As I was reading this The Book of Right and Wrong, I kept thinking of how to describe it, and kept coming to the cliche of a reader "going on a roller-coaster ride" -- as back-to-back stories can be so different from one another. Funny stories, tragic ones, stories of social ignorance.
And by threading these together, The Book of Right and Wrong assembles a weird community of stories about the truest people dealing with the unfortunate realities of life. Childhood obliviousness, faux-cool teens, work struggles and marriage doubts. Some are tragic, some are hilarious, all are touching.
But the problem with the original question is that, "roller-coaster" isn't really it, because on a roller-coaster you can count on a pretty predictable up-and-down. Here, each story never ends up how you think it should, with a happy reunion or tragic confrontation. They end the way real life stories end: with emotions and behavior rooted way deeper than the temporary situation.
That isn't to say it's all drama. For example, reading "I Was Jimmy Carter" WILL make you laugh out loud, as will "Beard of Bees". And one story will make you cry (I won't name which, that could ruin it). All of this is because these chapters don't read like fiction. Even though they weren't based on true stories, it's a certainty they've happened somewhere in real life -- but just weren't written down, and definitely not in this way.
So perhaps the roller-coaster analogy is false, because roller-coasters aren't a thing that happens outside of the fantasy world of an amusement park. I guess a better image would be a gun hammer click back. You sense it at the start of each story, but you don't find out which character the gun's pointed at until the last page.
The Book of Right and Wrong: Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction
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Top reviews from other countries
Eric Cunningham
"Roller Coaster" Isn't Right
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 29, 2010Verified Purchase
Eugene George
Compact, evocative, lyrical.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 23, 2010Verified Purchase
CBH
wonderful stories
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 24, 2010Verified Purchase
Bigdumptruck
Loved Every Second of This Book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 7, 2010Verified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Devastatingly great
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 15, 2012Verified Purchase
