'The Janus Tree and other stories'

I thought it to be a generally fine collection, bar the stories "Miss Ill-Kept Runt" (which felt unsubstantially developed), "The Pikesville Buffalo" (which seemed to be trying a little too hard to be 'poignant', and 'deal with human loss' and so on), and "Like Lick Em Sticks, Like Tina Fey" (which was mainly just pretty bad). The title story (except for one metaphor on p. 18, which rings somewhat false in my opinion), and, especially, "The Nimble Men" are brilliant, and the rest of the stories are very much above average. A writer I will definitely read more by Hirshberg.
 
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