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Faulty Predictions: Stories
In Karin Lin-Greenberg’s Faulty Predictions, young characters try to find their way in the world and older characters confront regrets. In “Editorial Decisions,” members of the editorial board of a high school literary magazine are witnesses to an unspeakable act of violence. Two grandmothers, both immigrants from China, argue over the value of their treasures at a filming of Antiques Roadshow in “Prized Possessions.” In “A Good Brother,” a sister forces her brother to accompany her to the Running of the Brides at Filene’s Basement. A city bus driver adopts a pig that has been brought onto the bus by rowdy college students in “Designated Driver.”
The stories in Faulty Predictions take place in locales as diverse as small-town Ohio, the mountains of western North Carolina, and the plains of Kansas. Lin-Greenberg provides insight into the human condition over a variedcross section of geography, age, and culture. Although the characters are often faced with obstacles and challenges, the stories also capture moments of optimism and hope.
The stories in Faulty Predictions take place in locales as diverse as small-town Ohio, the mountains of western North Carolina, and the plains of Kansas. Lin-Greenberg provides insight into the human condition over a variedcross section of geography, age, and culture. Although the characters are often faced with obstacles and challenges, the stories also capture moments of optimism and hope.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2014
About the author
Karin Lin-Greenberg
8 books103 followersKarin Lin-Greenberg’s story collection Faulty Predictions won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and her story collection Vanished won the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize. Her novel You Are Here is forthcoming. She lives in upstate New York and is an associate professor at Siena College.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 31, 2014
Read my full review here: http://readherlikeanopenbook.com/2014...
This collection of ten short stories announces the arrival of a talented young writer with a distinctive narrative voice. Karin Lin-Greenberg, a professor at Siena College in New York, won the 2014 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and it’s easy to see why. She is a gifted storyteller.
Unlike so many story collections today, which tend to the dark and cryptic, Faulty Predictions pulses with a bemused energy. Lin-Greenberg’s stories examine the foibles of a wide range of characters.
This collection of ten short stories announces the arrival of a talented young writer with a distinctive narrative voice. Karin Lin-Greenberg, a professor at Siena College in New York, won the 2014 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and it’s easy to see why. She is a gifted storyteller.
Unlike so many story collections today, which tend to the dark and cryptic, Faulty Predictions pulses with a bemused energy. Lin-Greenberg’s stories examine the foibles of a wide range of characters.
August 29, 2015
A memorable, accomplished debut collection with much humor and insight into the human heart's most private chambers. Lin-Greenberg's subversive humor is in evidence in just about every story, but above all, there is an abiding humaneness here that deeply impressed me.
August 27, 2017
This book is so good! It is now one of my all time favorite story collections.
March 7, 2016
Faulty Predictions is a well written, put-together collection of short stories. Personally, I think the title is the perfect name for this collection. Each story turns out differently than I had expected; I did not predict the endings correctly. Most short stories I’ve read have a bit darker tone and ending to them, so it was a relief to have a change of pace in this regards, as most of Lin-Greenberg’s stories ended on a note of happiness, or recognizing a change needed in the characters to make their lives better. There is humor among the life-realizations that are happening, and I like how the connections between characters grow in each story. As her first published work, Faulty Predictions is an engaging, thought-provoking collection of short stories, and Lin-Greenberg gets right to the heart of her characters in a way I haven’t experienced in quite some time.
“Editorial Decisions” is definitely a strong story to start the collection off of, setting up the tone for the rest of the stories. Lin-Greenberg shows how even though tragedy occurs, there is still life afterwards, and how even the smallest actions by one person can greatly affect another in a way they could never have imagined. I feel like this story does not end on a happy note, unlike the others in the collection, but it’s very effective in making the readers think about their own lives, and in this way, Lin-Greenberg is successful. I especially like how, in this story, no names are given out. It shows how this situation can happen to anyone, and how we should always think about our actions and how they can affect others, in good or bad ways.
I really enjoy every short story that Lin-Greenberg has added into her collection, but “Designated Driver” and “Bread” are probably my favorites. Second-person point of view is used perfectly in “Designated Driver,” and I really felt like I was in the story with the main character. I like how, by the end, she is trying to get her life back together, and how there is hope that she can change. I love the message in “Bread,” how, again, even the smallest of actions can have an effect on the world around us. Yeah, crushing old bags of bread isn’t the most effective way to change the world, but it’s the feeling of making a difference for the better that Lin-Greenberg is trying to communicate with us, and she does so successfully in a unique way.
While reading the last story in the collection, “Half and Half Club,” I was not sure if this was the strongest story to end on, but by the time I finished the short story, with the sisters connecting again, I was very happy with this choice. After all her short stories, Lin-Greenberg ends on connecting to the people around us, and thinking about how we can change our lives for the better. I love the overall tone and messages that Karin Lin-Greenberg has in Faulty Predictions, and it is a very inspiring and intriguing short story collection.
“Editorial Decisions” is definitely a strong story to start the collection off of, setting up the tone for the rest of the stories. Lin-Greenberg shows how even though tragedy occurs, there is still life afterwards, and how even the smallest actions by one person can greatly affect another in a way they could never have imagined. I feel like this story does not end on a happy note, unlike the others in the collection, but it’s very effective in making the readers think about their own lives, and in this way, Lin-Greenberg is successful. I especially like how, in this story, no names are given out. It shows how this situation can happen to anyone, and how we should always think about our actions and how they can affect others, in good or bad ways.
