Why Visit America

Stories

De: Matthew Baker

Narrado por: Peter Ganim

Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Why Visit America form an exegesis of our current political predicament while offering an eloquent plea for connection and hope.

The citizens of Plainfield, Texas, have had it with the broke-down United States. So they vote to secede, rename themselves America in memory of their former country, and happily set themselves up to receive tourists from their closest neighbor: America. Couldn’t happen? Well, it might, and so it goes in the 13 stories in Matthew Baker’s brilliantly illuminating, incisive, and heartbreaking collection Why Visit America.

The audiobook opens with a seemingly traditional story in which the speculative element is extremely minimal - the narrator has a job that doesn’t actually exist - a story that wouldn’t seem much out of place in a collection of literary realism. From there the stories get progressively stranger: A young man breaks the news to his family that he is going to transition - from an analog body to a digital existence. A young woman abducts a child - her own - from a government-run childcare facility. A man returns home after committing a great crime, his sentence being that his memory - his entire life - is wiped clean.

As the audiobook moves from universe to universe, the stories cross between different American genres: from bildungsroman to rom-com, Western to dystopian, including fantasy, horror, erotica, and a noir detective mystery. Listened to together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of the true nature of the United States and a Through the Looking-Glass reflection of who we are as a country.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

©2020 Matthew Baker (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Creative and genuine

I don’t usually go for short stories, I find they’re sometimes underdeveloped or feel unfinished.
Most of the short stories in this book aren’t quite like that.
There were a few stories in this book that I did feel were unfinished, but none of them were underdeveloped. The author managed to make a small twist in reality in each and one of those which resulted in a highly interesting and creative world. I also thought that characters in all of the stories were extremely fleshed out and genuine. It was very easy to feel for them, even in the really short ones, which is quite an accomplishment.
I personally didn’t like the 2 longer stories toward the end of the book, but then the last (and shorter) story was so heart wrenching and creative, I forgave the previous ones.
Overall, a very distinctive voice with creative ideas and characters you care about. I give it 4 and not 5 stars simply because, as I said, I didn’t quite love all of the stories. But all the rest were absolutely excellent.

The narrator was also excellent.