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Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It
Award-winning writer Maile Meloy's return to short stories explores complex lives in an austere landscape with the clear-sightedness that first endeared her to readers.
Meloy's first return to short stories since her critically acclaimed debut, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It is an extraordinary new work from one of the most promising writers of the last decade.
Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefields-and fields of victory-that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars. Set mostly in the American West, the stories feature small-town lawyers, ranchers, doctors, parents, and children, and explore the moral quandaries of love, family, and friendship. A ranch hand falls for a recent law school graduate who appears unexpectedly- and reluctantly-in his remote Montana town. A young father opens his door to find his dead grandmother standing on the front step. Two women weigh love and betrayal during an early snow. Throughout the book, Meloy examines the tensions between having and wanting, as her characters try to keep hold of opposing forces in their lives: innocence and experience, risk and stability, fidelity and desire.
Knowing, sly, and bittersweet, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It confirms Maile Meloy's singular literary talent. Her lean, controlled prose, full of insight and unexpected poignancy, is the perfect complement to her powerfully moving storytelling.
Meloy's first return to short stories since her critically acclaimed debut, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It is an extraordinary new work from one of the most promising writers of the last decade.
Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefields-and fields of victory-that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars. Set mostly in the American West, the stories feature small-town lawyers, ranchers, doctors, parents, and children, and explore the moral quandaries of love, family, and friendship. A ranch hand falls for a recent law school graduate who appears unexpectedly- and reluctantly-in his remote Montana town. A young father opens his door to find his dead grandmother standing on the front step. Two women weigh love and betrayal during an early snow. Throughout the book, Meloy examines the tensions between having and wanting, as her characters try to keep hold of opposing forces in their lives: innocence and experience, risk and stability, fidelity and desire.
Knowing, sly, and bittersweet, Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It confirms Maile Meloy's singular literary talent. Her lean, controlled prose, full of insight and unexpected poignancy, is the perfect complement to her powerfully moving storytelling.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2009
196 people are currently reading
6,794 people want to read
About the author
Maile Meloy
31Ìýbooks866ÌýfollowersMaile Meloy is the author of the novels Liars and Saints and A Family Daughter, the story collections Half in Love and Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It (named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review), and the award-winning Apothecary trilogy for young readers. She has received the PEN/Malamud Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was chosen as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. Her new novel for adults, Do Not Become Alarmed, will be published June 6, 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 878 reviews
May 23, 2020
Maile Melody’s is new to me.
I like her stories in the same way I like Alice Munro’s short story collections.
Melody’s emotional storytelling is FANTASTIC.
..... compelling, sad, disturbing, unsettling, realistic, disillusioned, unpredictable, and sensational.
“Both Ways is the Only Way I Want it�, is a collection of 11 short stories.
‘TRAVIS, B�, was the first story. COULD NOT PULL AWAY!
Here’s some sample writing of the ‘beginning....’only� the beginning....
“Chet Moran grew up in Logan, Montana, at a time when kids weren’t supposed to get polio anymore. In Logan, they still did, and he had it before he was two. He recovered, but his right hip never fit in his socket, and his mother always thought he would die young�.
“When he was fourteen, he started riding spoiled and unbroken horses, to prove to her that he was invincible�. “He was small and wiry, but his hip made it hard for him to scramble out from under the horses, and he broke his right knee cap, his right foot, and his left femur before he was
eighteen. His father drove him to Great Falls, where the doctors put a steel rod in his good leg from hip to knee. From then on he walked as though he were turning to himself to ask a question�.
His size came from his mother, who was three-quarters Cheyenne; his father was Irish and bullheaded.�
“He left home at twenty and moved up north to the high-line. He got a job outside Havre feeding cows through the winter, while the ranchers family lived in town and the kids were in school�.
“He spent his twenty-first birthday wearing longjohns under two flannel shirts and his winter coat, warming up soup on the stove. He got afraid of himself that winter; he sensed something dangerous that would break free if he kept so much alone�.
“In the spring, he got a job in Billings, in an office with friendly secretaries and coffee breaks spent talking about rodeos and sports. They liked them there, and offer to send him to the main office in Chicago�.
“Chet lived in an insulated room built into the barn, with a TV, a couch, a hot plate, and he fed the cows with the team and sled. He bought some new magazines, in which the girls were strangers to him, and he watched ‘Starsky and Hutch�
and the local news�.
I don’t want to say more of where this story goes....but it was filled with thought, emotion of loneliness and a subtle creepy sadness. An unforgettable short story � one of my favorites in this collection.
‘THE GIRLFRIEND�, .....
‘NINE�, .....
‘THE CHILDREN� ..... ‘O’TANNENBAUM, .....
‘AGUSTIN�, .....’LILIANA�, ......
RED FROM GREEN� ....
‘LOVELY RITA, .....
‘SPY VS. SPY� ...
‘T°Â°¿-³§°Õ·¡±Êâ€�....
are the others stories.
Between the dialogue, the plot-driven stories, the heartache, the loss, ( leaving and more leaving), the conflicts, the setting in a small town....
