Review of Tales of the Seventies
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Ileana Liarommati
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- Latest Review: Tales of the Seventies by David Done
Review of Tales of the Seventies
[Following is a volunteer review of "Tales of the Seventies" by David Done.]
Tales of the Seventies by David Done is a collection of 7 short stories and 1 novella set in California in the 1970s. Each of them follows a different set of characters while some of them deal with physical and mental illnesses, drug addiction and poverty and others just experience their everyday lives or a new adventure.
Personally, the story that I enjoyed the most was the 3rd story one, "The cat burglars", a tale of two thieves who try to steal a rare Ocelot cat from a zoo. It was a suspenseful, funny and entertaining story, since the two burglars had good chemistry and the reader was nervously waiting to find out if they were going to complete their mission. The characters were also quite likeable, so I was able to root for them and want their success the whole time.
I also quite liked the first story, "Point to point after", which was about an old man, Zhen, whose wife suffers from cancer and dementia. It's full of flashbacks from his own life, both as a small kid seeing his mother also suffering from dementia and as a young man meeting his wife. The story was sweet and interesting and Zhen was a character I was able to connect and relate to, but I didn't enjoy the story's dark ending.
The rest of the stories were either dull and unmemorable or offensive and disturbing. Specifically, the 2nd story, "Blind San Franciscans" and the 5th one, "The three card shuffle" couldn't keep my attention and I lost interest in them in the first few pages.
The 4th story, "Mack the Knife", was about a 30-year-old man who goes to a bar and stands up for the waitress who is constantly sexually harassed by the older rich customers. In my opinion, the story didn't deal with the harassment properly, since it's portrayed as something normal and the main character only stands up for the waitress in hopes of getting with her.
The 6th story, "The San Francisco Adventure", is probably the worst one. The main character, a councilman named Griley, after almost raping his sleeping wife in the beginning of the story, goes to San Francisco to find the young boy he has been dreaming of. Without spoiling the rest of the story, I have to mention that it is filled with misogynistic, predatory and transphobic content. Griley is a horrible person, causing only harm to everyone around him while believing his is superior to them. In the end, the only payback he gets for that is not a life lesson about being decent to the people you meet, but a taste of his own medicine.
The 7th story, "The Short Unhappy Life of Terrence MkAkers", narrates a guy's (Terrence MkAkers) trip to New Mexico where he gets into trouble in a local bar and escapes with a young woman who he plans to have sex with, whether she wants it or not. Even though Terrence isn't painted in a good light, the descriptions of women in the story are awful, since they are all portrayed as thoughtless sexual objects.
The novella, "Yesteryear Snows", which was inspired by the author's personal life, is about a young man (Jeff) suffering from schizophrenia and dealing with drug addiction. In the story we are inside Jeff's head as he's navigating through his life with his girlfriend, with whom he has a rocky relationship, and his friends. Even though I believe it's very important to bring awareness to mental illness and drug addiction, I found this story confusing and hard to follow, so I don't think it was successful in conveying the messages the author was trying to. Jeff is schizophrenic, without any medication, and high on drugs a lot of the time so his thoughts are not easy to understand, since a lot of them are hallucinations, and the writing did not help with that.
Overall, I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. As I mentioned earlier, there are a couple good stories but most of them are really bad and offensive to myself and other groups of people, so I can't give it a higher rating.
The book is definitely suited for mature audiences since there is a lot of graphic sexual and other inappropriate content. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, but maybe someone who lived in California in the 1970s would enjoy the nostalgic aspect of it.
******
Tales of the Seventies
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Tales of the Seventies by David Done is a collection of 7 short stories and 1 novella set in California in the 1970s. Each of them follows a different set of characters while some of them deal with physical and mental illnesses, drug addiction and poverty and others just experience their everyday lives or a new adventure.
Personally, the story that I enjoyed the most was the 3rd story one, "The cat burglars", a tale of two thieves who try to steal a rare Ocelot cat from a zoo. It was a suspenseful, funny and entertaining story, since the two burglars had good chemistry and the reader was nervously waiting to find out if they were going to complete their mission. The characters were also quite likeable, so I was able to root for them and want their success the whole time.
I also quite liked the first story, "Point to point after", which was about an old man, Zhen, whose wife suffers from cancer and dementia. It's full of flashbacks from his own life, both as a small kid seeing his mother also suffering from dementia and as a young man meeting his wife. The story was sweet and interesting and Zhen was a character I was able to connect and relate to, but I didn't enjoy the story's dark ending.
The rest of the stories were either dull and unmemorable or offensive and disturbing. Specifically, the 2nd story, "Blind San Franciscans" and the 5th one, "The three card shuffle" couldn't keep my attention and I lost interest in them in the first few pages.
The 4th story, "Mack the Knife", was about a 30-year-old man who goes to a bar and stands up for the waitress who is constantly sexually harassed by the older rich customers. In my opinion, the story didn't deal with the harassment properly, since it's portrayed as something normal and the main character only stands up for the waitress in hopes of getting with her.
The 6th story, "The San Francisco Adventure", is probably the worst one. The main character, a councilman named Griley, after almost raping his sleeping wife in the beginning of the story, goes to San Francisco to find the young boy he has been dreaming of. Without spoiling the rest of the story, I have to mention that it is filled with misogynistic, predatory and transphobic content. Griley is a horrible person, causing only harm to everyone around him while believing his is superior to them. In the end, the only payback he gets for that is not a life lesson about being decent to the people you meet, but a taste of his own medicine.
The 7th story, "The Short Unhappy Life of Terrence MkAkers", narrates a guy's (Terrence MkAkers) trip to New Mexico where he gets into trouble in a local bar and escapes with a young woman who he plans to have sex with, whether she wants it or not. Even though Terrence isn't painted in a good light, the descriptions of women in the story are awful, since they are all portrayed as thoughtless sexual objects.
The novella, "Yesteryear Snows", which was inspired by the author's personal life, is about a young man (Jeff) suffering from schizophrenia and dealing with drug addiction. In the story we are inside Jeff's head as he's navigating through his life with his girlfriend, with whom he has a rocky relationship, and his friends. Even though I believe it's very important to bring awareness to mental illness and drug addiction, I found this story confusing and hard to follow, so I don't think it was successful in conveying the messages the author was trying to. Jeff is schizophrenic, without any medication, and high on drugs a lot of the time so his thoughts are not easy to understand, since a lot of them are hallucinations, and the writing did not help with that.
Overall, I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. As I mentioned earlier, there are a couple good stories but most of them are really bad and offensive to myself and other groups of people, so I can't give it a higher rating.
The book is definitely suited for mature audiences since there is a lot of graphic sexual and other inappropriate content. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, but maybe someone who lived in California in the 1970s would enjoy the nostalgic aspect of it.
******
Tales of the Seventies
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Tales of the Seventies by David Done
