves the fantastical.</p><p> But isn't all great writingmagical? It certainly is here. -- Michael GiltzLessWhat Others Say“Vividly imaginative . . .</p><p> In this new collection, Pulitzer Prize-winner Millhauser draws a gauzy curtain ofhyper-reality over mundane events and creates an atmosphere of uneasiness that accelerates to dread.</p><p> Heestablishes tense yet wondrous tones while never resorting to melodrama; his cool, restrained voice isprofoundly effective . . .</p><p> The gem of the collection is ‘A Voice in the Night,’ in which a young boy in theauthor’s own home town is transfixed by the biblical story of Samuel, who heard God’s voice and knew hemust obey . . .</p><p> The cumulative effect [of] the voices throughout is to transport the reader to an alternateworld in which the uncanny lurks pervasively beneath the surface.” —Publishers Weekly
