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Ten Stories About Smoking (Boxed Edition)
 
 
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Ten Stories About Smoking (Boxed Edition) [Paperback]

Stuart Evers
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Picador (4 Mar 2011)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330525158
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330525152
  • Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 18.9 x 2.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 81,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stuart Evers
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Review

'Stuart Evers' deft debut collection is transatlantic in its influences and obsessions. Raymond Carver and Alice Munro echo throughout these short, sad stories about cigarettes... This exquisite slice of Anglo-Americana deserves to be read.' --New Statesman

'A Swindon motel, a pub in Benidorm and a Las Vegas casino are among the settings for these wistful tales of white-collar heartache... A final tale weaves US author Raymond Carver's death from lung cancer into the story of an Englishman whose racist father is dying. The stunt lets you know what sort of company this first time writer aims to keep: it's a sign of his promise that he gets away with it.' --Metro

'The stories don't disappoint, far from it - inhaling each story is a hauntingly wonderful experience; each muses with pensive melancholy on life - on love, betrayal, destruction and seduction - and circumnavigates the central tenet that there's a certain empty (and destructive?) hollowness lurking at the centre of human emotion and existence, however intense or robust they may seem. Much like a cigarette itself. Moving and thought provoking, there's a beautiful delicacy to the way these tales of disaffection burn down to the filter, searing to the core of fragile human sensitivity like a butt stubbed out on the flesh.' --easyliving.com

'The solid construction and Evers's confidence are impressive. His next move will be worth watching.' --Financial Times

'When a book is so beautifully designed - this collection of short stories comes as a flip-top packet of cigarettes - I have an unfair suspicion that the publishers are seeking to divert my attention from meagre content to exceptional presentation. Not so here: Stuart Evers' debut is strong in itself and bodes well for future publications... Brilliantly restrained and emotionally mature, I wish this had been a packet of 20, not ten.' --Scotland on Sunday

'Heartbreak, loss and longing are the themes of Evers' debut collection of short stories, which deal with the sadness and emptiness of modern life. Powerfully understated.' --Marie Claire

'Ten Stories About Smoking is a remarkably assured collection. Evers has developed a subtle, minimalist style loaded with implication - a versatile instrument capable of expressing humour and pathos in equal measure ... It is strange, at a time when we are told the average attention span is decreasing, a result of our exposure to social networking sites and other digital media, that short stories are not more popular than ever. Ten Stories About Smoking looks likely to precipitate renewed interest in the form: these stylish, quintessentially urban tales remind us what was so good about it in the first place' --GQ.com

'This week we're...almost lighting up at the prospect of Stuart Evers's debut collection of fiction, which comes in a flip-top cigarette packet-style box (top marks for Mr Picador Designer.) We also recommend his find literary blog at stuartevers.blogspot.com' --The Herald

'The fuss that Picador is making about Evers's book (which extends to packaging it beautifully in a mock cigarette-box) is unusual enough for a debut work - but almost unheard of when the debut is a short story collection. Once you read it, though, the excitement is easy to understand. Evers happily acknowledges the influence of such American masters of short fiction as Raymond Carver, John Cheever and Richard Yates. Yet, by applying the same unshowy precision to alarmingly recognisable British lives, he achieves something both original and quietly devastating.' --Daily Telegraph

'A stripped-down and perceptive collection that's already gained praise from American writers like Wells Tower and David Vann, it's an impressive and controlled debut. Evers' understated prose and keen eye for detail tap into universal themes of loneliness and desperation, albeit with a deadpan streak of humour running throughout, making this a genuinely impressive debut.' --Big Issue

'Several of the stories are outstanding, some are profound, none harangue, and collectively they will impress . . . touching, true and shocking in their humanity. Living is difficult. Most of us are frightened. Here is a book that comes in a cigarette pack that not only makes more sense of life, it delights the mind' --Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'If I were a nicotine junkie, the cigarette-box packaging would be enough to cause anticipatory Pavlovian drooling. The stories brim with yearning. Evers avoids cliché, illuminating tales with sparks of surprise. His writing is sequined with sparkling descriptions' --Independent on Sunday

'A sort of sparse utility makes Evers' prose so compelling. He can be funny, but his world view is bleak. It's a rich sort of bleakness, though, saturated with nostalgia.' --The Times

'I enjoyed the ten tales, with their musing, film noir atmosphere; Evers is a deft, spare writer.' --Daily Mail

'Ten Stories about Smoking is an original debut, several of the stories are outstanding, some are profound ... Book covers are designed to catch the eye, the witty, innovative packaging of Ten Stories About Smoking has done exactly that. The stories are equally impressive, touching, true and shocking in their humanity . . . Living is difficult. Most of us are frightened. Smokers may appear more daring because they risk their lives. But here is a book that comes in a cigarette pack that not only makes more sense of life, it will delight the mind, and certainly winds the argument that reading about cigarettes is far safer than actually smoking.' --Eileen Batterby, The Irish Times

