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    There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories
    There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories
    There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories
    Audiobook6 hours

    There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories

    Written by Charles Baxter

    Narrated by T. Ryder Smith, Kevin R. Free, Andrea Gallo and Scott Sowers

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From a contemporary master of the short story: a dazzling new collection-his first in fifteen years-that explores the unpredictable and mysterious in seemingly ordinary experience. These interrelated stories are arranged in two sections, one devoted to virtues ("Bravery," "Loyalty," "Chastity," "Charity," and "Forbearance") and the other to vices ("Lust," "Sloth," "Avarice," "Gluttony," and "Vanity"). They are cast with characters who appear and reappear throughout the collection, their actions equally divided between the praiseworthy and the loathsome. They take place in settings as various as Tuscany, San Francisco, Ethiopia, and New York, but their central stage is the North Loop of Minneapolis, alongside the Mississippi River, which flows through most of the tales. Each story has at its center a request or a demand, but each one plays out differently: in a hit-and-run, an assault or murder, a rescue, a startling love affair, or, of all things, a gesture of kindness and charity. Altogether incomparably crafted, consistently surprising, remarkably beautiful stories. From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 3, 2015
    ISBN9781490627816
    There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories
    Author

    Charles Baxter

    Charles Baxter lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and teaches at the University of Michigan. He is the author of six previous works of fiction, including ‘Believers, Harmony of the World’ and ‘Through the Safety Net’. ‘The Feast of Love’, published by Fourth Estate in 2001, was shortlisted for the National Book Award.

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    Reviews for There's Something I Want You to Do

    4/5

    40 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Such a carefully crafted suite of stories, which I always appreciate—Baxter is very deft at weaving in themes and motifs so that the whole collection comes together pleasingly. These stories are identified by cardinal sins or virtues, and each one hinges on a "request moment"—hence the title. There are also strands that come forward and recede, like a textile: relationships with children, various degrees of mental instability, Minneapolis, a violent mugging revisited from several viewpoints, and recurring characters that come and go throughout, the book. Plus I just love Baxter's writing—it's smooth, rhythmic, and tints my civilian life a little when I'm not reading.Recommended to all the usual short-story-appreciating characters.
    • 4/5
      Great stories and characters.
    • 2/5
      Over and over a story would start off sounding interesting then head off into left field. This collection of short stories was not my cup of tea!
    • 2/5
      I couldn't really get into these stories, they overlapped, the times confused me as they changed from present to past, and the characters weren't people I would like.
    • 2/5
      Except for maybe one Ann Arbor Minute with Benny, none of the characters in any of these stories are appealing.After the first one, I just skipped through paragraphs, then to endings. Nada.
    • 4/5
      Baxter gives us a competent set of connected short stories. The collection is divided into two parts, the first titled after virtues, the second after vices. Characters drift among the stories, reappearing to play different roles. At the heart of each story is a request. For example, a young Asian American falls in love with the woman he saved from jumping off a bridge; she later agrees to have sex with him, but only if he will agree not to kiss her. A mother, dying of cancer, asks her daughter to accompany her to the end. Baxter's character studies are fine, and he makes the interlocking frame work in telling their stories. I liked but did not love this collection. Perhaps that was due, in part, to the fact that I listened to them on audio; I think I might have appreciated them more in print. I may see if my library has it downloadable for kindle--I'm willing to give it another go.