Good collection of short stories. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of the book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on my review.

I love a good short story collection that I can really sink my teeth into. Hempel is such a master of the game (don't sleep on "Reasons to Live"!). Her stories are so honest and raw and have such an amazing flow to them. This collection is interesting - there are a bunch of super short stories and then one story at the end that's pretty long. I actually loved this format and enjoyed the long story just as much as I did the short ones. The topics range from a volunteer at an animal shelter to a woman still affected by the daughter she gave up for adoption decades before. Hempel doesn't put out new work very often, but when she does, I'll snap it up!

Amy Hempel is a master of the short story form. And this collection proves that point several times over. Every single story here is a masterclass in itself. In particular, Hempel's understated sense of irony at life and how most of us are muddling through it pervades throughout. Any fan of the short story genre would do well to read Hempel's works again and again. The minimalist narrative style conveys much more about human nature and relationships than can be gleaned with just a single read.

3*.

A compilation of unrelated short stories featuring varied modern-day protagonists. Some of the stories are just a page in length, while others were more meaty.

Generally, I enjoy short stories, and Sing to It was no exception. It wasn't a game-changer for me and I wouldn't run out to find more books immediately by Amy Hempel but I did enjoy it.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

A good collection throughout in the way that Hempel is always so good, though not quite as strong as her earlier stuff that packed such a wallop. But I love her close, economical attention to language. In other authors that can feel like it's in the service of the writer (hi Lorrie Moore, whom I do like), but Hempel's craft always feels like it's for her readers. There's this milk of human kindness that just flows through her work that always wins me over.

Published by Scribner on March 26, 2019

Several of the stories in Sing to It are the shortest of short stories. Perhaps discerning readers will appreciate their depth of feeling or discern their hidden intent. Most of them left me cold. The title story, just a few sentences long, begins with “At the end, he said, No metaphors.” The story is, I guess, a metaphor, but not one that I grasped.

Amy Hempel’s style is to convey intense feelings using as few words as possible. That’ an admirable goal. When she uses too few words, however, I find myself missing all the rich flavor that she seems to have excised in order to get to the story’s core. I’m not sure that all of these stories are really stories at all, but I know that Hempel is popular in literary circles and that other readers are likely to disagree with me about the value of her brief glimpses of life.

As for the longer stories, I loved “A Full-Service Shelter,” which has the indirect storytelling feel of “The Things They Carried” in its heartbreaking description of how dogs perceived the volunteers at a humane society shelter. No dog lover could read the story without being moved.

The longest story, “Cloudland,” is told by a teacher who did cocaine with her students and moved to Florida to make a new life, although not the kind of life that depends on ambition. The protagonist has an abundance of random thoughts and memories and she isn’t shy about sharing them with the reader. Her most substantive memory is about giving up a child for adoption. “For safekeeping. For peace of mind.” Some of her current thoughts are fantasies about seeing or spending time with her daughter; others are about the emptiness she feels. In contrast with Hempel’s other stories, “Cloudland” might have been told more powerfully with fewer words.

The women in these stories are not living happy lives. The narrator of “The Chicane” tells the story of an an American woman who got pregnant by a French actor, then married a guy from Portugal and labored to turn him into an American after she got pregnant again. Neither relationship works out well for her. “Greed” is narrated by a destructive woman whose husband has an affair with an older woman. In “The Correct Grip,” a woman who was attacked by a man with a knife chats amiably with her attacker’s wife.

Only one of the stories in this collection appealed to me, so I cannot recommend the volume to readers who share my tastes. Your mileage may vary. Other than “A Full Service Shelter,” I was largely indifferent to the book’s contents. Even the stories with more substance, such as “Cloudland,” came across to me as pointless. Maybe pointlessness is the point, but it isn’t a point that makes me want to read story after story. The quality of Hempel’s prose, on the other hand, made the stories easy to read, even when I lost interest in the narrative.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

I’m conflicted the first poem I read didn’t really make a lot of sense the next ones were beautifully written. Some of the others were in-between. This was my first book by this author and I think I need to go read some earlier works.

I couldn't totally get into this book of stories, but I do wonder if that's only because of the short story content rather than the actual writing. Hempel is an excellent writer, but like most short story collections I did find this sort of uneven. There were beautiful stories and some that I thought were just fine, but nothing "special." Still, I would definitely pick up more of her work in the future as her writing is really very strong.

As I read Sing to It, my emotions swung between pain and fascination as Amy Hemel wove again,her magic with words. The characters throughout this collection of short stories are all struggling for connection. A truly fascinating read from a master of the short story.

