i first heard of the unamericans from my friend, lisa. molly antopol is her friend's daughter, and lisa attended a book party for it. then, i saw it listed on flavorrpill, so i decided to check it out.
as i mentioned before, 2014 has become the year of the short story for me and i can honestly say this is the best collection of short stories, i have read this year. yes, i dare say, even better than lorrie moore, well bark, on par with self-help. in fact, as i read, i had the same feelings of awe and love as i did when i read jhumpa lahiri's interpreter of maladies. i, became invested in every single story, and each story felt complete. i read somewhere that each story felt like a novel and that is an excellent description of the unamericans (sorry i feel bad for plagiarizing someone, but i honestly don't know where i read that, but i am letting you know it was not my original thought.) but this collection was truly great, it will definitely be in the top 5 (it's currently in the top 3) greatest books i have read this year.
surprisingly i enjoyed every story in this collections. usually, there is one that is awkward and you wonder why it was included, or one that ended too abruptly, or took an odd turned that ruined the story, but this was not the case. every story was extremely well-written, as i mentioned before, i became invested in every character and their stories.
though there was not a bad story, i will admit that the opening to "retrospective", the final story, worried me. i thought i was going to become bored, but luckily eva's daughter played a small role. by the end, with the mention of eva's smile in her paintings, i knew this tale had a tragic ending.
but again every story was enjoyable in their own way and i as i looked through to find my favorites, i want to list them all. but i will narrow it down. highlights for me were "my grandmother tells me this story", "the quietest man", and "the unknown soldier".
"my grandmother tells me this story" is exactly that a story told by a grandmother to a granddaughter that is meddling in things she is too young to be worried about. the grandmother shared about how she escaped from a uniform factory in nazi-occupied poland and met a young boy who would become the young girl's grandfather. the grandfather was the leader of a gang of boys, yiddish underground, and though they derail trains and steal, he has a moral compass and only took what was needed. i do not want to give too much away, but in an attempt to prove herself, the grandmother does something that she regrets and that will haunt her forever. it is a sad, tale but the one of the boundaries that humans were pushed to during the holocaust.
"the quietest man" is the story of a young playwright and her father. the father was nervous because his daughter wrote a play about their family and since he was absent during her childhood, he was worried that it will reveal him as a deadbeat dad. he did not want to be ridicule though he knew that it would be a true portrayal. however, in the end it was revealed that the daughter's play is actually in tribute to him. he was part of an anti-government movement in prague and he and her mother along with two others published a journal. when he was called in for questioning, he did not reveal anyone's name thus earning the nickname "the quietest man." his daughter hoping to make herself a part of this important event, asked him if she was there during the meetings of those in charge of the journal. sadly, he lies to her, which broke my heart and just demonstrated what a horrible father he was. ironically he should have just kept quiet.
"the unknown soldier" is the story of an actor that was blacklisted and served time during the mccarthy era. he is fresh out of prison and wanting to reconnect with his son. i won't go into too much detail (i feel like i did on that last one and i really want people to read this collection.)
i can't stress enough that this is the best collection of short stories i read this year. antopol was national book foundation's 5 under 35 honoree. she is very deserving of this title and i look forward to seeing more from her.
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