Alli's CBR-III Review #44 - Fame

I was tricked into reading another short story collection because the title indicated that it was a novel in 9 episodes. However in this case I was pleased with the collection overall. A couple of the stories I skimmed through a bit but most were engaging and the writing was quite outstanding.

This collection was translated from German. I always wonder in these cases how difficult it must be to translate and not make the text too much of your own. Also how much of my enjoyment of the book came from Carol Brown Janeway's influence on the text.

One of the reasons that I enjoyed this collection was because the stories did tie into each other to a certain extent. I don't want to spoil too many of the details, but the first story is of a man who purchases his first cell phone only to find that the number belongs to another person. This person ends up being a movie star, not that this man really knows that. He answers the calls, makes dates for the owner of the phone number and causes general havoc in the other person's life. A few stories down the road in the book and we see the other side of this story.

There is also a rather amusing story that is the other half of a tale of a writer that cancels an appearance in an obscure foreign land. Let's just say that the writer that decided to replace him on a whim very much regrets that choice.

Overall, I would recommend giving this one a go, it was a humorous and fast read.