My Life in Heavy Metal

Steve Almond

To start off with the weak point of Steve Almond's story collection: there's really nothing here you haven't seen before. Almond's stories are the kind of slice-of-life nothing-happens stories written by, it seems, every author on the planet who's written a word at any point past 1983. This has a tendency to make them light reading at best, predictable and boring at worst.

The strong point, on the other hand, is Almond's sense of voice. Each of these stories contains a narrator with an exceptionally distinctive voice. This may be masked by the voice of the narrator of the title story (the first in the collection), who's just a regular guy. But after a couple more, you start to realize how different the characters' voices are from one another, from the brash, unlikable office worker who narrates "Geek Player, Love Slayer," to the interior voice of the narrator of "The Pass," whose voice will, in your head, sound exactly like the guy who narrated all those film strips you watched in grammar school science.

If plot is a literary device secondary to characterization for you, there will be a good deal to like for you in this collection. If you like your stuff primarily plot-driven, however, you may be best advised to look elsewhere.