After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish.

When Characters Reveal and Disguise Themselves

I believe that the short story is one of the most difficult writing techniques to create. The writer does not have hundreds of pages to establish a character(s), introduce them to the reader and create a plot or problem of importance. The writer concludes with an ending that either resolves the issues presented or piques the reader's curiosity. The short story writer usually has thirty to sixty pages to create characters, design a plot and produce a denouement. If the story is written with great talent, it can make a profound impression. Think of O.Henry short stories, Guy de Maupassant, Shirley Jackson, Anton Chekhov, Alice Munro and many more.

In this superior collection, Elizabeth McCracken gives us characters who have been relocated from their usual countries or cities. Many of them find themselves in foreign groups with strange customs and attitudes. The first story, “The Irish Wedding,” is a good example. It starts out with Sadie driving with her “fiancé” Jack Valerts to a family wedding. The setting is remarkable, the Valerts are smart but often threatening. Sadie powers ahead and keeps up with them physically in a muddy, drenched terrain and finds herself confident but unsure of Jack. Surprisingly we meet Jack and Sadie again in the last story.

In between, there are other stories of enduring love, two gay men with their four-year-old son, Louis, an older man, who is failing but, with his son, is a participant on an expedition where neither of them are skilled. None of us choose our families but many spend a whole life with them. Excellent collection, highly recommended.

My gratitude to NetGalley and Ecco/HarperCollins for this pre-published copy . All opinions are my own,

This book converted me! I, the one who doesn't like short stories, loved this book. I always had issue with short stories because I would feel like there wasn't enough substance packed in them to feel the impact of them. And here came this book to show me how it is done!

Collection starts with Jack and Sadie attending one of the Jack's sister's wedding, and it goes back to them after every few stand alone stories. Stand alone stories vary from stories about different family set-ups, loss of children and parents, loss in multiple different senses and different walks of lives spread over multiple countries. Maybe having Jack and Sadie as an anchor made me love this collection more. At the end, I was able to put a period at the end of each story instead of having million questions.

If this collection converted me, I don't know what it will do to people who actually enjoy short stories. I highly recommend everyone to give it a chance!

In all honesty, I usually do not read short stories. I prefer novels, their pace, plot and character development. However, this book came to me as an ARC from NetGalley, and as I was familiar with the author, having read The Giant's House years ago, so I decided to give it a try. This is a collection of 12 quirky, touching stories about a variety of off-beat characters in interesting, and sometimes unusual, life circumstances. Any one of them could have been a part of a longer narrative, I would love to read more about several of the characters, particularly Sadie and Jack, who get 2 stories 10 years apart. While it did not win me over to reading more short story collections, it reminded me of what a compelling writer Elizabeth McCracken is.

I'm so sorry but this book was not for me. I'm sure it's a good one, but it came to the wrong person. I wish the author the best luck with other readers. I'm sure it will be a success.
Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this collection of short stories, especially the link stories of Sadie and Jack. These stories all center on family, career, love in all its forms, and loss. Aging family members, family in crisis, family just living life - these stories managed to be intriguing but completely relatable. Some parts were laugh out loud funny, while others heartbreaking. I really appreciate and enjoyed McCracken's span of emotions throughout these stories.

A collection of short stories about family and travels. They were laugh out loud funny. Most of them were very relatable.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC

Elizabeth McCracken is one of my favorite authors but I was somehow convinced that she'd peaked. I was so wrong! This book is an incredible collection of short stories. I laughed, cried, and re-read so many of these. Wonderful.

The Souvenir Museum is a collection of short stories, some delightful, some sad and all with compassion.
Loved reading them and enjoyed this collection. Thank you #NetGalley

I loved this witty and engrossing book of short stories. McCracken ranges all over the world and depicts each place so vividly. I didn't want it to end.

The Souvenir Museum
Stories
by Elizabeth McCracken
Ecco
You Are Auto-Approved
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction
Pub Date 13 Apr 2021 | Archive Date 08 Jun 2021

SAdly, this book was not for me. I enjoyed a few of the stories but not enough to give this a high rating.
Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for the ARC.

3star

A stirring examination of love and family and the seeming impossibilities of both. McCracken writes complex and complicated relationships so well, and captures prickly characters on the page in a way that still manages to be poignant and heart-stirring. The four linked stories in this book featuring Jack and Sadie at various points in their relationship were my absolute favorite. I loved this collection. Though I must say, I was constantly caught off-guard by the frequent instances of suicide and suicidal thoughts, as well as dead and dying children. I don't always offer trigger warnings to my readers, but i would have appreciated a warning on this one, and will be offering the same.

Many thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for the advance copy for The Souvenir Museum.

Unfortunately, this did not work for me. I have read a few books by McCracken with mixed reviews and was excited to see if this collection could turn it around for me. Some stories were ok (A Splinter, Robinson Crusoe at the Waterpark), others I couldn’t make it through (The Irish Wedding). Not for me but I think others may enjoy!

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 McCracken

Twenty 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.

I typically like compilations of short stories quite well but this one just did not do it for me. I don't know if it was me or what. Probably so because I have heard good things about this book and was eager to read it.

I am going to give it two stars because I think it was written just fine, but for whatever reason it didn't resonate with me.

I very much appreciate the opportunity to read and review here on Netgalley. Thank you!

I was given the opportunity to read and review this book through Net Galley and I am so glad! The story sucked you in and you'll find yourself thinking about the characters long after you finish the book. Can't wait to read more by this author!!

What a phenomenal collection of short stories. I had no idea what to expect because I had never read anything by McCracken. I was instantly hooked. Each story is about a mercurial family unit. The first story is about a wedding, an American woman traveling to Ireland to get married into an English family. McCracken reveals so much with the smallest of details about the family, the many years and layers of history, the resultant grudges but also the deep understanding that only families can have of each other. Even if you aren’t a short story fan you will probably like this, each story is as dense and layered as a novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy.

I’m not sure what to make of The Souvenir Museum. It was an interesting collection of stories with underlying common themes of familial relationships including the love, loss, and strength of bonds between fathers and sons, mothers and their children, marriage, siblings, etc. Some were interconnected and many were filled with past memories often featuring flashbacks within cross-cultural settings and quirky, yet clever, social critiques. Others seemingly rambled for pages and I tried to follow only to land at a rather abrupt ending. It may have just been me but I would have preferred a bit more closure/resolution.

This is my first time reading the author and while this collection didn’t really appeal to me, I’m willing to give her other works a try.

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“Outside the car the rain was friendlier than it had been on the car windows, over friendly, wet and insinuating, running its fingers through their hair and down the backs of their colors.” Great dialogue, get a good sense of the characters from the onset of the novel. Looking forward to digging in more.

This book was not for me. Elizabeth McCracken's absurdism has worked beautifully in the past, but these individual stories were disjointed and difficult to follow. I loved Bowlaway, so this was a big disappointment.