What readers think of Thirteen Ways of Looking, plus links to write your own review.

Off to Shakespeare and Co. to buy everything that Colum Mc Cann has ever written !

As soon as one steps into these stories, it is apparent to readers of McCann that you are entering a world only he can create. He notices the little things in life, and in simple but brilliant prose relates these to the reader. It is this talent that lets readers thoroughly become one with the story.

In this collection he tackles some tough themes, the way a writer writes and where his ideas come from, aging and the mental and physical changes this beings. Memory and how it can be evoked by a simple image or story. My favorite was SH'khol, where a young mother and translator is working on a book that seems to correlate to her life when her young son goes missing. The most brutal was the last and it was at times difficult to read. There was little humor in most of these stories, but there was hope and that helped.

I originally gave this four stars but these are stories I have thought about throughout the last two days and that, plus the brilliant writing changed my rating to a five. There is one quote from my favorite story that I absolutely loved, but the publishers do not like the readers to quote from ARC's in case they are changes or modified. It is a quote about mothers and hopefully it will not be changed.