For my first Amy Hempel, these were lovely stories. Will certainly be picking up her larger collection soon.

I have mixed feelings about these stories and I suppose that's to be expected with such a diverse collection. Some of the really short stories have beautiful writing and imagery but didn't really feel like stories to me. The longest story, 'Cloudland', seemed to meander on and on without a whole lot of purpose. The one redeeming factor in this collection for me was the story "Full-service Shelter" that absolutely brought me to tears.

This was exactly what I was hoping for from Amy Hempel! Her style is so unique and I enjoyed the shorter length of the stories in this collection. If you're already a fan, you won't be disappointed. If you're new to her, you're in for something good. She's one of those writers that you either love or you don't and her visceral, sometimes jumbled (to me) style isn't for everyone. But if you like contemporary shorts, it's worth a try.

Amy Hempel is able to tell a story in less words that most other writers. This collection of stories, many of which as a page long, transport the reader to a place, a moment, a feeling.

There's a reason it's one of the most anticipated books of the year. This is a master at work.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I've heard and read so much about what a great, famous and critically-acclaimed writer Amy Hempel is, I was really looking forward to delving into Sing to It her latest book of short stories. There is no doubt that she sets scenes and writes short stories very succinctly (sometimes in less than a page), but I felt emotionally connected to very few of the stories (A Full-service Shelter a notable exception).

I realize that I'm totally swimming up-stream with this review, but some of the stories seemed to ramble, some were too short to engage me, some I just wondered where we were going with this, and for the most part I found them distant and disconnected.

That's okay, we can't all like the same things!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for giving the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I intended to dip in and out of the short stories in Amy Hempel’s Sing To It over the course of a month. Instead, I read them all in just over a day—being in her voice and world was so good I didn’t want to leave. From a one-page stunner like The Orphan Lamb, which delivers an almost physical gut punch in so few words, to a longer story like The Correct Grip, about the aftermath of an assault, or the heartbreaking novella-length story Cloudland that closes out the collection—all are razor-sharp, with the kind of clean, clear writing that had me highlighting things throughout because I had never heard them expressed so perfectly before. A measure for me of how good Hempel is was A Full-Service Shelter; I am not a dog person nor am I a crier, but this story about a woman who spends her evenings caring for dogs due to be euthanized in the morning wrecked me. (A dog-loving friend couldn’t make it past the first page.) Amy Hempel wasn’t on my radar before but she sure is now; thanks to her I may finally have to stop saying that I’m not really a short story person.

I’m grateful to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

From pogo stick to Complaint Board…

I gleefully pull out my pogo stick at the beginning of this small collection, and I boing on down the road—it’s heaven on a stick. But wait! I don’t want to hop anymore. I sigh, sullen, and read on even though most of these stories aren’t doing the trick. Oh sure, they have great language and style, but they don’t have much in the character and plot departments. They’re all too short. Short doesn’t usually bother me, but it does here. And forget about closure. I think there may be buried meaning all over the place, but I’m not willing to reread the stories more than a few times. (And is it a good sign that I had to reread them at all?) Huffing and puffing, I haul out the Complaint Board when I get a load of the last story, which takes up half the book. It’s pretty long and pretty awful.

Okay, the scoop on my short pogo-stick ride: The early stories are intriguing, so I’m all happy face, expecting the joy to be endless. And then I come across one story that knocks my socks off: It takes place in an animal shelter and is called “A Full-Service Shelter.” It’s so intense and upsetting! It’s especially weird that this one works for me because I can’t stand sad animal stories. But love it I do. Cohesive, compelling, un-put-down-able—and very thought-provoking. Hempel’s language is brilliant and there’s a rhythm to it that pulled me in. No way will I ever forget this story.

Now let’s get to that last looooong story, “Cloudland,” which I pretty much hated. It’s a hot mess. There’s one major storyline happening, and it’s super interesting and poignant, but there are all these off-the-wall side-trips that have nothing to do with it, and they trump the good story. (My guess is that they do have something to do with the good story, but it went right over my head.) The story reads more like notes from a journal or a rough draft of a memoir. No structure, no characters, and it’s all ramble-y. Two of the endless and annoying asides are about Mariah Carey and sinkholes, I kid you not! Hempel doesn’t have a high opinion of either. I don’t particularly disagree with her, but come on—this is a short story! Fiction. Remember? Not the place to spew your opinions of a pop artist or educate us on dangerous geological structures. Seriously? Do I really have to read about Mariah Carey? Even if Hempel had thrown in my beloved Meryl Streep, I’d still be mad.

