All That Man Is : A Novel (Paperback)

from bodachliath

Having finished reading this year (2017)'s Man Booker shortlist, I decided to go back to the one that eluded me last year. I recall that at the time much of the debate was about whether such a disconnected set of stories should be regarded as a novel, and having read it now I am not entirely conv...

from bibliobibuli

Can just imagine Szalay's publisher telling him that short story collections don't sell - why not drop the story titles and replace them with parts and chapters. Having said that, I'm really happy to see a short story collection on the Booker shortlist and the book deserves to be there more than ...

from alexrichman

Not a novel, really, but short stories spanning the ages of Man. As with most collections, the quality varies wildly - the journalist's tale stood out as particularly makeweight - but the first two stories are so good that I was still well disposed to the book by the end.

from Eyejaybee

Throughout most of the book, David Szalay's novel really seems to be nine separate short stories. Each section focuses on a different man facing a mental quandary, brought about largely by their own actions and behaviours. The men are all very different, varying in age, nationality and social or ...

from Opinionated

Beautifully written, but ultimately unsatisfying, this collection of short pieces could have been titled " The General Uselessness of Men". All that man is, suggests David Szalay, is ultimately not very much at all. Having just read "The Girls" by Emma Cline - where there is nary a male character...