Melody’s compassionate writing is filled with perception ......leaving the reader reflecting about our shortcomings, our humanity, our desires, choices, unfulfilled expectations, our families, our failures, embarrassments, and vulnerabilities.
One of the characters, named Fielding, in the story “The Children�, “was doomed to ambivalence and desire. A braver man, or a more cowardly one, would simply flee. A happier or more complacent man would stay and reveal in the familiar, wrap it around him like a bathrobe. There was a poem by his daughter, Meg, brought home from college, with the line ‘Both ways is the only way I want it�. The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it only one way?�
Absolutely fantastic!!!
For readers who enjoy short stories� This collection is terrific!!!!
I like her stories in the same way I like Alice Munro’s short story collections.
Melody’s emotional storytelling is FANTASTIC.
..... compelling, sad, disturbing, unsettling, realistic, disillusioned, unpredictable, and sensational.
“Both Ways is the Only Way I Want it�, is a collection of 11 short stories.
‘TRAVIS, B�, was the first story. COULD NOT PULL AWAY!
Here’s some sample writing of the ‘beginning....’only� the beginning....
“Chet Moran grew up in Logan, Montana, at a time when kids weren’t supposed to get polio anymore. In Logan, they still did, and he had it before he was two. He recovered, but his right hip never fit in his socket, and his mother always thought he would die young�.
“When he was fourteen, he started riding spoiled and unbroken horses, to prove to her that he was invincible�. “He was small and wiry, but his hip made it hard for him to scramble out from under the horses, and he broke his right knee cap, his right foot, and his left femur before he was
eighteen. His father drove him to Great Falls, where the doctors put a steel rod in his good leg from hip to knee. From then on he walked as though he were turning to himself to ask a question�.
His size came from his mother, who was three-quarters Cheyenne; his father was Irish and bullheaded.�
“He left home at twenty and moved up north to the high-line. He got a job outside Havre feeding cows through the winter, while the ranchers family lived in town and the kids were in school�.
“He spent his twenty-first birthday wearing longjohns under two flannel shirts and his winter coat, warming up soup on the stove. He got afraid of himself that winter; he sensed something dangerous that would break free if he kept so much alone�.
“In the spring, he got a job in Billings, in an office with friendly secretaries and coffee breaks spent talking about rodeos and sports. They liked them there, and offer to send him to the main office in Chicago�.
“Chet lived in an insulated room built into the barn, with a TV, a couch, a hot plate, and he fed the cows with the team and sled. He bought some new magazines, in which the girls were strangers to him, and he watched ‘Starsky and Hutch�
and the local news�.
I don’t want to say more of where this story goes....but it was filled with thought, emotion of loneliness and a subtle creepy sadness. An unforgettable short story � one of my favorites in this collection.
‘THE GIRLFRIEND�, .....
‘NINE�, .....
‘THE CHILDREN� ..... ‘O’TANNENBAUM, .....
‘AGUSTIN�, .....’LILIANA�, ......
RED FROM GREEN� ....
‘LOVELY RITA, .....
‘SPY VS. SPY� ...
‘T°Â°¿-³§°Õ·¡±Êâ€�....
are the others stories.
Between the dialogue, the plot-driven stories, the heartache, the loss, ( leaving and more leaving), the conflicts, the setting in a small town....
Melody’s compassionate writing is filled with perception ......leaving the reader reflecting about our shortcomings, our humanity, our desires, choices, unfulfilled expectations, our families, our failures, embarrassments, and vulnerabilities.
One of the characters, named Fielding, in the story “The Children�, “was doomed to ambivalence and desire. A braver man, or a more cowardly one, would simply flee. A happier or more complacent man would stay and reveal in the familiar, wrap it around him like a bathrobe. There was a poem by his daughter, Meg, brought home from college, with the line ‘Both ways is the only way I want it�. The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it only one way?�
Absolutely fantastic!!!
For readers who enjoy short stories� This collection is terrific!!!!
August 7, 2019
tam sevdiğim öykü tipiydi. hemen hemen tüm öykülerde ikilemde kalmış insanlar anlatılırken amerikan hayat tarzı didik didik ediliyor. montana’da buz gibi bir iklimde geçiyor çoğu. hayal kırıklıkları, unutulmamış aşklar, maceralar, vicdan azapları okurun içine işliyor. yazar nasıl başlaması nasıl bitirmesi gerektiğini o kadar iyi biliyor ki. tek bir fazla sözcük yok.