My reaction is weird, because Hempel is considered such a pro. She teaches creative writing and she is hugely popular among short story fans. And I know she shapes her stories carefully, so I’m surprised by the last piece in her collection. I kept fantasizing about how much fun I would have as the editor, pulling out the gem of the story hidden within, and cutting out all the crapola in between. They should have run it by me, lol.

I read a couple of stories by Hempel many moons ago (in the 1980s) and was impressed by her language and her ability to get to the juice of life by using an economy of words. Her way at looking at the world is unique and mesmerizing, and she picks up on little important or odd things that we all just let pass unnoticed and unexplained. She can set up a scene that pulls you right in. She truly is a master short-story teller.

For some reason, I have a tome of her short stories lying around my house, and now and then I dip into it and get swallowed up. So when I saw that she had a new collection, I was all excited. I’m trying to be happy that there’s one dynamite story and I’m trying not to think about the fact that many of the stories are blah—or really bad, like that last story. “A Full-Service Shelter” gets 5-plus stars, but “Cloudland” barely gets 2, so I end up doling out 3 stars for this collection. Overall, disappointing (but I am glad I got to read the “Full-Service Shelter” gem).

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Amy Hempel has long been one of my favorites for short stories. She writes beautifully, generously, and in a way that leaves you fully in the world she's created (and with so little material sometimes!) I really loved the reference section at the end where readers can find out more on the art and writing that inspire Hempel. Cloudland was a favorite.

Amy Hempel is the only short story writer that allows me to pick up a book and feel relaxed because it was written by her capable hands.  She manages to pull me in to a vague moment and allow me to completely understand and connect to it.  She breaks my heart in a few pages.  She tells me stories that make me smile and wince simultaneously.

Her new collection of fifteen stories covers a wide range of emotion, all relating to connection.
In "A-Full Service Shelter" a volunteer explains the care given to dogs on the list to be put down and the lengths to try and save them.
In "Fort Bedd" a person longs for a sense of home/permanence that isn't stifling when things go wrong.
"The Correct Grip" stunned me in one and a half pages, when a woman receives a call from the wife of her attacker.
"Cloudland", the last and also longest story (essentially a novella), feels random and disjointed at first but we eventually get to the heart of the story when a woman looks back on her time at a home for unwed mothers and must then reconcile her choice after heartbreaking information is revealed. (I loved finding out in the acknowledgements that Chuck Palahniuk shared with Hempel the information that she used in this story)

All of these stories were written with great care and deliver a huge punch.  Several of the stories are a single page and yet I read them three or four times to take in all of the emotion.

This is a solid collection of skillfully written short stories.  I highly recommend this book, especially if you haven't had much luck with short stories in the past.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  Sing to It: Short Stories is scheduled for release on March 26, 2019.

Thanks to Amy Hempel and Scribner through Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Description
“All the tawdry details I’m dying for are in these stories, but they’re given out like old sweaters—without shame, without guile. Amy Hempel is the writer who makes me feel most affiliated with other humans; we are all living this way—hiding, alone, obsessed—and that’s ok.” —Miranda July

From legendary writer Amy Hempel, one of the most celebrated and original voices in American short fiction: a ravishing, sometimes heartbreaking new story collection—her first in over a decade.

Amy Hempel is a master of the short story. A multiple award winner, Hempel is highly regarded among writers, reviewers, and readers of contemporary fiction. This new collection, her first since her Collected Stories published more than a decade ago, is a literary event.

These fifteen exquisitely honed stories reveal Hempel at her most compassionate and spirited, as she introduces characters, lonely and adrift, searching for a connection. In “A Full-Service Shelter,” a volunteer at a dog shelter tirelessly, devotedly cares for dogs on a list to be euthanized. In “Greed,” a spurned wife examines her husband’s affair with a glamorous, older married woman. And in “Cloudland,” the longest story in the collection, a woman reckons with the choice she made as a teenager to give up her newborn infant. Quietly dazzling, these stories are replete with moments of revelation and transcendence and with Hempel’s singular, startling, inimitable sentences.
A Nice read.
Sing to It is a short collection of short stories, many of which are a page or less long.

I'm a short story devotee. However, while this is a talented author and some of these stories arewell crafted and interested, I can't say that reading this collection has won her a place among my favorite short story writers like Updike, Trevor and O'Hara