3.5★ rounded up to 4

“His daughter hoped something would happen and it did in the shape of a man blued by symbols that crinkled when he tensed his arms.”

And of course, a tattooed fella isn’t quite the change that Dad was hoping for. Schutt has a nice way with words and has created some interesting characters, from this girl to a crazy lady in the desert, to a mother who just can’t be bothered with the nuisance of having a toddler.

“But the cost of things did not interest Lolly. What she wanted to know was how long did motherhood last?”

She has NO idea! And it doesn’t auger well for the family’s future.

A colourful character is Bob Cork, who meets the dancing challenge.
“. . . the Cajun-style rhythm two-step, newer to the repertoire, was a challenge, but Bob Cork liked to say, ’It ain’t whatcha do, it’s the way that you do it,’ a platitude that left him a lot of room on the dance floor.”

An older woman mourns the loss of her husband, while another is stumbling home in the dark, slightly the worse for wear with drink and tripping into a ditch. I love Schutt’s description here.

“. . . the ditch, which isn’t a ditch so much as a broad rut filled with fallen leaves and broken branches, fieldstone and mist rising over a landscape pieced as quaintly as a quilt, and the lady from Connecticut, a loose stitch in it.”

I like the writing, I like the characters, and some of the stories I enjoyed very much. There were a few that felt unfinished or incomplete. I find that hard to explain, since short stories are, by definition, short. But I like ones that give me a sense of what came before and a feeling for what might come after. Without that, I don’t care.

Schutt is a prize-winning author and was nominated in the past for the Pulitzer Prize, so now I must hunt down her other work to see why. I enjoyed these, but not enough to suggest a prize.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted. 

This is due out in March.

Great collection of short stories. Very poetic. Looking forward to reading more of her books. I love a great short story collection.

This was actually my first read of a short story collection and so I'm not sure if short stories aren't for me or this book of short stories wasn't for me. The stories were just too short for me to get involved in, just as they seemed to get going they ended.

I gave this book my whole hearted effort a few times, and unfortunately, I really couldn't figure out what was going on half of the time, unfortunately.

Pure Hollywood is a collection of short stories. It is well-written. It explores different relationships. I enjoyed it even if I'm not into short stories - I always feel like I want to have more.

DNF. I couldn't even get into the first story. The characters seemed flat and shallow, the story was choppy, and I had a hard time keeping up with the head hopping. The plot seemed like it would be an intriguing one, so I was sorry to put it down.

I could not follow along well in this book. I was confused and it did not flow very well. I DNF this book about 13% in. I will give it another shot sometime, but for now, this one definitely wasn't my favorite. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book. Thanks again to the publisher.

This book did not captivate me from the start. It was very messy and hard to follow. I would not recommend it nor seek out other titles from this author.

Short story collections are hard: one might think that it's easier to find good short stories than good novels, but I think that the opposite is true. In a novel you get time to build a relationship between the reader and the story, between the reader and your characters. There is time to recover if there's a misstep, or a miscommunication. In a novel, simply because it's a longer medium, you have more space to play around with. Short stories, on the other hand, do not grant the gift of that space. You don't slowly build a world or a character, you throw the reader right in the middle of a story. There's no time to play around with characters or plot, it's a short story. It needs to be fairly concise. I find short stories a lot less forgiving than novels.

The first short story in this collection, "Pure Hollywood", was definitely a story that would have benefited from more space to play around. It tells the story of a young alcoholic widow and her brother, and how they deal with the aftermath of her husband's death. We bounce around between events in the far past, the recent past, an incident after her husband's death, and the present. It's all rather disjointed and affected, and we don't get to spend enough time in any one time frame to really get a feel for what's going on. And maybe that's supposed to mirror Mimi's mental state, but it's very disconcerting from a reader's perspective. As I was reading the story, I found myself wondering if this was originally a novel that she just slashed apart and shoved together as a short story. (Which is not what I want to be thinking while reading a short story.)

The second short story, "The Hedges", was a much more successful short story.  Maybe that's because it was structured like a more traditional short story, and I'm just not ready for experimental short stories, but I found myself connecting to different characters and invested in continuing the plot. (Which is what I want to be experiencing while reading a short story.)

The third short story, "Species of Special Concern", focuses on two men, one husband to a terminally-ill wife, the other infatuated with the terminally-will woman. This one felt half-baked. A good start, definitely, and not lacking in plot. Just lacking in development. It felt more like a lackluster journal entry than an actual short story.

The Verdict:
I see potential with Christine Schutt. I would definitely be interested in reading more of her work. That being said, I wouldn't recommend Pure Hollywood. This collection of short stories felt like the drafts folder of an MFA student's laptop - lots of good beginnings, but still requiring a lot of guidance and a strong editor.

Review to be published on Wrecked My Eyes Reading on 5 Oct 2017

But who could blame the girl Cecilia? Cecilia was a girl, and Jonathan was a restless, fully mended little boy. One minute he was in the bedroom watching tv, and the next, he was gone to the terrace.

I wasn’t always a fan of short stories, though having stumbled upon the brilliance of several writers, I am much more likely to pick them up and devour them now. Pure Hollywood is a well written collection but I really wanted to feel closer to the characters, which is strange considering I really enjoyed The Hedges, where it seems the reader is not meant to be that close to the young couple. It’s a strange experience for those of us with unusual names to find our name in a story, as the character Lolly shares mine. Lolly is miserable, exasperated with her sickly son Jonathan, bored by her beautiful surroundings, superior to the other vacationers (so it seems) and just one moment away from disaster. Maybe she has slipped away before, into sleep, into the distance, but this time she will be punished. The reader never dives too deeply in Lolly’s nind, yet it actually works in this story to have the cold distance, you feel just like the other vacationers trying to understand the young couple.

Where You Live, When You Need Me is so weird and short, I love it. Ella, a child care worker of unknown origins, during a time when mothers should be extra cautious of strangers around their children, appears as if from nowhere. But everyone wants her, so great with the kids. Why aren’t the mothers worried? Why is it the opposite reaction can be born in moments of danger? The last sentence in the story expresses such a beautiful defense for the carelessness of letting Ella in, which I won’t write here because it gives away the tale.

Some of the stories are short but hit me between the eyes, others I wasn’t really feeling but as a collection, the writing is solid. Schutt is one to watch,

Publication Date: March 18, 2018

Grove Atlantic, Grove Press

This book falls somewhere between a 2 and a 2.5 for me.  I've read <i>Florida</i> by Christine Schutt and liked <i>Pure Hollywood</i> much better.  The stories all center around relationships, but because some of the stories are so short (even by short story standards) there's very little character development. It was easy to confuse both plot and characters between stories because their traits and their relationships all blended together. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic who provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I really wanted to like this book because I love supporting new authors and promoting them. However, this collection of short stories is tough to read.  I was very interested in the characters themselves so maybe this is a note for the editor but the sentences were confusing, the narration would change too abruptly within the same short story (third person omniscent to third person, back again).   I also found the characters interesting but not at all relatable. I was somewhat repulsed by them to be honest. I wish the author would have made one book out of one of the short stories, peeling back the layers of Mimi for example and diving into her life in more depth. I would not recommend this book.

I really enjoy short stories.  This was a good collection!

This book tried way too hard to be ironic. I gave it three stories before I just gave up. I really wanted to like this book based on the description, but I just didn't find any of the stories relatable and didn't really like any of the characters

To be fair, my rating is closer to a 2.5*

"Pure Hollywood" is a collection of short stories, set in the United States. I love short stories, I have since I was in school. Some of the world's most compelling stories were short, just a couple pages, often less. And  I loved the writing of the book. It was quick, it was fun. It wasn't perfect, but keeping in mind this is a debut novel, I really can't complain! I had a good time reading this. I'm not a published author, so I'd have to say that the author is a better writer than myself! Christine Schutt was very good at placing me in each environment, and I found some stories quite poetic.

But the thing that "Pure Hollywood" failed to do, was compel; I had no relationship with any of the characters introduced in the many stories. Though capturing the vapid, fleeting city pretty accurately, I was left wishing this had been more. Just as the short story would end, I would finally start to gain interest in the character. I also had a lot of trouble with the timeline of multiple stories, and found myself confused whilst reading.

I really wanted to love this novel, as I love anything to do with Hollywood and the fascination with the city, but I just didn't fall in love. I could recommend it, because it's such as short read, and I'd love to give debut authors a chance, but don't expect an incredibly spectacular novel.

Thanks to the publishers, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!

The blurb on this book’s home page on Netgalley described Christine Schutt as an original and exciting voice, and that she is returning to the format that catapulted her to worldwide fame.

I was intrigued. I requested the book, and it was very kindly made available.

The style of Schutt’s prose made it a little hard for me to follow, too many interruptions and segues make it a difficult read.

It took me a while to truly get in synch with her style, and once that was accomplished, I loved, with a capital ‘L’, the first two of the stories that deal with the overarching theme of loss.

Told from a woman’s perspective, the first story is about an aspiring actress dealing with the loss of her husband, her lifestyle, her mother (from when she was younger), while another story deals with a woman’s loss of independence and quality ‘me time’, the result of which is shocking.

The next story deals with a man living in denial over the passing of his wife.

The novelty of the writing style and the theme wore off as I went deeper into the book. After a point, it was a source of annoyance to have to go back every few lines to re-read an entire paragraph. Now I’m someone who reads for pleasure, and this book is anything but.

That said, I’m sure this style of prose has its share of admirers, and for them, I’d recommend this.

But it’s not for me.

