Review: "When the Nines Roll Over" by David Benioff

I really hope, after reading such an excellent collection, that David Benioff will divide his work between movie scripts and novels/short stories, cause the more people like him pumping out plot driven stories with heart and insight is nothing but good news to those who love to read. I first read his work last year with The 25^th Hour (both the movie and the book are excellent and compliment each other well). That book is simply amazing and really established him as one of the best modern storytellers along with more famous names like Chabon and Lethem. His stories are never hard to read, easy to understand and you are never bogged down with inane details or confusing literary techniques. They also have a very cinematic quality, and should translate easily onto the big screen. I wouldn’t be surprised if City of Thieves, his other novel (which I did not like at first, but my opinion might change after this book) isn’t being developed for a major motion picture as we speak. For now, we have this wonderful short story collection that is every bit as good as his wonderful novels. They vary in what the settings are and range from the hilarious to melancholic. Some of the standouts include “The Devil Comes to Orekhovo”, which has a newly enlisted Russian infantryman must make a drastic decisions to either save the life of an old woman or risk his life and his friends anonymity of their hideout in the house they just found. It has fantastical elements and is never boring, even if you do not like war stories. Itself could make an excellent movie. My favorite, and possibly saddest story is “The Barefoot Girl in Clover”, which has a former high school football star who lost his glory in a horrific neck injury, recall a girl he spent the day with when he skipped school. He tries to find out where she is, and when he does, it hits the reader like a gush of icy cold wind. Most likely because everyone has faced a similar situation when recalling our pasts, and knowing it is unchangeable. Very few collections I have read recently have been as easy to read and flow as smoothly as this one. It is also a lot more readable, since it offers some thing new and compelling with each new story, and there is definitely something here everyone will like. So go out by David Benioff’s books, and hopefully it will encourage him to write more.

Rating: 5/5