My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead

An anthology of luuurveee stories

I hate to be M.I.A, even for just a little while, now that I'm up and active again. I'm still getting through Anna Karenina, and I haven't got any other books to read as of this moment. So I figure I'll write reviews on books I've read during my time away from this blog. And maybe TV shows, movies, well we'll get to that when we do. Now this next book, My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead, is a collection of short love stories from a myriad of writers and was edited by Jeffrey Eugenides. We have William Faulkner, Miranda July, Vladimir Nabokov, Guy de Maupassant and so forth. As it is a collection, there are bound to be stories I loved, stories I tolerated and stories I hated. Sadly, most of the stories in this book I tolerated instead of loved. And thus I have not given it a full-heart rating.

There are over 20 short stories in this collection. Here are the names of the stories I loved;

• First Love and Other Sorrows by Harold Brodkey.
• A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner.
• The Hitchhiking Game by Milan Kundera.
• Mouche by Guy de Maupassant.
• Something That Needs Nothing by Miranda July.

Not much out of that 20+ aiye? You must first understand that this anthology of love is not really about love. Let me borrow Eugenides' words;

"When it comes to love, there are a million theories to explain it. But when it comes to love stories, things are simpler. A love story can never be about full possession. The happy marriage, the requited love, the desire that never dims - these are lucky eventualities but they aren't love stories. Love stories depend on disappointment, on unequal births and feuding families, on matrimonial boredom and at least one cold heart. Love stories, nearly without exception, give love a bad name."

Usually, I love these kind of stories. I'm not always for the happy endings, actually most of the time I'm not. But the stories in this anthology either went above my head and I didn't understand it, or I just simply didn't like it. But the ones I loved, I loved completely. My ultimate favourite is probably Mouche. I wouldn't tell anyone not to read this because I believe there is something for everyone in this collection. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. But hey, I found 5 stories that I loved. I dare you to find more.