May 16, 2013
This wonderful title is a quote from a poem by A.R.Ammons, and is an apt description of the quandary encapsulated in each of these stories. Often enough the wanting it both ways is the classic case of the husband hoping to keep both wife and lover, or hoping for the chance to juggle the two - funny how it's rarely a woman trying to keep all the plates spinning. But this is not the only kind of wishful thinking, there is also the child who regrets the departure of her mother's glamorous lover and his appealing son, or the very funny rivalry between two brothers who would dearly love to do without the other as ego booster and audience to and judge of their success. My favourite was the first in the collection, a broken, isolated young man of mixed Cheyenne Indian background, fizzing with loneliness, drives to the nearest town and just follows people into a building, as if he were a stray dog. He finds himself in an adult education class taught by a young and attractive lawyer. Mesmerised by her, he returns each week, and attempts a restrained courtship of this unapproachable creature who lives six hundred miles away, a telling indication of how much separates them, even though her mother works in a school cafeteria and her sister works in a hospital laundry and "selling shoes is the nicest job a girl from my family is supposed to get." And that restraint is a key to Meloy's narrative style; there are no verbal fireworks, but a calm and unexcited expression of emotion, a style that is more rather than less effective at conveying that surge of empathy.
May 3, 2019
A.R Ammons dizelerinden bir alıntı 'tek istediğim her ikisi birden'.
Öykülerin tam da bedenine göre dikilmiş bir isim, potsuz, kırışıksız.. Ancak öyküler bu pürüzsüzlüğe inat hayattaki tatsızlıkların üzerinden geçiyor. Yüzünüzü ekşittiğiniz, karnınıza sancı verecek türden pürüzler..
Duvardaki fırça izleri gibi, çok dikkatli baktığınızda zihninizde daha da büyüttüğünüz.
.
Kapınızda büyükanneniz beliriyor örneğin, iki ay önce başka bir ülkede öldüğünü duyduğunuz. Ona kızgınsınız, erkenden bu dünyadan göçen babanıza göstermediği ilgiye kızgınsınız. Siz bir aile geçindirmekle debelenirken; zenginliğinden bir parça paylaşmadığı için kızgınsınız. Ama o ölmemiş aksine evinize girivermiş.
ya da..
Bir kadını çok sevdiniz, tutkuyla hem de. Ancak o evliydi, siz de evliydiniz. Yaş farkı mı? Evet sizden oldukça gençti. 20 yıl önce oldu bu olanlar, siz eşinizi kaybettiniz, çocuklar büyüdü. O kadın da kocasıyla başka topraklara taşındı. Siz böyle olduğunu duydunuz. Ve 20 yıl sonra bir hizmetçi olarak karşınıza çıktı sevdiğiniz kadın, bir çocuğu ve hasta kocasıyla.. Çok geç denemeyecek kadar ıskaladınız birbirinizi..
.
Maile Meloy, taşraya da götürüyor sizi, kaçışın tek çözüm olduğuna inananların hayatlarına. Susanların ve susuşların senelerle birlikte boy attığı evlere. Usulca okunuyor, sade bir tada karşın keskin kokusu olan Meloy kelimeleri..
.
Şahika Tokel çevirisi,Melis Rozental kapak tasarımıyla ~
Öykülerin tam da bedenine göre dikilmiş bir isim, potsuz, kırışıksız.. Ancak öyküler bu pürüzsüzlüğe inat hayattaki tatsızlıkların üzerinden geçiyor. Yüzünüzü ekşittiğiniz, karnınıza sancı verecek türden pürüzler..
Duvardaki fırça izleri gibi, çok dikkatli baktığınızda zihninizde daha da büyüttüğünüz.
.
Kapınızda büyükanneniz beliriyor örneğin, iki ay önce başka bir ülkede öldüğünü duyduğunuz. Ona kızgınsınız, erkenden bu dünyadan göçen babanıza göstermediği ilgiye kızgınsınız. Siz bir aile geçindirmekle debelenirken; zenginliğinden bir parça paylaşmadığı için kızgınsınız. Ama o ölmemiş aksine evinize girivermiş.
ya da..
Bir kadını çok sevdiniz, tutkuyla hem de. Ancak o evliydi, siz de evliydiniz. Yaş farkı mı? Evet sizden oldukça gençti. 20 yıl önce oldu bu olanlar, siz eşinizi kaybettiniz, çocuklar büyüdü. O kadın da kocasıyla başka topraklara taşındı. Siz böyle olduğunu duydunuz. Ve 20 yıl sonra bir hizmetçi olarak karşınıza çıktı sevdiğiniz kadın, bir çocuğu ve hasta kocasıyla.. Çok geç denemeyecek kadar ıskaladınız birbirinizi..
.
Maile Meloy, taşraya da götürüyor sizi, kaçışın tek çözüm olduğuna inananların hayatlarına. Susanların ve susuşların senelerle birlikte boy attığı evlere. Usulca okunuyor, sade bir tada karşın keskin kokusu olan Meloy kelimeleri..
.
Şahika Tokel çevirisi,Melis Rozental kapak tasarımıyla ~
November 22, 2012
A friend of mine asked me to read this book as it had received good reviews but she wasn't impressed with it. She wondered what I would think. So here it is:
From the title, "Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It" I made the assumption that it was a book about relationships, a non-fiction book. And even though my usual reaction to pop psychology self-help books is a gag reflex, it probably would have been better than what this book turned out to be.
