Irregular Verbs and Other Stories

I tend to prefer short story anthologies with multiple authors, but those can sometimes be a crapshoot, with great stories and terrible ones side by side. Reading an anthology entirely by one person gives you a glimpse into their mind and their preoccupations in a way little else can, but run the risk of becoming extremely samey.

In the case of Johnson, I was startled to see the ease with which he switched settings and cultures– jumping from Pacific Islanders to faux Germanic, to modern America, to a future where refugees from the Roman era appear. The sheer diversity of stories and concepts (Superman is dying, A jewish doctor searches for a way for his people to survive, a Chinese chef tries to figure out how to make his father's ghost move on, a Pacific Islander whose islands are now underwater creates VR memories) is dazzling.

On the whole it's a solid piece, Johnson's themes (memory, cultural continuity, passage of time and people) are clear, tying the stories together into something that leaves a strong impact, while his skill at creating memorable settings gives him room to create a body of work that is grand in scope.