An awesome collection of eight short stories.
Heartbreaking and hilarious, these stories examine how we deceive ourselves and others all to arrive at something far more real.
I enjoyed them all. The writing is fluid, very well understood. I was never confused as a lot of short stories are. I think the author is an excellent writer, highly creative. I look forward to more books by him! My two favorites in this book were, a couple who adopt a depressed hedgehog and a girl whose father is a serial killer, he raises her to become the same..like father like daughter they say.

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Einsteins Beach House is a collection of short stories by Jacob M. Appel. The author does not provide a unifying rationale for why these particular stories fit together; it us up to the reader to decide or to determine that there is no need to ponder why the stories all fall under the same book cover and simply enjoy each on its own merit.

I thought about this as I was reading the stories that the author chose for the book and one unifying factor for me was damaged people influencing others around them. Take La Tristesse des Herissons, in which a mans live-in girlfriend adopts a hedgehog, decides that it is having psychological issues, and seeks out the advice of an expensive animal therapist for the beast. Contrast it with Sharing the Hostage, where one of the secrets of a new relationship is that the womans ex-husband has secured solo custody of their pet tortoise. Not all the stories are about animals, however the title tale deals with honest errors and confidence games.

I found most if not all of the stories to be interesting and enjoyable. I MUST call attention to the conclusion of the first tale, Hue and Cry. The author concludes his flashback tale with a sentence that effectively provides the fate of every character in the story without it seeming rushed or forced I am in awe of that single sentence.

RATING: 4 stars, and I debated giving it more before settling on this level.
DISCLOSURE: I received this book free of charge from the author with the request of posting a fair and unbiased review when I completed it. (There was an implication of promptly, but this was never mandated.)

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