Black-fronted Dotterel, or Elseyornis melanops. Marion Bay, Tasmania. March 2013. First Love, Last Rites , Ian McEwan: Cripes, these are some DARK short stories. The blackest of the are the standouts for me, but I suspect that many will have a problem completing. B- . Two Pints , Roddy Doyle: Two old Irish blokes chatting in a bar. D+ . What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank , Nathan Englander: An uneven collection of short stories that (largely) explores modern Jewish identity. Some of the stories completely failed for me, but when he hits - as he does in the powerful "Free Fruit for Young Widows" - Englander manages to widen the historical and ethical perspective and set the full, intractably complex burden of the Middle East conflict on the reader's shoulders. B- .