It is a book of fictional short stories about the non-realization of love, betrayal of love, love expressed as anger, unkindness, inappropriate sexual desires, adultery. I found it to be very negative and unimportant. The more I read the less I liked it.
A trash read without the trash. One story started out interesting with the dead grandmother showing up at the front door, but it turned out prosaic and depressing. If you want depressing non-realization and non-resolution in short story form then this might be the book for you.
From the title, "Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It" I made the assumption that it was a book about relationships, a non-fiction book. And even though my usual reaction to pop psychology self-help books is a gag reflex, it probably would have been better than what this book turned out to be.
It is a book of fictional short stories about the non-realization of love, betrayal of love, love expressed as anger, unkindness, inappropriate sexual desires, adultery. I found it to be very negative and unimportant. The more I read the less I liked it.
A trash read without the trash. One story started out interesting with the dead grandmother showing up at the front door, but it turned out prosaic and depressing. If you want depressing non-realization and non-resolution in short story form then this might be the book for you.
August 15, 2022
Ten short stories in this second collection from Meloy, and I enjoyed them all. All of them have an underlying sadness: people who don't quite connect, families that never quite say the right thing, people trying their hardest but not getting it right. In my favourite, The Girlfriend Leo is questioning a teenage girl in a hotel room about the man who murdered his daughter. The girl tells him more than he would ever want to know. As always there were some that didn't work so well for me, but across them all, the writing is superb. Highly recommended.
January 9, 2016
A lovely collection. Mostly about different versions of desire, often adulterous desire, but also about growing up, about children's perceptions of adult desire, and their own first experiences of it. Many of these perfectly bittersweet stories of love, loss, and lust are set in a slightly sepia toned Montana, whose atmosphere suits Meloy's tone perfectly. In fact, her most exotically located story, Augustin, set in South America, is maybe her weakest.
I'm not sure that this is a huge book, and I hesitated to give it my highest rating for that reason. But I found the writing so deft, and the thematic cohesion so perfect (the title says it all, indeed), without ever being dull or repetitive, that I enjoyed every second of reading this, even when some of the moments were very painful.
Highly recommended to all who enjoy short stories, and even those, like me, who usually don't. A worthy American companion to Alice Munro.
I'm not sure that this is a huge book, and I hesitated to give it my highest rating for that reason. But I found the writing so deft, and the thematic cohesion so perfect (the title says it all, indeed), without ever being dull or repetitive, that I enjoyed every second of reading this, even when some of the moments were very painful.
Highly recommended to all who enjoy short stories, and even those, like me, who usually don't. A worthy American companion to Alice Munro.
April 12, 2017
Eleven short stories built around the theme laid out in the title. These short stories in themselves and as part of the whole address love, loneliness, desire, and especially the emotionally conflicted mind.
A few of these short stories were nearly perfectly orchestrated, flawed, but in the same way that all people and situations are flawed; some were slightly less impactful for me; one was a complete miss. Perhaps in part because the theme was so consistent, the collection as a whole was less appealing to me the further I read. The best of this book read as sincere and relate-able, with a quiet introspection about it. The one misstep for me (an Argentine misstep or rhythm-less flamenco dancing proportions) came off as melodramatic, which I think may have colored my feeling of the all the stories to follow. The feeling of authenticity is what I enjoyed about many of these stories so when that was lost the entire construction began to lose it's form.
A few of these short stories were nearly perfectly orchestrated, flawed, but in the same way that all people and situations are flawed; some were slightly less impactful for me; one was a complete miss. Perhaps in part because the theme was so consistent, the collection as a whole was less appealing to me the further I read. The best of this book read as sincere and relate-able, with a quiet introspection about it. The one misstep for me (an Argentine misstep or rhythm-less flamenco dancing proportions) came off as melodramatic, which I think may have colored my feeling of the all the stories to follow. The feeling of authenticity is what I enjoyed about many of these stories so when that was lost the entire construction began to lose it's form.
October 29, 2024
I enjoyed Maile Meloy's writing in this collection of eleven short stories. The author was raised in Montana, and many of the stories are set in her home state. As the title suggests, the characters are pushed and pulled emotionally between two opposing decisions that will have a strong impact on their relationships. Do they want safety, calmness, and stability in their lives, or will they choose novelty, excitement, infidelity, and desire? They really want both.
The title comes from an A. R. Ammons short poem:
Coming Right Up
One can't
have it
both ways
and both
ways is
the only
way I
want it.
The title comes from an A. R. Ammons short poem:
Coming Right Up
One can't
have it
both ways
and both
ways is
the only
way I
want it.
June 30, 2020
Yazarın tekniği çok iyi, bir fazlalığı olmayan, sarkmayan, derli toplu öykülerden oluşuyor kitap. Ancak arka kapak yazısının bende yarattığı beklentiyi karşılamadı maalesef. Öyküleri sevdim ama çok da sarsılmadım, birkaçından etkilendim ama çok değil. Kitabın doruğu son üç öykü: Agustin, Çocuklar ve O Tannenbaum. Kitapta sadece bu üç öykü olsa puanım 5 olurdu. Bu haliyle 3.5/5
February 12, 2022
All but one of the stories left me stunned. That intrepid trek elsewhere, in this case the story Argentina, proved to be the collection's sole misstep. I grow hoarse professing such, but I do not like stories. This was the exception which proves the rule. I didn't skip any selections and enjoyed the progression.