A serviceable 3/5

"....into this just-right night of Los Angeles in....? Let's just say it was May in the first decade of the hardly promising twenty -first century..."

For those of us who love short stories and Literary Fiction, starting a new collection is always a risk. The short stories don't really allow you to truly know a character, to fully connect with the situations depicted. The writing is dense and the underlying themes require the readers' full attention. This is why I love short stories so much and the reason I tend to be quite picky. In this marvellous collection by Christine Schutt, there are characters that open their hearts to us readers, there are themes that concern us on a daily basis, there is poetry and pain. So, it's not an easy read. If you're looking for a collection to spend some quality time, then "Pure Hollywood" is there for you. If you don't feel like investing time and thought, then I'm not sure you'll enjoy it.

I always associate Hollywood with vanity. Vanity and the hypocrisy of appearance and decorum are central in the stories. The characters are trapped by choices that are influenced by the terror of growing old, unwanted and unloved. Families come apart either by their own fault or by Death and the pain feels like heavy shackles. There is no "pure" narrator in those stories. The only thing that is "pure" is the desire to change what cannot be changed. 

"At this hour, the road is not much travelled; its residents living far apart and withdrawn into their woods and behind their fences, are abed."

Isolation is almost tangible in these stories. Even the couples are only technically together. In terms of emotion and connection they couldn't be further apart. No one opens heart and soul, no one dares to give voice to feelings. They are isolated from each other and from themselves. However, they speak to the reader, their cry for help, their cry of regret is loud and clear.

"Death: will it be sudden and will we be smiling? Will we know ourselves and the life we have lived?"

This collection has Death as one of its central themes. Physical and emotional death, the loss of a loved one, the loss of innocence, the loss of all meaning. Flowery images and garden sceneries become a metaphor for the need of preservation, the need to have something alive and beautiful that will eventually go to waste because we never open ourselves to anyone.

I don't have much to say about Schutt's writing. In my opinion, it is exquisite in all levels. Poetic, literary, dark, balanced. In a few pages, there are so many themes and questions. The characters are mysterious, each one could very well live inside their own book. There is very little dialogue, but many inner monologues that are almost theatrical in nature. There are traces of Groff, of Watkins and Offill, of Fitzgerald and Woolf. 


All the stories of this collection are very, very good, but there are some that really stood out for me:

"Pure Hollywood" : A complex relationship between a sister and a brother and the complications of a marriage of convenience.
"The Hedges" : A tragic tale about motherhood and the demanding nature of parenthood.
"Species of Special Concern" : An elderly gardener in love with his brother's dying wife. There are some beautiful images of life, love and death told through the use of flowers.
"A Happy Rural Seat of Various View: Lucinda's Garden" : Striking title, isn't it? There are elements of Fitzgerald in this story. A newly married couple is in charge of a famous garden which becomes a metaphor for their marriage.
"The Duchess of Albany" : A recently widowed woman struggles to cope with loss, thinking that drinking and writing poetry are the means to escape.
"Where You Live, When You Need Me" : One of the most enigmatic stories about a mysterious, imposing woman who has a deep love for children.
"Burst Ponds, Gone-By, Tangled Aster" : A mother who struggles with loss and a son who's good for nothing. A story about acceptance, tolerance and the severe lack of both in today's society.
"Oh, the Obvious" : An elderly woman, dissatisfied with her life and her appearance, is on vacation in the countryside. A storyy that focuses on the merciless passing of Time with underlying sexual themes.
"The Lady From Connecticut" : This story reminded me of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" from the first paragraph.

These short stories are among the best I've read. However, I hesitate to recommend  "Pure Hollywood" without reservations because I am aware that some of the themes incorporated in it may seem depressing and disturbing to the most sensitive of readers. But if you desire to invest in poetic, cryptic writing and contemplate on questions that shape our choices and lives, then you should definitely try your luck with this book whose content is as beautiful as its cover.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pure Hollywood is a collection of stories that explores different relationships, including siblings, parents and children, husbands and wives, set everywhere from the California desert to a train station in Connecticut. The stories vary in length, from the long title story to shorter glimpse of life, more like character sketches than actual stories. 

What this story collection doesn't contain is a real way of getting the reader connected with the main characters in each story. Although the descriptions of places and things are fluid and sometimes vibrant, if I can't connect to a character's motivations or hindrances for having any motivation, I feel like I'm wasting my time. These characters just didn't interest me, and it seemed like the characters themselves don't really want the readers to be interested in them, either. I doubt readers who truly love the short story form will find anything they like in this collection.

I didn't finish Pure Hollywood, because it suffers from something some people enjoy, but I do not: Debut Author Lingua-Preciosa. This doesn't mean Pure Hollywood isn't a great book, it just means I don't have the patience for it. (Other books I set aside due to lingua-preciosa include Patty Smith's Just Kids, so you see what I mean.) I would recommend this book to literary grad students, which the millenial-pink Didion-esque cover suggests.