First, I enjoy following Elizabeth McCraken on Twitter. She’s a delight member of book Twitter, to be sure. Her humor and quirky point of view is also on display in this collection of short stories. Unfortunately, like many story collections, this one is uneven.

Elizabeth McCracken's latest book comprises 12 short stories, some linked. I'll call these the Jack and Sadie stories, and I'll admit that they're my favorites. From the moment Jack and Sadie meet, their banter clues us into their bond, and the relationship between the two develops over time, but it also maintains a sweet, veiled, and heart-aching fragility. Speaking of fragility, the nature -- sometimes fragile -- of family bonds is the thread running through all 12 stories. My favorite stand-alone has to be "Robinson Crusoe at the Waterpark," a story that showcases McCracken's wit and her astounding stable of characters. And as with any Elizabeth McCracken book I read, I have highlighted gem sentences, sentences that make me fall in love not only with these oh-so-human characters, but also with language itself. Behold:
"For the moment she had never felt anything more exquisite, this warm, buoyant raft heading out to sleep." -- from "The Irish Wedding"
"She had handed it down to her only son, like an ancestral christening gown that every generation must be photographed in." -- from "Robinson Crusoe at the Waterpark"
"The call of a grackle is known as a grackle: in the gloaming, the grackles grackle." -- from "A Walk-Through Human Heart"

short story collections are usually a hit or miss for me because I am usually left wanting more but I was pleasantly surprised at the attention to detail these stories provided. However, I found I only truly enjoyed a few of the stories - the remaining teetering on levels of odd. I was excited to pick up this ARC - thank you Ecco! - but I just didn’t completely jive with it.

thank you Ecco for the ARC in return for a honest review.

This is a beautiful collection of short stories. I am always impressed with writers who can take readers on a full emotional journey in just a handful of pages. As with most short story collections, I enjoyed and related to certain stories more than others. My favorites in this collection were The Irish Wedding (which caused me to laugh out loud a couple of times) and Robinson Crusoe at the Waterpark (which caused my heart to speed up at one part in the story, but then provided a relieving ending). A few of the stories left me wanting more or pondering what the intent was. I would recommend reading one or two of these stories a day, so you can really sink into them.


Thank you very much to NetGalley and Ecco for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

These are very good and stories with more than a few perfect passages - especially in the run of stories from "A Splinter" through "Robinson Crusoe at the Waterpark" (and I think these two were my favorites). Great depictions of relationships that were unstable-but-not-volatile, and very satisfying.

I am not really a short story reader but I would read McCracken's grocery list. She's her usual outrageously inventive self here in these stories, and every page crackles with wit and smarts.

Because this is a collection of short writings, it can be enjoyed in small batches, at the end of a day, between other obligations, as a means of escaping your daily grind.
The writing flows beautifully. The characters are well defined. There is a multitude of emotions expressed.
The stories are about relationships and experiences.

The Souvenir Museum


Disclaimer: I received an e-proof of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love short stories and was excited to read this book. The stories are well written and every sentence feels polished. I enjoyed the similarities between the stories, like relationships between parents and children, traveling, and cultural differences between Europeans and Americans. My favorite stories were “Proof,” which is about a father and son who go to Scotland, and “Birdsong from the Radio,” which is about a mother who loses her children. At times, some of the stories blurred together and didn’t stick out to me.

Elizabeth MCracken has always been relied upon for presenting well told contemporary stories, well known for her ability to create quirky, believable characters and life situations. I admit these are the first of her short fiction that I've read, and she does not disappoint. Each story could be used as a jumping off point for deeper inspection, and some that are overlapping almost give the impression that there may be a novel in the works somewhere, but each was satisfying, providing inner lives. Highly recommended.

Elizabeth McCracken has been writing well for more than 20 years. Her output consists of 3 novels, 3 short story collections - including this one - and a memoir. Her previous story collections, Thunderstruck and Here's Your Hat: What's Your Hurry, are vivid, varied and sometimes a bit strange and my hopes for this new one were fulfilled. Instead of a set of free standing works, this volume contains linked stories scattered among stand alones and they successfully give the book a cohesion and form a logical skeleton.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for the early ebook. This author has been one of my favorites for so many years. It was so nice to recently get her novel Bowlaway and it’s so much fun to read these stories. These stories, a few linked, show off her great humor and endlessly inventive characters, but always show real adults wrestling with very real issues, such as loss and how we handle it. It’s just always such a pleasure to spend any time with this author.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Love this collection just as I love all of McCracken's work.

Being a short fiction fan, Elizabeth McCracken has been on my list forever, so this book was a great introduction and all she's ever written is now on my TBR. A couple stories were a bit esoteric for me, though the standouts were Robinson Crusoe at the Waterpark and the title story. Loved McCracken's quirky characters and dark humor, along with use of language to say just enough but not too much, leaving the reader to fill in as many blanks as s/he wishes. Appreciated the common thread of loss and longing throughout all, and loved dipping in and out of Jack and Sadie's life between unrelated pieces and would get a small thrill when they'd appear again. The final of their stories has been on my mind since finishing and left me wanting so much more - possible novel??? Overall, 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Did not finish. Two stories in was no longer interested. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A collection of stories, many of them interlinked, in which characters confront the awkward truths of their lives, their relationships, and their desires. While some of the pieces featuring recurring characters become repetitive, there are also small gems in the collection, focusing on parenthood, marriage, and existential crisis.

I was so looking forward to this collection of short stories from one of my favorite writers and The Souvenir Museum did not disappoint. The stories in this collection are subtle and sharp: a woman is met with cultural differences on a trip to Ireland to attend a wedding, a father and son embark on an ornithological expedition in Scotland in search of puffins. These stories are about intimacies and how minute shifts can alter relationships. People are constantly in flux in these stories and McCracken wields control over language on a sentence by sentence, word by word level. The Souvenir Museum feels like a mature evolution of McCracken’s work. It’s a necessary and witty collection about relationships and how necessary interconnectedness is, even though it’s not always achievable.

I enjoyed this short story collection! All of the stories have a quick pace, and there's a nice wry humor throughout. i don't feel a lot of emotion in these stories, and the characters don't stay with me, but the stories feel more enjoyable when analyzed in terms of craft and language, rather than intimate connection. Though there are certainly some lovely insights, this collection feels more plot-based and quirky, which does make for a pleasant and quick read!