You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett

Published 2002 · 258 pages · 56,000 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Short Fiction

How hard is You Are Not a Stranger Here to read?

You Are Not a Stranger Here scores 52 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 45 out of 100
Psychological and medical vocabulary.
Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
Carefully crafted, varied sentences.
Abstraction: 55 out of 100
Mental illness and family.
Information density: 50 out of 100
Dense with psychological detail.
Narrative indirection: 55 out of 100
Stories reveal through accumulation.
Symbolic density: 55 out of 100
Illness, connection carry weight.
Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
Haslett maintains compassionate distance.
Resolution withholding: 55 out of 100
Stories resist easy closure.
Structural complexity: 50 out of 100
Story collection with recurring themes.

How You Are Not a Stranger Here is regarded

You Are Not a Stranger Here holds a literary regard score of 56 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Adam Haslett