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Every story is a thought experiment—like the best episodes of Twilight Zone. I was completely absorbed. I still talk about stories in this collection. "The Great Silence," the story from the perspective of a (critically endangered) Puerto Rican parrot, left me choked up. "Omphalos," a pseudo-epistolary story from a timeline where creationism is real and science and religion are closely intertwined. I'm still telling people about those about 4 months after reading them.

Haruki Murakami has said that the title story in this collection is his favorite short story. The vibe of this collection of short-stories is uneasy—it left me on edge. Something is about to go wrong. But I was rapt through every story. With austere writing and heartbreaking narrative Carver reveals sad vignettes of lonely protagonists. Definitely worth a read.