April 20, 2011
Meloy’s stories are flawless: the writing is clear and economic, the settings and ‘plot� and characters conjured with minimum fuss. Altogether perfect pieces largely about adultery, and breaking marriages (or maybe not), but also about childhood incidents looming later, murder, rape, stalking and industrial accidents. The collection is aptly titled � the stories usually take the reader into a situation where a decision is about to be made, and often leave them with the outcome still in the balance. In ‘Girlfriend� a surgeon’s wife complains about her husband who she suspects is having an affair to a friend who � of course � is the one hubby is seeing behind her back. The wife’s friend is expecting the husband to leave his wife and come live with her and the husband turns up as they are discussing his infidelities. At the end your sympathies slide from the wife to the friend and you’re not sure what will happen. Same is true for most pieces here. So if you’re looking for ‘closure� you won’t like this book.
I’m not sure why I haven’t given it 5 stars but maybe it’s the New Yorker (where 3 were published) perfection, a sort of sheen is created, beautiful but maybe a little impenetrable. They certainly emotionally involve you but no flesh is torn in the process, no jagged edges rip into you. Which I like in a book: jagged edges I mean. I did really like the last one, which I think I read before (it was in Granta) 'O Tannenbaum' (a Christmas tree is involved) in which a family pick up two hitchhikers and first think they might be criminals (they’re called Bonnie and Clyde), then it ends up with the possibility of wife swapping, and the sexual tension is fantastic. Everett thought there must be a smell in the car from the kiss, an electricity. But the husband said nothing� All the while, Everett felt both the threat of disorder and the steady, thrumming promise of having everything he wanted, all at once.
I’m not sure why I haven’t given it 5 stars but maybe it’s the New Yorker (where 3 were published) perfection, a sort of sheen is created, beautiful but maybe a little impenetrable. They certainly emotionally involve you but no flesh is torn in the process, no jagged edges rip into you. Which I like in a book: jagged edges I mean. I did really like the last one, which I think I read before (it was in Granta) 'O Tannenbaum' (a Christmas tree is involved) in which a family pick up two hitchhikers and first think they might be criminals (they’re called Bonnie and Clyde), then it ends up with the possibility of wife swapping, and the sexual tension is fantastic. Everett thought there must be a smell in the car from the kiss, an electricity. But the husband said nothing� All the while, Everett felt both the threat of disorder and the steady, thrumming promise of having everything he wanted, all at once.
March 9, 2016
I enjoyed this entire collection of short stories! There was not a single dud in the bunch, as far as I was concerned, and I honestly can't remember the last time I thought that about a book of short stories...maybe when I was reading Alice Munro? High praise, I know, but genuine. I'm having a hard time articulating what I liked about them, but they feel so self assured and effortless. So many short stories seem the opposite--trying too hard, just so...effortful. These seem like they somehow sprang into existence, suddenly and gracefully.
------
My brain is too foggy these days to focus for long on any one thing, so I thought I'd try a book of short stories. These are really good--normally I don't like to read too many in a row by the same author, but I'm reading these one after the other in quick succession.
------
My brain is too foggy these days to focus for long on any one thing, so I thought I'd try a book of short stories. These are really good--normally I don't like to read too many in a row by the same author, but I'm reading these one after the other in quick succession.
September 29, 2011
I usually don't go for collections of short stories -- usually the themes are so similar (immigrants have it hard, people cheat on their spouses, music is cool, that after the first few stories, I'm bored. Also, there's no plot egging you along, making it easy to put the book down. But I couldn't put this book down. The prose is gorgeous, the stories are simple and memorable. I read it in a day. If you're going to read one book of short stories, make it this one. Or Olive Kittredge. But this one is really good too.
October 14, 2024
A wonderful short story collection featuring minimal and honest prose in the league of o’hara or hemingway.
Maile just became one of my favoured writers.
Maile just became one of my favoured writers.
June 26, 2023
subdued, rich stories about wanting what you have and what you can't have. similar to alice munro but a little shorter and quicker. understated but conveyed incredible depths of feeling. perfect for inhaling one after another on the banks of a river. brandon taylor recommendation strikes gold again!
favorites: travis, b.; red from green; nine; o tannenbaum
favorites: travis, b.; red from green; nine; o tannenbaum
April 10, 2010
I love the title of this book, and it fits each and every story. (Though, I wish, perversely perhaps, the phrase hadn't been used in one of the later stories ("The Children") -- it was better, I think, to have the poem it's from used just as the epigraph.)
In each story, there is the surface story, and then there is at least one other layer that causes you to reflect after you've finished the story, causing you to wonder what might have been, if only this one thing had not happened or happened differently ...
