Disclosure: In any review for a product or service, products or compensation may have been provided to me to help facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Guidelines. Please see “Disclose” and "Terms of Use" tabs for more information.
I received a copy of this book to facility my review. All opinions are my own and honest.
This book was quite short, but not the quick read I was expecting. The short stories were complicated and varied, jumping all over the globe and the gamut of human experiences. Some seemed like you could know the person Eslami was writing about, the stories seemed familiar and ordinary. Ordinary people, as well all know, do live interesting and often convoluted lives, and these were full of vibrant details and backstory. She painted a picture for you with her words and descriptions, intertwining the labyrinth of past and present and different characters’ tales together into one several page anecdote. Some stories were metaphors, such as the title story “Hibernate”, which made you think while you read. Actually, most of the book made you think, which was why it was not the short summer read I had thought it would be.
Most of the short stories had no concrete or “firm” endings, which I don’t like. Perhaps it’s unevolved of me, but I like my books (movies, TV shows, etc) to have sure endings.
This was a very interesting read, very unusual, and a good book if you are looking for something entertaining yet not mindless this summer. Pick it up when you get the chance.
About Hibernate
Elizabeth Eslami follows ordinary men and women who slowly bump heads with hard choices. A fishing trip forces two Montana brothers to grow up in ways they could have never expected. A Sudanese immigrant begins a new life with his girlfriend in America, only to find himself sucked in to his mother’s past transgressions. A group of tourists visits an Indian pueblo and realizes their tour guide is nothing like they expected. A shipwrecked captain and his men cling to the company of narwhals and Eskimos. And in the unforgettable title story, two lovers trade life as they’ve known it for an escape in the extraordinary. Eslami moves her restless, resilient characters across an uneven landscape toward a hard earned place of peace.
About The Author:
Elizabeth Eslami is the author of the forthcoming story collection, Hibernate, for which she was awarded the 2013 Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction, and the acclaimed novel Bone Worship (Pegasus, 2010). Her essays, short stories, and travel writing have been published widely, most recently in The Literary Review, The Sun, and Witness,and her work is featured in the anthologies Tremors: New Fiction By Iranian American Writers and Writing Off Script: Writers on the Influence of Cinema.She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. Elizabeth is a senior prose editor at Tupelo Quarterly and currently teaches in the MFA Program at Manhattanville College.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/elizabetheslami
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.eslami.7
Website: http://elizabetheslami.com/
I love to read,,so this sounds good to me,to read anytime
sounds like a good read