The Miniaturist: A Novel
The Best American Short Stories of the Eighties
I inherited this book from my mom-in-law. I doubt she read it herself because the pages look as if they had never been turned . But are the stories inside this book really America's best short stories in the eighties? If so, why doesn't my local library have a copy of this book? Just how do libraries decide what books to put in their collection? I'm curious because my local library seems to have a lot of very useless and boring books on the shelves. Just who gets to decide what books our local libraries carry? Does anyone know? Anyway, I'm going to keep this book on my bookshelf for now because I think any books that my local library doesn't have are keepers. Stories included in this book: Helping by Robert Stones The Emerald by Donald Barthelme
The first 4 pages of this book is about a boring and weird funeral in the 17th century Amsterdam. It's boring in the sense that the English that describes the funeral is unlike the straightforward language that I'm used to when I read the contemporary American fictions. The tone of these pages just sound ancient and boring. Maybe that's exactly how a historical fiction should be written? I think the funeral is weird because there was this mysterious woman who was judging the funeral the entire time while staring at another mysterious girl at that funeral, whom I have no idea who she is or how she is related to the dead person. I had never been to Amsterdam, and I have a hard time visioning the setting of the funeral clearly. So far, this book isn't a page turner for me.
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