I especially love the younger characters in these stories: the lonely ranch hand in "Travis, B.," the soon-to-be high school sophomore in "Red from Green," the male main character of "Lovely Rita" (the last line of the story is a killer!) and, maybe most of all, the little girl in "Nine."
These are stories I could read again and still find something new and startling in them, despite their outward ease and simplicity.
In each story, there is the surface story, and then there is at least one other layer that causes you to reflect after you've finished the story, causing you to wonder what might have been, if only this one thing had not happened or happened differently ...
I especially love the younger characters in these stories: the lonely ranch hand in "Travis, B.," the soon-to-be high school sophomore in "Red from Green," the male main character of "Lovely Rita" (the last line of the story is a killer!) and, maybe most of all, the little girl in "Nine."
These are stories I could read again and still find something new and startling in them, despite their outward ease and simplicity.
May 3, 2012
Well crafted and self assured, wonderful stories. Reminds me of Alice Munro because her stories are of ordinary people and their ordinary lives, but she sees them with an extraordinary clarity.
August 10, 2011
To write short stories, you need to be a bit of a magician. You need to pull characters out of a hat, breathe life into them, and weave a spell around the willing reader. Maile Meloy has that gift. Her 11 transfixing short stories are the only way you’d want them � effortless, genuine, and sometimes unpredictable.
In all these stories, the characters are faced with a choice (not unlike Robert Frost’s “Two Roads Diverged�). One choice usually takes them in a stable direction; the other freedom and risk. These ordinary people � parents, children, doctors, lawyers, ranchers, wives, plant workers � get to the cusp of their moral quandary and then choose one way � or other.
Take her short story The Children. A man facing a midlife crisis is about to tell his eminently intelligent wife that he is about to leave her for a younger woman. With great suspense, we wait for the revelation to come. But he ultimately realizes that he was “doomed to ambivalence and desire. A braver man, or a more cowardly one, would simply flee. A happier or more complacent man would stay and revel in the familiar, wrap it around him like an old bathrobe. He seemed to be none of these things and could only deceive the people he loved…�
Or take the first story, Travis, B. A shy Logan, Montana rancher with a limp from childhood polio meets a young teacher � Beth Travis � who is reluctantly traveling miles twice a week to teach an adult education class. He drives miles to pursue her and then goes home unfulfilled with just the ghost of his yearning.
Then there’s The Girlfriend: a mourning father confronts the girlfriend of the man who raped and killed his young daughter. “He had thought his faith in order was gone, but it wasn’t true. He had sought consolation in knowing and arranging the facts.� But in the end, he really doesn’t want to know.
One more: the ending story, O Tannenbaum. A Montana family � Everett, Pam, and their young daughter � are driving home with a Douglas fir tree on Christmas eve and stops to pick up two stranded skiers with the fortuitous names of Bonnie and Clyde. The push-pull of the threat of “disorder and the steady� thrums a promise of having everything Everett wanted, all at once.
Taut, disciplined, and filled with moral force, this collection deserves its designation from The New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 Best Books of 2009.
In all these stories, the characters are faced with a choice (not unlike Robert Frost’s “Two Roads Diverged�). One choice usually takes them in a stable direction; the other freedom and risk. These ordinary people � parents, children, doctors, lawyers, ranchers, wives, plant workers � get to the cusp of their moral quandary and then choose one way � or other.
Take her short story The Children. A man facing a midlife crisis is about to tell his eminently intelligent wife that he is about to leave her for a younger woman. With great suspense, we wait for the revelation to come. But he ultimately realizes that he was “doomed to ambivalence and desire. A braver man, or a more cowardly one, would simply flee. A happier or more complacent man would stay and revel in the familiar, wrap it around him like an old bathrobe. He seemed to be none of these things and could only deceive the people he loved…�
Or take the first story, Travis, B. A shy Logan, Montana rancher with a limp from childhood polio meets a young teacher � Beth Travis � who is reluctantly traveling miles twice a week to teach an adult education class. He drives miles to pursue her and then goes home unfulfilled with just the ghost of his yearning.
Then there’s The Girlfriend: a mourning father confronts the girlfriend of the man who raped and killed his young daughter. “He had thought his faith in order was gone, but it wasn’t true. He had sought consolation in knowing and arranging the facts.� But in the end, he really doesn’t want to know.
One more: the ending story, O Tannenbaum. A Montana family � Everett, Pam, and their young daughter � are driving home with a Douglas fir tree on Christmas eve and stops to pick up two stranded skiers with the fortuitous names of Bonnie and Clyde. The push-pull of the threat of “disorder and the steady� thrums a promise of having everything Everett wanted, all at once.
Taut, disciplined, and filled with moral force, this collection deserves its designation from The New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 Best Books of 2009.
