Angle of Inclination (Ned Hunter Books) (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Richly comic and heart-breaking by turns, Angle of Inclination by James M. Haule is a beautifully written collection of thirteen interconnected short stories that reward reading and re-reading. Modeled on James Joyce’s Dubliners, the sequence of stories does for the city of Detroit what Joyce did for the Irish capitol. It tells the stories of individual Detroiters from 1955 through 2013, revealing connections between them they could hardly imagine themselves, as each tries to adapt to the fate of a city they all love and hate at once. The struggle to comprehend events is at the center of the plot. Narrative voice carries the weight, not just action. For most of the characters, events are a puzzle, but readers know much more. The paralysis that is the hallmark of the narrators in Joyce’s Dubliners infects the narrators in Angle of Inclination in much the same way. Detroit by the end is either vacant or paralyzed. The humor and resolve of the characters, however, demonstrates why hope for the city refuses to die.