V171 reviewed The Man Who by Thom Cree
Review of The Man Who by Thom Cree
4 stars
The Man Who by Thom Cree is a diverse short story collection covering stories from traditional westerns to Russian espionage. As with most short story collections, this is hard to give a rating, with some stories being hits and others misses. This collection in particular is difficult to rate because of the vast diversity in the kinds of stories included, but I'm happy to say that I enjoyed the collection for the most part. Based on the table of contents, the book is broken into three different themes of stories: Historical Western, Contemporary, and Cold War Espionage. I found that the author's talented writing style was on full display in the four historical western stories. They were all uniquely rich, complex, and deeply engaging if not terribly brutal at times. I appreciated how the prose complemented what we would call "flowery" language of the time (think Ulysses Everett from O …
The Man Who by Thom Cree is a diverse short story collection covering stories from traditional westerns to Russian espionage. As with most short story collections, this is hard to give a rating, with some stories being hits and others misses. This collection in particular is difficult to rate because of the vast diversity in the kinds of stories included, but I'm happy to say that I enjoyed the collection for the most part. Based on the table of contents, the book is broken into three different themes of stories: Historical Western, Contemporary, and Cold War Espionage. I found that the author's talented writing style was on full display in the four historical western stories. They were all uniquely rich, complex, and deeply engaging if not terribly brutal at times. I appreciated how the prose complemented what we would call "flowery" language of the time (think Ulysses Everett from O Brother, Where Art Thou). The hyper-focus on the individual experience from seemingly random people of that time painted a really interesting picture of what life might have been like. Is it authentic? I don't know, I don't really care. I enjoyed them all. The contemporary stories I remember less of. There were only two of them, and they didn't stick with me. I remember being surprised that the bordering on purple prose didn't carry over to the contemporary stories, and I think that's a testament to the author's versatility. Lastly we have the cold war espionage, this was actually one story, and took up most of the book. I suppose it was less of a short story and more of a novella, but I have mixed feelings about it. While a high level summary of the story might lead one to think it was very engaging and fast paced, I found myself confused and struggling to keep the characters straight in my head for the majority of the time. It all came together nicely in the end, but the confusion I had made this story really drag on for me. Overall, a mixed bag when it came to the stories, but I enjoyed the collection as a whole. I find myself wishing there were more western stories, and I would have really liked to see more installments in the contemporary category, but this was very strong.