'Raymond Carver's influence is strong throughout, culminating in the final story in which Carver himself appears, dying of lung cancer and reflecting upon what would be his own final story, "Errand" (itself a homage to a man in his last hours, Chekhov). It's a dark joke of Evers's to put it at the end here. Download it on your Kindle if you must, but the book's design is worth a comment. The paperback comes in its own sturdy flip-top carton designed to resemble a giant cigarette packet. This could have made for a gimmicky disaster, but the result is oddly pleasing: it's impossible to resist the urge to tuck the book back into its box between stories. Packaged like a guilty, disposable indulgence, the collection reminds us that the short story is perfect for bringing some colour and imagination into a day, and that we are never, ever too busy to read - nip out for a five-minute break; snatch a sneaky story with a glass of wine. The tales in this collection are observant and understated, and all in the time it takes to have a fag.' --Guardian

'In this impressive debut, Stuart Evers presents us with a range of narrators whose voices are immediately captivating. His prose effortlessly draws you into each character's emotional microcosm, whether it's the blunt, stilted reflections of a bereaved man searching for a long-lost brother or a sleepless woman smoking her way through a burden of inherited guilt . . . Evers has written a collection of stories which are surprisingly intense and affecting; they may be short-lived but, like the best writing, they linger in the mind.' --Telegraph.co.uk

`The stories in Evers's staggeringly impressive debut capture characters just at the point, in their early 30s, when their youth is undeniably over. Which is where the smoking comes in. Throughout the book, cigarettes represent a more carefree time...Fortunately, though, Evers never labours the points. Instead, the sharpness - and quiet sympathy - of his writing lets the poignancy speak for itself. The result could well make the most hardened of ex-smokers miss the day of cheerful puffing away.' --Daily Mail

Product Description

Distilled, distinctive and a little bit dangerous, a box of love and cigarettes from a bright new voice in British fiction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Zip Domingo VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
First of all apologies for being grumpy over this, but I think the packaging is a gimmick too far. I'm sure it's a good marketing technique, but the quality of these stories stand up on their own and don't need to be in a book packaged up as a box of cigarettes.

Anyway, grump over and I realise I may well be in a minority of one.

Whatever, short story collections of this sort these days seem to be immediately short-handed as `Carveresque;' indeed the last of Stuart Evers stories, The Last Cigarette,' features Raymond Carver himself, sharing the tale with a juxtapositioned hospitalised father back in the UK, both terminally ill and enjoying what they expect to be their `last cigarette.'

Although the style and tone of the stories are definitely rooted in the American short story, I found them not so much in the style of Carver, but more metropolitan and brooding in a `middle-class' fashion than Carver's more desparate, parochial studies in human disintegration.

In that way, the stories of Jay McInerney spring more to mind as Evers reference point than Carver. What Ever's does generate though, is a strong and well sustained air of studied melancholy and detachment in the best of trans-Atlantic traditions. And the common theme is not so much one of loss, but a sense of not knowing what you want and being unable to find a way of defining it, in the best of post-modern traditions.

There is in some stories however a rather tenuous link to smoking, as if cigarettes have been introduced as a peripheral issue in order to give the short story collection a common theme [another good marketing ploy], although the strongest stories such as 'The Last Cigarette' are the ones that put smoking cigarettes central to the whole point of the tale.

In this vein, one of the most affecting stories is `What's In Swindon,' which is also one of the shortest, which charts the brief reunion of two former lovers in a Swindon hotel to see if they can rediscover what they had previously lost. The woman who organised it finds they can't and I won't spoil it by telling you the reason why, but it's not for the reason you'd expect...

This is on the whole a very satisfying read and so far as literary calling cards go, a huge success for Evers. The simplicity and sustained atmosphere of the stories leaves one feeling as if you have as much read a novel as a short story collection, which to my mind gives you the best of both worlds.

I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next, as we need some new British writers breaking out and doing this sort of thing, rather than obsessing about writing books about the petit-bourgeoisie that will win the Booker prize.
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By Josephine Huys VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Initially I must confess I ordered that book purely because of the cute cigarette pack-like packaging. I am not a great fan of short stories and enjoyed most of the ones in this volume, but again felt that familiar frustration at the shortness. Just when you get comfortable in a story, oops it's over. As other reviewers have said, smoking is always around but in no way the central theme of the stories. They're more moody slices of life, some very good, some disappointing. On the whole I would recommend that book if you need an easy to get into book while not dwelling too much on content...as enjoyable and forgettable as a cigarette perhaps!
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Format:Paperback
As plenty of other reviewers have already pointed out, both the packaging and title of "Ten Stories About Smoking" is a little misleading - far from having nicotine as a central theme, cigarettes are usually a peripheral addition to each short story. Ultimately though, this matters little in the long run, as each tale focusses on decadence, the follies of youth, people on the precipice of life changes and the confusion which accompanies these moments. It might seem vaguely gimmicky, but the fact that the concept doesn't dominate is in this book's favour. There are few things more disappointing than short story collections which focus on the concept more than the quality of the contents.

