NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Los Angeles Times • The Boston Globe • The Seattle Times • The IndependentIn such acclaimed novels as Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic, National Book Award–winning author Colum McCann has transfixed readers with his precision, tenderness, and … has transfixed readers with his precision, tenderness, and authority. Now, in his first collection of short fiction in more than a decade, McCann charts the territory of chance, and the profound and intimate consequences of even our smallest moments.
“As it was, it was like being set down in the best of poems, carried into a cold landscape, blindfolded, turned around, unblindfolded, forced, then, to invent new ways of seeing.”
In the exuberant title novella, a retired judge reflects on his life’s work, unaware as he goes about his daily routines that this particular morning will be his last. In “Sh’khol,” a mother spending Christmas alone with her son confronts the unthinkable when he disappears while swimming off the coast near their home in Ireland. In “Treaty,” an elderly nun catches a snippet of a news report in which it is revealed that the man who once kidnapped and brutalized her is alive, masquerading as an agent of peace. And in “What Time Is It Now, Where You Are?” a writer constructs a story about a Marine in Afghanistan calling home on New Year’s Eve.
Deeply personal, subtly subversive, at times harrowing, and indeed funny, yet also full of comfort, Thirteen Ways of Looking is a striking achievement. With unsurpassed empathy for his characters and their inner lives, Colum McCann forges from their stories a profound tribute to our search for meaning and grace. The collection is a rumination on the power of storytelling in a world where language and memory can sometimes falter, but in the end do not fail us, and a contemplation of the healing power of literature.
Praise for Thirteen Ways of Looking
“Extraordinary . . . incandescent.”—Chicago Tribune
“The irreducible mystery of human experience ties this small collection together, and in each of these stories McCann explores that theme in some strikingly effective ways. . . . [The first story] is as fascinating as it is poignant. . . . [The second] captures the mundane and mysterious aspects of shaping characters from the gray clay of words, placing them in realistic settings and breathing life into their lungs. . . . That he makes the story so emotionally compelling is a sign of his genius. . . . The most remarkable [piece] is Sh’khol. . . . Caught in the rushing currents of this drama, you know you’re reading a little masterpiece.”—The Washington Post
“McCann is a writer of power and subtlety and beauty. . . . The powerful title story loiters in the mind long after you’ve read it.”—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
“[McCann] unspools complex and unforgettable stories in this, his first collection in more than a decade.”—The Boston Globe
“McCann is a passionate writer whose impulse is always toward a generous understanding of his diverse characters.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Powerful, profound, and deeply empathetic, McCann’s beautifully wrought writing in Thirteen Ways of Looking glides off the page.”—BuzzFeed
“McCann weaves the magic that made Let the Great World Spin so acclaimed.”—The Huffington Post
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A rolling wave of emotion and turbulence hidden beneath seemingly ordinary lives.
This collection contains a novella and three short stories which are equally rich and thought-provoking. McCann’s beautiful prose masks pain and heartbreak of the characters.
McCann has the uncanniest way of revealing what isn’t revealed – as he puts it, we often receive the truth without the honesty. I loved “Great World” but that was a book I read as an outsider. Thirteen Ways is different for me – one story centers around a mother and her son’s struggle with his disability. As a former special education teacher and a mother it touched me deeply. The final story jolted me upright – I am a Houstonian, and I lived in Bogota, as did his character. I recently published my own novel which shares a theme he touches on here- the disappeared. Brilliant writer, but more importantly, an empathetic writer. Highly recommend.
The author is “too clever by half” as the Brits say. Despite the stream-of-consciousness approach, which I do not care for, the writing is generally good and the main character in the novella is drawn well, but the clever phrases, jokes (some of them old) are a bit over the top for me with the author showing off. I don’t mind endings that don’t tie everything up in a bow and leave things for the reader to contemplate, but that doesn’t excuse the author from providing some kind of closure instead of bailing and leaving the reader hanging by way of a nonending.
Except in one of the short stories, the author refuses to provide any kind of ending. Last time I checked, when a jury returns to the courtroom there will either be a verdict or the judge declares a mistrial due to a hung jury. If the author did not want to write an ending that showed the verdict, at least he could have given the attentive reader a clue, such as whether the jurors looked at the defendant or averted their eyes. In this story and all others, save one, the author strings the reader along with the implied promise of a payoff and then refuses to deliver.
I’m sorry our book club picked this book and I invested the time reading it.
Peter Bernhardt, Author: The Stasi File, 2011 ABNA Quarter Finalist; Kiss of the Shaman’s Daughter [sequel]; Red Romeo;
http://tinyurl.com/a7rnpql – http://sedonauthor.com – https://tinyurl.com/ycyvps3b
This is a series of short stories although the first is more of a novella. Great writing great characters
This guy can write and tell a story. Loved it.
Everything by Colum McCann is worth reading. This is a quieter, smaller-scale piece than some but it’s lovely
Thirteen Ways of Looking was a delightful and satisfying book to read. The many references to history,pop culture, literature, and art sprinkled through the book were like a fun challenge to see how many you “get”. It was always a delight when I understood some of the obscure references, and informative when I had to look them up. It is clever and insightful. I highly recommend Thirteen Ways of Looking.
As always, Colin McCann gives us a big picture of people, places, and events. He traces overlying patterns, allowing us to Come to “aha” moments through discovery. His stories never leave my memory.
I had high hopes, but it was a disappointment
Disjointed
Great writing, disturbing as well.