Colum McCann

From the author of the award-winning novel Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic comes an eponymous novella and three stories that range fluidly across time, tenderly exploring the act of writing and the moment of creation when characters come alive on the page; the lifetime consequences that can come from a simple act; and the way our lives play across the world, marking language, image and each other. Thirteen Ways of Looking is framed by two author’s notes, each dealing with the brutal attack the author suffered last year and strikes at the heart of contemporary issues at home and in Ireland, the author’s birth place. Brilliant in its clarity and deftness, this collection reminds us, again, why Colum McCann is considered among the very best contemporary writers.

Thirteen Ways Of Looking

Dennis Jacob Rosenfeld

It is not that I'm unsympathetic to McCann's project, but in the end the problems are too severe to ignore. In the main story of the book the character around whom the story revolves is Jewish for no apparent reason, except the gimmick of it. McCann might have lots of Jewish friends and done his research but nevertheless it has a false tone to it and he has not been able to capture the cultural aspects in a believable way. Sprinkling Yiddish words throughout and mentioning a couple of Jewish concepts does not constitute a real insight. 

Unfortunately the other stories aren't that much better and in the end the book is largely forgettable.

Cindy Lieberman

A captivating novella with a Rashomon-like approach to revealing an incident through different views, followed by three short stories. As an audiobook listener, it was not clear to me (initially) that the “13 Ways” ended and what followed were unrelated short stories. Eventually I figured it out, but puzzled through the first of these stories waiting for it to tie back to the “13 Ways.” Perhaps that is why “Treaty” is my least favorite in the collection. 

The author did an excellent job reading the audiobook. In his afterward, he lets us know that he wrote these before and following an incident in which he came to the aid of a woman who had been assaulted on a busy street in New Haven, CT, and was himself assaulted: punched and knocked unconscious. His Victim’s Statement is published on his website

Thirteen Ways Of Looking

Reviews