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Emily's Reviews > Fortune Smiles
Fortune Smiles
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Ehhhhhh. The first three stories in this book were straight-up bad, but the last three are definitely worth reading.
Adam Johnson's work is best when his characters are reacting to one, larger problem that is out of their control. The two stories in this collection that most resonated with me were “George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine” and “Fortune Smiles,” about a former Stasi prison warden and two North Korean defectors, respectively. In those, the characters feel realistic and true because they’re responding to the (insane) situations they’re in. But his stories that have more “normal” premises, like life-threatening illness, suffer from too many additional gimmicks that take the focus away from the characters and towards the mechanics of the story. This was especially true for “Nirvana,” a story that is a confusing mashup of several different premises that could have each been a story in their own right (view spoiler).
It is interesting that the stories I disliked were those set in very familiar locations: “Nirvana” is set in the tech bubble of Palo Alto, and “Interesting Facts” is set in my neighborhood in San Francisco. Perhaps it’s that I can’t spot the inaccuracies or the oddities in a story set in South Korea or Berlin, so I accept them more easily. But I would have really disliked “Interesting Facts” no matter the setting: the story was too aggressively meta.
I’d give the first three stories in this collection—“Nirvana,” “Hurricanes Anonymous,” and “Interesting Facts”—one star. They’re heavy-handed and easily forgettable. But the last three—“George Orwell,” “Dark Meadow,” and “Fortune Smiles”—make up for the failings of the first. “Dark Meadow” is a difficult subject to read about, but handled better than I expected. “Fortune Smiles” takes you back to North Korea (which I thought Johnson handled extraordinarily well in The Orphan Master’s Son), but from the point of view of defectors. And “George Orwell” is one of my favorite short stories that I’ve read this year. I keep turning it over in my mind in idle moments.
Finally, here’s an interesting fact for you: “George Orwell” is about to be published as a $9,000 edition!
Adam Johnson's work is best when his characters are reacting to one, larger problem that is out of their control. The two stories in this collection that most resonated with me were “George Orwell Was a Friend of Mine” and “Fortune Smiles,” about a former Stasi prison warden and two North Korean defectors, respectively. In those, the characters feel realistic and true because they’re responding to the (insane) situations they’re in. But his stories that have more “normal” premises, like life-threatening illness, suffer from too many additional gimmicks that take the focus away from the characters and towards the mechanics of the story. This was especially true for “Nirvana,” a story that is a confusing mashup of several different premises that could have each been a story in their own right (view spoiler).
It is interesting that the stories I disliked were those set in very familiar locations: “Nirvana” is set in the tech bubble of Palo Alto, and “Interesting Facts” is set in my neighborhood in San Francisco. Perhaps it’s that I can’t spot the inaccuracies or the oddities in a story set in South Korea or Berlin, so I accept them more easily. But I would have really disliked “Interesting Facts” no matter the setting: the story was too aggressively meta.
I’d give the first three stories in this collection—“Nirvana,” “Hurricanes Anonymous,” and “Interesting Facts”—one star. They’re heavy-handed and easily forgettable. But the last three—“George Orwell,” “Dark Meadow,” and “Fortune Smiles”—make up for the failings of the first. “Dark Meadow” is a difficult subject to read about, but handled better than I expected. “Fortune Smiles” takes you back to North Korea (which I thought Johnson handled extraordinarily well in The Orphan Master’s Son), but from the point of view of defectors. And “George Orwell” is one of my favorite short stories that I’ve read this year. I keep turning it over in my mind in idle moments.
Finally, here’s an interesting fact for you: “George Orwell” is about to be published as a $9,000 edition!
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Reading Progress
August 20, 2015
–
Started Reading
August 20, 2015
– Shelved
August 22, 2015
–
Finished Reading
