Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

I find myself having a harder time with short story collections lately. This one didn't really stick with me either, though it did have a few interesting stories mixed in. ( )

In turn, imaginative and fantastical, thought-provoking, humorous and unsettling Disruptions by Steven Millhauser is a remarkable collection of short stories varying in theme, length, and subject matter – a testimonial to the author’s magnificent range and versatility. The collection comprises a total of eighteen stories, some new as well as several that have been previously published.

Among my favorites in the collection ( 5⭐ ) are :
After the Beheading examines the aftermath of life in a town after the public beheading (guillotine) of a killer. Guided Tour takes us on a very realistic trip around an old city whose fame has its roots in a popular fairy tale. The Summer of Ladders follows the residents of a town as their obsession with ladders in the summer results in an almost competitive quest to climb to the highest altitude that results in dire consequences for some. The Little People studies the dynamics between humans and a community of tiny people who live in their midst. In The Column Dwellers of Our Town, the top of the columns in the city provide sanctuary to those looking to live out their lives in solitude. In Theater of Shadows a unique show performance in a new theater in town inspires the residents to drastically change their way of life. In Green, we follow a community whose idea of beatification of their neighborhoods involves the removal of all greenery.

My ratings for the remaining stories -

4⭐-Late , A Tired Town, A Common Predicament and The Circle of Punishment

3.5⭐- The Fight , A Haunted House Story , Thank You for Your Patience, Kafka in High School 1959, The Change and He Takes, She Takes.

3⭐- One Summer Night

Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this superbly penned collection of stories. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is my first time reading Steven Millhauser and it surely won’t be my last.

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I grew up watching The Twilight Zone and reading Edgar Allan Poe. I suppose you could say I have always had a bent toward the fantastic that lies just below the surface of the mundane. Consequently, Steven Millhauser’s new collection of stories, Disruptions, delighted me. I relished these strange tales portraying quaint small towns with their sudden obsessions and young people encountering things that disrupt their lives.

There are stories of transformation. The first story, “One Summer Night,” haunted me for days. “In the summer of my sixteenth birthday I fell in love with the night,” it begins. A few minutes in company with an older woman who delights in “the only night that ever was” alters his perception, knowing that everything had changed. Boys dare to sleep in a haunted house only to emerge unable to articulate the transforming experience. A girl walking home in the dark flees a pursuer, finding safety in an alteration.

There are stories of communities that engage in a shared obsession for a fad–a shadow puppet theater inspiring a black and white world, the removal of lawns for hardscapes or the competition for higher reaching ladders. One town’s lethargy overcomes them for weeks. A community of acceptance becomes one of prejudice. A guillotine is raised in the public square, a historical tour reenacts a tragedy, a society assumes that punishment for all is expected, and earned.

Because these characters and places are so familiar, these stories are disconcerting, revealing too much, recognizable yet bizarre.

Thanks to A. A. Knopf for a free book. ( )