For all that, the praise dished out in the mainstream press for this collection is a little overboard given the quality of the work. The focus for the most part is on the usual short story standbys of flawed romantic and familial relationships, and whilst Evers spins a yarn well, there's little to distinguish some of these stories either in style, content or tone from many of the numerous volumes already on bookstore shelves. At its absolute worst, "Ten Stories About Smoking" seems to contain snapshots of situations which left me wondering what nourishment or emotional involvement I was supposed to feel - "What's In Swindon?", for example, is a brief and straightforward piece of filler about the simplistic romantic idealism of youthful relationships, but it's an unoriginal observation not many rungs (if any) up from pithy Mail on Sunday magazine backpage tales. "Real Work", on the other hand, seems to be a satire on the shock-horror tactics of Young British Artists and their accompanying self-obsession, but as such it seems at least a decade out of date and lacks teeth. New art focusing on sex and death in the manner Evers describes wouldn't pick up interest in the way the author describes anymore, and whilst his descriptions of the art succeed in making it sound ridiculous, it sounds more like the dabblings of a first year art student than a promising up and coming artist. Evers nails the canny networking and self-absorbed behaviour of British artists gleefully well, but ultimately fails to make the end product itself sound like more like a jokey cliche than anything an agent or critic would actually get excited about.

Otherwise, elsewhere there's some gripping moments. "The Best Place In Town" is intriguing, magical, surreal, faintly disturbing and layered with wonderful amounts of detail - a piece of work I'm reluctant to reveal too much about for fear that any hints will spoil some astonishing moments for any reader thinking of buying this book. "Lou Lou In The Blue Bottle" is close to Hemingway in its descriptions of men being Real Men yet ultimately failing to find happiness, and "The Final Cigarette" even dips into a working class, beery bar-room world, shifting the collection's focus away from its predominantly neurotic middle class tones. These in particular are the moments where Evers seems like an incredibly promising new voice with something different to say - the odder his stories, and the further they move away from the usual concerns already cluttering up the short story shelves, the better he gets.

"Ten Short Stories About Smoking" is ultimately inessential, but there should be enough here to convince readers that Evers is likely to produce better work in future, and anyone interested in dipping into writing by new voices will find plenty to be hopeful about - but probably not enough to actually convince them that this book is likely to be considered as anything other than an uneven debut in the future.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Pointless gimmick.
Publishers in the UK have a problem with short story collections. They can't sell them as we don't have much of a tradition of reading the short story here. Read more
Published 3 months ago by doublegone
Turn over a new leaf - and stop smoking
Smokers need to understand their habit. Unfortunately, cigarette smoke clouds insight.
Most smokers can hazard a guess at why they started to smoke, but the hazarded guesses... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hypnotist
Not Bad
First thing to say is that this book should really be called "10 Stories that contain smoking" the smoking isn't always the central element. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Richard Kelly
Not so "Smokin"
Stuart Evers has put together this collection of short stories with the tenuous link of Smoking. In the main the stories are simple, straightforward tales. Yet somehow uninvolving. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Donald Thompson
Not entirely about smoking
My pre-publication copy of this book was supplied without the flip top cigarette packet novelty design, which is a shame for it would probably add to the appeal of a book such as... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mart Music
Pleasant, readable
My edition was not the boxed set, which probably adds some value on the bookshelf, but of course it is what is between the covers that really counts. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Angus Jenkinson
Cigarettes are sublime
The stories here all refer to smoking, but it's not necessarily the dominant theme (cf Ishiguro's Nocturnes). Read more
Published 12 months ago by Alan Hansen
An enjoyable collection of short stories
I don't seem to read many books containing just short stories so snapped up the chance to review this collection and I am extremely glad I did. Read more
Published 12 months ago by C. Hamer
...and exhale.
Ten Stories about Smoking by Stuart Evers

I was sent a copy of this to review. Not the boxed edition, just a review paperback so I can't comment on the packaging. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Rachel Green
Menthol light..
As a fan of short story collections I was looking forward to reading this book. However, while hoping to experience the satisfaction of a rich cigar I was left with the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Bama70
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