The Deal of a Lifetime and Other Stories

So there are three stories in this, and the longest one, And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, I have already read and given 5 stars.

However, the other two stories in this collection I did not like AT ALL. The title story had a weird writing style, an incoherent premise, and was a bummer in a not-good way. The final story was really short but was just absurdly cheesy (even for Backman) and was about with depression who manifests a troll from his imagination to help him learn to be happy. I get that it's a short story, but it was such a simplistic, “just think happy thoughts and then you'll be happy” message that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I'd give both of those stories one or two stars. However, I can't rate the collection that low, because the largest story is incredible. So I'll give the entire collection 3 stars, with the caveat that I only personally liked the middle story.