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    The Souvenir Museum: Stories
    The Souvenir Museum: Stories
    The Souvenir Museum: Stories
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Souvenir Museum: Stories

    Written by Elizabeth McCracken

    Narrated by Kate Reading

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    About this audiobook

    A Most Anticipated Book From: OprahMag.com * Refinery 29 * Seattle Times * LitHub * Houston Chronicle * The Millions * Buzzfeed

    Award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken is an undisputed virtuoso of the short story, and this new collection features her most vibrant and heartrending work to date

    In these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children’s game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son, two fathers each confront a personal fear. 

    With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken traces how our closely held desires—for intimacy, atonement, comfort—bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changed—and so do her readers. The Souvenir Museum showcases the talents of one of our finest contemporary writers as she tenderly takes the pulse of our collective and individual lives.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 13, 2021
    ISBN9780063071193
    Author

    Elizabeth McCracken

    Elizabeth McCracken is the author of seven books, including The Souvenir Museum (long-listed for the National Book Award), Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant’s House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, won three Pushcart Prizes, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and currently holds the James Michener Chair for Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.

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    Reviews for The Souvenir Museum

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      I had read her previously acclaimed novel "Bowlaway" and thought it was alright. Hearing that her strength was her short stories, I decided to give the new book a shot. This was an excellent collection. Lots of quirky characters and great writing. Tough to make all 12 stories shine but for the most part they worked. The stories about Sadie and Jack which were 5 of the stories and they could reappear in later book were the best.. Some writers are just better with short stories than novels and McCracken seems to be that type of author. I will definitely seek out her earlier collections. If you have not read her, then this book is a good start.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful collection of short stories, some of which share characters.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoy McCracken's short stories, and this collection was no exception. Some characters--particularly a couple named Sadie and Jack--reappear in several stories, linking them and making for a cohesive collection that develops familial relationships and friendships. Each character is unique yet recognizable, the situations they are drawn into both ordinary and epiphanal. A couple attends a family wedding. A mother takes her son to the "real" Legoland (in Denmark) and encounters an ex-husband. An elderly Jewish man, recently widowed, brings his adult son along on a trek to search for puffins on the Scottish coast. While one woman grieves for the son who died of an overdose, her childless friend searches for antique shops for a 1970s Baby Alive doll. I have to say that I was less than thrilled with McCracken's last venture, a novel titled 'Bowlaway.' She is at her best, I think, with short stories, and I am glad to see her return to that genre.
    • 4/5
      Bookended by a wedding, these stories feature people who after an unusual, sometimes perilous happenings, have moments of insight. Four stories featuring Jack and Sadie, the first Sadie travels to England to meet Jacks family. Very unusual people, this story was amusing but my thoughts were if I were Sadie I'd get out now. The next story featuring the couple has Jack meeting her mother, my thought then was Jack was going to have a handful of responsibility. The other two are updates, glimpses of their lives as they continue their relationship.I also enjoyed Proof, featuring a father and son, a tender story. Walk through the human heart, a very unusual story that shows the strength of a mother's love, albeit in a strange way."She knew her maternal love would always be edged with meaness, so as to matter: sometimes you needed a blade to get results."Another favorite is Robinson Crusoe at the water park, where two gay men take their son, a trip that turns out have a bit of a scare. It does have a very nice ending."One of the things he hadn't realized before having a child: how many ways there were to die of self-confidence.There were a few I didn't care for but inn the whole, in enjoyed these. McCracken is a terrific writer.ARC from Edelweiss.
    • 5/5
      So how to review a perfect collection of short stories? This is such a book and I am at a loss for words. Nevertheless, here are a few. McCracken's strength lies in her characters. Quirky and grounded, willing to combine both whimsey and harsh reality. I know that sounds dreadful, but McCracken pulls it off. A young man has his parents' permission to run away to sea for a few weeks, but he fails to return, instead running away to London to become a ventriloquist. An aging actress with a role in a children's game show watches an entertainer make balloon animals on a ferry during a storm. A man discovers that parenthood involves going places, like a German-themed waterpark, that he would never normally visit. And there are stories that link together in the best ways. I can't point to a weak story or a clunky phrase in the book. I loved it.
    • 5/5
      The stories in The Souvenir Museum are a delight. Elizabeth McCracken's cleverness had me laughing out loud, but her quirky characters also elicit emotional investment and deeper reflections on life and love. One paragraph, I would be laughing and quoting lines to my husband, and another paragraph feel my heart tugged. McCracken's characters struggle with love, finding it or losing it, committing and running away.A woman with a broken heart checks into a hotel and meets a well-known radio personalty who dealt out terrible advice. He suggests that she is young and that she must 'change her life, and to be kind, even when life is cruel. A father takes his river-loving son rafting at a theme park, embarking on a fearful journey, imagining "The Raft of the Medusa at the Waterpark." A boy runs away to study with a ventriloquist. The story gave me my 'Sunday Sentence' on Twitter:His body hadn't changed yet, but his soul had: this year he had developed delusions of grandeur and a morbid nature and a willingness to die for love; next year, pubic hair and broad shoulders.~ from The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken A children's program actress imagines suicide, and on a cruise falls for a man who makes balloon animals. What could be sadder in a marriage than incompatible feelings about bagpipes? Ought they still marry?~from The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken You can read one of the stories, Two Sad Clowns, published in O the Oprah Magazine here. It begins with the the marvelous sentence, "Even Punch and Judy were in love once." The story is the beginning of Jack and Sadie's love affair; the couple appear in four of the stories.Who can predict the vicissitudes of life?~ from The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCrackenTwenty years into their relationship, Jack convinces Sadie to marry and they honeymoon in Amsterdam. Discovering they are going the wrong way through a museum, the reluctant bride asks, Do you think we should start at the beginning? Her new husband answers, no; let's fight the current. Stick to your mistake."Perhaps that is the best way to live. Own your mistakes. Own going against the current. Why question things we can not change? Love the unsuitable. Embrace our imperfect life.Entertaining and thoughtful, these stories are wonderful.I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.