April 24, 2011
Meloy's is another collection of stories that is burdened by its reliance on formal constraints. The collection's title establishes the thrust of each piece--characters stuck between a rock and a hard place, forced to choose. This would be okay if not for the fact that short fiction as a genre rests of just such a convention. Short stories are constructs that dramatize the motivations and consequences of choices taken. It's a bit of letdown when Meloy brandishes the central convention of all good fiction as the thematic concern that unifies her collection of stories. She does little to more than show us, in one well-crafted set piece after another (her stories, with the exception of the better ones, are essentially extended scenes wherein characters admit or refuse to give up their secrets), the way good fiction ought to work. The better stories--"O Tannenbaum" and "Travis B," the last and first stories in the collection, respectively--revel in a kind of stillness that reads as desirable only because the stories' characters crave the freedom from the burden of responsibility. The others read as demonstrations that make one wish Meloy had decided to push beyond the formal constraint of the epiphany and followed her characters out of the room, just to see where they might've gone next, what they might've done with the knowledge their author'd granted them.
September 11, 2010
I wanted to be blown away by this, and I wasn't; thus the two stars. I don't mean at all to suggest that Meloy isn't a great writer, and in fact I'm almost certain that she is, but on a subjective level I didn't connect with her stories at all. One thing I'm realizing on my short-fiction mission is that it's tough to stick with one writer through a whole book of short stories if you don't personally care about their themes, because they are incessantly returning to and reworking the same stuff. Meloy's main interests -- father/daughter relationships and infidelity -- don't resonate with me personally. I dunno, I'd give it three stars except I just gave Richard Powers three stars, and I liked that book a lot more. I hate these stupid stars! The stories I liked best here were "Travis, B.," "Nine," "The Children," and "O Tannenbaum," which were mostly stacked up at the end, but I don't think that's why I liked them. I actively disliked "Red From Green," "Spy vs. Spy," and "The Girlfriend," (hated that one), and liked the others okay. She really is a good writer. I just didn't get into her I guess because I didn't connect with the stories emotionally, and they felt like those stories where you want that to happen. I do recommend this to other people, though. Great prose.
May 24, 2010
Despite all the rave reviews of this book, it just didn't do much for me. There was one story in the book I thought was pretty good, but I found the others just so so. Many of the stories had the same theme, infidelity, so it felt like I was reading the same story over and over with different character names. After reading the best short stories, you can feel as though you've read a whole novel because the story line and characters were so well developed. In this book, it felt more like reading a snippet of a longer novel, only the rest of the novel wasn't there.
November 8, 2010
Meloy captivated me immediately with her skill and finesse. She has certainly succeeded well in the art of the short story. Each tale captures the essence of her characters with mirth, sympathy or suspense.
I appreciate the recommendation by my good friends in Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and anticipate reading more by this author.
I appreciate the recommendation by my good friends in Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and anticipate reading more by this author.
December 15, 2023
perfect
August 22, 2018
Descobri o nome de Maile Meloy da mesma maneira que muitas pessoas nos últimos anos: Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It (que tÃtulo) foi livremente adaptado por Kelly Reichardt em seu espetacular Certas Mulheres, e se não posso comparar os trabalhos de fato, já que o filme toma várias e bem-vindas liberdades com os contos, posso ao menos dizer que a leitura de Meloy é uma experiência tão vibrante quanto à quela de assistir Reichardt. E é curioso que eu use a palavra vibrante para me referir a esses dois trabalhos porque tanto no filme quanto no livro, o controle e a restrição são questões muito importantes. Não uma restrição em sentido punitivo, mas moral, e sobretudo estilÃstico. Meloy escreve sobre personagens violentamente confrontados com bifurcações emocionais que tem o poder de definir sua vida dali a frente, mas as relata com sobriedade impressionante, talvez inspirada pela morosidade do estado de Montana, sua terra natal e palco da maioria das tramas, talvez tentando confrontar essa parcimônia.
Agindo contra a coletânea está talvez a ordem escolhida para dispor os contos. Começar o livro com algo tão forte quanto Travis, B., história de um cowboy pouco experiente que se vê curiosamente atraÃdo por uma jovem professora de direito, faz com que todas as posteriores percam um pouco de seu brilho. E ainda que a sequência formada por Red from Green e Lovely Rita (episódio soberbo sobre um operário ajudando uma jovem a rifar seu próprio corpo) seja igualmente cativante, a sensação de que o ápice já foi atingido permanece, e não é particularmente agradável. Se os livros de Meloy estiverem todos situados nessa paisagem vasta e interiorana -sem jamais se resumir a uma crônica da América profunda-, e a abordarem da mesma maneira estoica e regrada, eu vou ter que lê-la novamente muito em breve. Afeto e disciplina são muito difÃceis de balancear.
