Friday, July 14, 2017

The Doorman's Repose

The Doorman's Repose. Chris Raschka. 2017. 184 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: On his first day as the new doorman at 777 Garden Avenue, Mr. Bunchley was a little nervous.

Premise/plot: The Doorman's Repose is a collection of short stories set at an apartment building in New York City. The stories are "The Doorman," "Fred and the Pigeons," "The Opera Singer Inspection," "The Forgotten Room," "Mouse Exchange," "Otis," "Anna and Pee Wee," "The Boiler," "Hot Water," and "The Doorman's Repose." Two of the stories star mice, the rest star human characters of all ages. Each story offers readers something unique. Perhaps not every reader will love every story. But I think there's enough variety that everyone will find at least one story to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. And the good thing about a story collection is that if you're not enjoying one story, you can just skip to the next.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. I think my favorite stories were "Otis" and "The Opera Singer Inspection." I also enjoyed "The Doorman," "Fred and the Pigeons," and "Anna and Pee Wee." I liked the unique perspective of Otis. The story isn't told exclusively from the point of view of the elevator, but, it is a main character. I liked that this story--like a few others--has a touch of romance in it. "The Opera Singer Inspection" just delighted me start to finish. I found it amusing.
© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Alex said...

Thanks for this great review. I got a copy of this book at Book Expo and recommended Charlotte Sometimes to the author while I was chatting with him. Now, I am really curious to read The Doorman's Repose.