Your Duck Is My Duck

Stories

By: Deborah Eisenberg

Narrated by: Deborah Eisenberg, Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, Josh Hamilton

A much-anticipated collection of brilliantly observant short stories from one of the great American masters of the form, performed by a remarkable cast: Deborah Eisenberg, Julianne Moore, Josh Hamilton, and Wallace Shawn.

At times raucously hilarious, at times charming and delightful, at times as solemn and mysterious as a pond at midnight, Deborah Eisenberg’s stories gently compel us to confront the most disturbing truths about ourselves—from our intimate lives as lovers, parents, and children, to our equally troubling roles as citizens on a violent, terrifying planet.

Each of the six stories in Your Duck is My Duck, her first collection since 2006, has the heft and complexity of a novel. With her own inexorable but utterly unpredictable logic and her almost uncanny ability to conjure the strange states of mind and emotion that constitute our daily consciousness, Eisenberg pulls us as if by gossamer threads through her characters—a tormented woman whose face determines her destiny; a group of film actors shocked to read a book about their past; a privileged young man who unexpectedly falls into a love affair with a human rights worker caught up in an all-consuming quest that he doesn't understand.

In Eisenberg’s world, the forces of money, sex, and power cannot be escaped, and the force of history, whether confronted or denied, cannot be evaded. No one writes better about time, tragedy and grief, and the indifferent but beautiful universe around us.

Very creative and unique stories

While I didn't love every story in the collection, I found the last three to be some of the most interesting and satisfying I've read in a long time. I wasn't thrilled by Ms. Eisenberg's narration (her voice has a raspy quality) but the other narrators were superb. I wish I had bought the book so that I could have reread certain wonderful passages.... so my final recommendation is to buy the book instead of listening to it.

Dazzling

And brilliantly narrated. I listened to it once and then went back to the beginning and listened a second time. The density and the daring rewards a second listen.

Senseless

The first story, titled same as the book, is fairly interesting and follows a familiar formula of wandering about playfully with the plot, finally to be neatly tied up in a ponderous final sentence. Not bad. The second story tries to cross between three different time periods without success of any kind. It not only is very difficult to follow but nothing about any of it gives the reader reason to want to make the extra effort to make sense of it. Well, I did try and went back and forth to try to figure out who may be saying what and in which time frame and why and finally grew so frustrated (and bored) that I just gave up. I must qualify this by saying I really enjoy experimental writing and even vagueness that allows for personalize insights by the reader, but this was none of those. It was just mush. Returning it.

No point. Just rambling. Not organized.

It's like the speaker just wants to hear herself talk. I kept waiting for her to get to a point but she never did. She rambles in a disorganized manner and doesn't set the scene when she changes location and skips time. I kept giving it a chance for the entire chapter 1 but I gave up. Maybe I am the wrong generation to find it interesting since I didn't recognize the "famous" people she mentioned...I'm 40 btw.