Travis, B. (★★★★�)
Red from Green (★★★★)
Lovely Rita (★★★★�)
Spy vs. Spy (★★�)
Two-Step (★★�)
The Girlfriend (★★�)
Liliana (★★�)
Nine (★★★★)
AgustÃn (★★)
The Children (★★★★)
O Tannenbaum (★★★★)
Agindo contra a coletânea está talvez a ordem escolhida para dispor os contos. Começar o livro com algo tão forte quanto Travis, B., história de um cowboy pouco experiente que se vê curiosamente atraÃdo por uma jovem professora de direito, faz com que todas as posteriores percam um pouco de seu brilho. E ainda que a sequência formada por Red from Green e Lovely Rita (episódio soberbo sobre um operário ajudando uma jovem a rifar seu próprio corpo) seja igualmente cativante, a sensação de que o ápice já foi atingido permanece, e não é particularmente agradável. Se os livros de Meloy estiverem todos situados nessa paisagem vasta e interiorana -sem jamais se resumir a uma crônica da América profunda-, e a abordarem da mesma maneira estoica e regrada, eu vou ter que lê-la novamente muito em breve. Afeto e disciplina são muito difÃceis de balancear.
Travis, B. (★★★★�)
Red from Green (★★★★)
Lovely Rita (★★★★�)
Spy vs. Spy (★★�)
Two-Step (★★�)
The Girlfriend (★★�)
Liliana (★★�)
Nine (★★★★)
AgustÃn (★★)
The Children (★★★★)
O Tannenbaum (★★★★)
May 20, 2019
Another solid story collection. I love reading about stories set in the west, especially Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Fans of Laura Pritchett, Larry Watson & Kent Haruf, should enjoy Meloy. I will have to try one of her novels.
July 30, 2009
These stories will make you think as well as tug at your heartstrings. There is something in all of them that goes far beneath the surface of universal human truths. It's funny because the ages of the people range from just out of their teens to their 50's or so, though most are 30 or 40 something's, all of them are relatable however. You can feel for the 20 something farm hand falling for a slightly older woman just as much as you do for the middle aged couple contemplating the state of their marriage and where to go with it. I can't help comparing Meloy's story collection to Elizabeth Strout's short stories "Olive Kittridge". (Strout won the 2009 Pulitzer for fiction). Strout's characters are many different ages but mostly the perspective is looking back through Olive's eyes from somewhere in her 60's. Meloy's folks are looking ahead to what might be, possibilities, Strout's look back and try and make sense of how their past is shaping their present and how it's impacted their current array of choices. Both Meloy and Strout have immense insights and lovely moments of interaction that comes after tension, as if the sun broke through clouds and suddenly there's a realization that life doesn't have to be so complicated. Both authors write beautifully and with few words they create an evocative atmosphere that is their's alone. Last week I finished Meloy's debut story collection `Half in Love' and even in 2003 Meloy had a distinct voice and lots to say. Her work has a sweetness whereas Strout can cast a slightly menacing milieu that makes you dread a little to keep reading. They both have a delicious sense of humor as well though, even through the sadness, Meloy's is a lighter touch.
January 18, 2010
It was short story time this weekend, as I hunkered down with this collection, Wells Tower's "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned", and "On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction" by Karl Iagnemma.
This was the winner of the bunch, though Wells Tower came in a close second. I liked almost all of the stories in this collection ("The Children" was the only exception, so that Meloy's batting average was 10 out of 11), and a few, "Lovely Rita", "Liliana" and "Agustin", were true standouts.
It's always hard to pin down what it is that works about short stories - but Meloy's gift for characterization is certainly worth mentioning. She actually tells us stories - that is, stuff happens to people that she makes both credible and engaging. And she does so in deceptively simple prose that is free of gimmicks and feels no need to draw attention to itself. The view of human nature that predominates in these stories is maybe at times a little pessimistic, sometimes bittersweet, but it rings true.
This book makes one believe that there is hope for the short story form yet.
This was the winner of the bunch, though Wells Tower came in a close second. I liked almost all of the stories in this collection ("The Children" was the only exception, so that Meloy's batting average was 10 out of 11), and a few, "Lovely Rita", "Liliana" and "Agustin", were true standouts.
It's always hard to pin down what it is that works about short stories - but Meloy's gift for characterization is certainly worth mentioning. She actually tells us stories - that is, stuff happens to people that she makes both credible and engaging. And she does so in deceptively simple prose that is free of gimmicks and feels no need to draw attention to itself. The view of human nature that predominates in these stories is maybe at times a little pessimistic, sometimes bittersweet, but it rings true.
This book makes one believe that there is hope for the short story form yet.
February 6, 2010
What a find! Maile Meloy, I suppose, is not newly found. It seems the heavyweights of the industry have heaped honours on her since her debut collection of stories in 2002. But she’s new to me and Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It is one of the best books of 2009.
This is an author with talent to burn but we get no writerly pyrotechnics. Meloy is confident enough to rely on her clear, unadorned prose to propel us along. Her stories flow, swiftly as a Montana stream, and get us there scarcely before we realize what has happened. She shares a rare talent with Alice Munro, knowing exactly what to leave out and make the little twists seem as natural as a bend in a river.
She sets several stories in Montana, her native state, but others travel to Argentina, eastern boarding schools, and a nuclear power plant. The dialogue is always clear and sharp and real.
Meloy may be hailed as a writer’s writer, but don’t let that worry you. It just means that she tells a story with terrific conciseness. It’s an enjoyable read � and one of the best of 2009.
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