by Leonardo Sciascia
ages: adult
First sentence: ‘Your Majesty,’ said the Minister of State Santangelo, tapping Ferdinand lightly on the shoulder with one finger, ‘this is Grotte.'”
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I’m not a fan of short stories. I don’t know why that is, really. Perhaps it’s because I feel disjointed from one story to the next — I do better when the stories are interconnected. Or perhaps, it’s just that there’s not enough meat there for me.
So, keeping that in mind, I really didn’t care all that much for this collection of stories. Sure, they were a slice of Sicily — from the mafia to the ups and downs of everyday life — but most of them fell quite flat. I did like the title story, however. It was a tale of a man who bonds with a family and their nanny on the way to Sicily. It’s sweet, it’s funny, and enjoyable to read. Some of the other ones — Guifa and End-Game, are ones that I think of off the top of my head — are cleverly written, but a bit strange. The rest ranged from “meh” to “I think I’m going to skip this one.”
Perhaps it’s the translation? Nah… it’s probably just me. And my short-story issues.
The Book Nut 
I have the same short story issue (although not, perhaps, to the degree you do). Even if I really like a particular story, I end up disgruntled because it isn't a book. But now I've written that, I can think of two exceptions–Ursula Le Guin and Connie Willis. And I enjoyed Laini Taylor's Lips Touch, but only the first of the three stories there was short…
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I don't like short stories either. They're just too . . . short. Even The Brooklyn Nine book in which the short stories were interconnected left me wanting to know more about particular characters and feeling a bit shortchanged.
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I'm like that about short stories, too. I like to really immerse myself in a story, so your average disconnected short story doesn't work for me. I was so happy when I learned that the 3 stories in Let It Snow were connected, I can't even tell you.
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