The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories (Steve Almond, 2005)
I fell in love with Steve Almond because of the genius that is Candy Freak and have long vowed to follow up and read more of him. I'm just now getting around to it. Perhaps it's unfortunate that I chose this collection to start with. First, I have trouble finishing short stories. Then I don't know how to talk about them as a collection. I started this while I was in Seattle and finished it up over the weekend, so it didn't drag on as long as some of the other collections still sitting half-finished on my night stand.
The stories here are really varied. I think I was expecting a theme to emerge, but there really wasn't one except maybe that all the stories dealt with relationships of some sort. One particularly strange one is "Lincoln, Arison," which is about a relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass. A page or two into it, I was really tempted to skip it, but I was drawn in by the characterizations of both men. A couple of pieces really didn't work for me, like "The Soul Molecule" and "Skull." But I really enjoyed the rest, especially the title story and "Wired for Life." Almond does well with the female voice, which I appreciate.
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