I really enjoy every short story that Lin-Greenberg has added into her collection, but “Designated Driver” and “Bread” are probably my favorites. Second-person point of view is used perfectly in “Designated Driver,” and I really felt like I was in the story with the main character. I like how, by the end, she is trying to get her life back together, and how there is hope that she can change. I love the message in “Bread,” how, again, even the smallest of actions can have an effect on the world around us. Yeah, crushing old bags of bread isn’t the most effective way to change the world, but it’s the feeling of making a difference for the better that Lin-Greenberg is trying to communicate with us, and she does so successfully in a unique way.
While reading the last story in the collection, “Half and Half Club,” I was not sure if this was the strongest story to end on, but by the time I finished the short story, with the sisters connecting again, I was very happy with this choice. After all her short stories, Lin-Greenberg ends on connecting to the people around us, and thinking about how we can change our lives for the better. I love the overall tone and messages that Karin Lin-Greenberg has in Faulty Predictions, and it is a very inspiring and intriguing short story collection.
March 24, 2017
★★.5
This is a group of short stories set in the US, and the title of the book is also the title of one of the stories. And, to be fair to this review, it’s hard to win high points from me in a collection of short stories since in fiction I am first and foremost a novel reader. If I were to rate the stories individually, the stories themselves would get between 1 and 5 stars, but for the overall book 2 ½ stars. There were more 1 and 2 star stories than 4 and 5.
On part of the jacket is written, “Lin-Greenberg provides insight into the human condition across a varied cross section of geography, age, and culture.” I’d say yes, but biased. At times the insights were quite excellent, particularly when dealing with things I suspect are closer to Lin-Greenberg’s own experiences, but one of the reasons I’ve given this two stars through all of it there is a clear bias toward liberals tending to be kinder and more giving and conservatives selfish and bigoted. Perhaps because I don’t ascribe to any set political group and therefore have a different bias, I’ve seen all four of those traits across the board, although not necessarily in all people. I suspect Lin-Greenberg has as well, but these are the characters she has chosen to write.
If you are a fan of literary short fiction, you may well like this book more than I did. To be honest, I chose it for a reading challenge that included reading a book by an author who shares my first name. Since I am neither a fan of thrillers (Karin Slaughter, who may be an excellent writer, but that’s not my cup of tea) nor romance novels (I found more than one of those) and Lin-Greenberg is the first I found where I thought I might find a closer match.
This is a group of short stories set in the US, and the title of the book is also the title of one of the stories. And, to be fair to this review, it’s hard to win high points from me in a collection of short stories since in fiction I am first and foremost a novel reader. If I were to rate the stories individually, the stories themselves would get between 1 and 5 stars, but for the overall book 2 ½ stars. There were more 1 and 2 star stories than 4 and 5.
On part of the jacket is written, “Lin-Greenberg provides insight into the human condition across a varied cross section of geography, age, and culture.” I’d say yes, but biased. At times the insights were quite excellent, particularly when dealing with things I suspect are closer to Lin-Greenberg’s own experiences, but one of the reasons I’ve given this two stars through all of it there is a clear bias toward liberals tending to be kinder and more giving and conservatives selfish and bigoted. Perhaps because I don’t ascribe to any set political group and therefore have a different bias, I’ve seen all four of those traits across the board, although not necessarily in all people. I suspect Lin-Greenberg has as well, but these are the characters she has chosen to write.
If you are a fan of literary short fiction, you may well like this book more than I did. To be honest, I chose it for a reading challenge that included reading a book by an author who shares my first name. Since I am neither a fan of thrillers (Karin Slaughter, who may be an excellent writer, but that’s not my cup of tea) nor romance novels (I found more than one of those) and Lin-Greenberg is the first I found where I thought I might find a closer match.
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July 18, 2015Karin Lin-Greenberg's stories have a deceptively gentle and comic surface--she's an adept satirist and catches the quirky ways in which people converse and interact in a wide variety of settings. But percolating beneath is a lot of feeling, above all the feeling of grief over imperfect human connection. The range of protagonists here is impressive--young men, elderly women, and Chinese immigrants; bus drivers and the offspring of the famous. Lin-Greenberg seems to have the confidence and imagination to go most anywhere. Sometimes, there's a surprising and very effective twist at the end, as in "Editorial Decisions," or, more quietly, "Bread," one of my favorite stories in the collection, along with "Prized Possessions" and "Designated Driver."
December 29, 2018
Every story in this collection was excellent. For aspiring writers, it is an exercise in handling point of view and balancing internality and externality. The characters will stay with me forever. Well done.
May 6, 2018
This was hard for me to get through. Half the stories were very boring and lagged. The other half was good. So, right down the middle for me.
October 6, 2023
clunky
April 26, 2015
I'm totally biased because Karin was my best friend in college. However, her stories are excellent. The language is straightforward yet effective at creating a compelling picture. Her characters are normal people, recognizable, and their trials provoke emotion and the acknowledgement that the everyday is beautiful and that every person has multitudes of things going on below the surface. It reminded me of the best episodes of Story Corps, where the beauty of everyday life makes me cry.
May 3, 2015
I know I'm in luck when I'm laughing out loud at the first paragraph and have to read it out loud to my partner. This collection mostly lives up to that initial promise. Definitely an author to watch.
February 21, 2015
This is an enjoyable collection of stories involving everyday people and the connections they have whether they know it or not.The stories go by quickly and are easy reads.
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May 23, 2015If Tom Perrotta and Flannery O'Connor had a book baby, it would look a lot like this wonderful collection.
July 23, 2015
Beautiful and poignant stories, I'm glad I picked this up because I had thought the cover was interesting.
April 19, 2016
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews