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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
This is some of the best writing I have ever read
Strange feelings about this book. Swamplandia was one of my all-time faves and I guess I expected something a little more personal. I can't say I disliked the stories in this book — thinking back, each one of them was good and very moving — but the book also felt like a bit of a slog, lacking the crisp detail which made me love her previous works.
This collection of short stories was entertaining. All of them were a little bit spooky, and lots of ambiguity going on. Enjoyable.
I read Karen Russell’s 2nd collection of short fiction after I read her novel ‘Swamplandia!’ but before I read her debut collection, ‘St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves’. Although ‘Wolves’ is more controlled and consistent – almost to the point of being an episodic novel – ‘Vampires’ is more eclectic and it reaches greater heights. I’m always more drawn to risky, sloppy art than I am to perfect little baubles anyway.
Russell still has an uncanny knack for writing about teens, most presciently in the creepy bullying parable that ends the book, ‘The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis’. But she extends both age range and geography in this collection – centuries-old married vampires in Italy, a lonely middle-aged masseuse in Wisconsin. There is an all-out comedy/satire piece about rooting for the Krill team to beat the Whales, which reminds me of pre-2004 Red Sox fans. There is ‘Reeling for the Empire’, about a cramped factory of hybrid silkworm-women in early industrial Japan, that are forced to secrete threads of colored silk from their bodies after drinking laced tea. This tale, which culminates in a harrowing revenge plot, is as darkly perfect as a Grimm fairy tale or a Twilight Zone episode.
I’ll concur with Joy Williams in the New York Times and admit that ‘The Seagulls Descend on Strong Beach’ and ‘The New Veterans’ are the two weaker stories in the collection, the former in particular. But the characters and details are still so vivid and affecting, it doesn’t matter much.
For me, the jaw-dropping, dream-invading masterwork is ‘Proving Up’, the first-person narrative of a boy in the 1840s Nebraska wilderness. Settlers are required to have a glass windows in their hovels in order to ‘prove up’ and become titled landowners, and our protagonist gets caught in an apocalyptic blizzard while trying to deliver his family’s precious window pane to their closest neighbor, before the federal ‘Agent’ shows. And then things get stranger. There are shades of Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, Stephen King – it’s like this story was written for me.
Now for the bad news - I've read everything this writer has published, and I have to wait...
Russell still has an uncanny knack for writing about teens, most presciently in the creepy bullying parable that ends the book, ‘The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis’. But she extends both age range and geography in this collection – centuries-old married vampires in Italy, a lonely middle-aged masseuse in Wisconsin. There is an all-out comedy/satire piece about rooting for the Krill team to beat the Whales, which reminds me of pre-2004 Red Sox fans. There is ‘Reeling for the Empire’, about a cramped factory of hybrid silkworm-women in early industrial Japan, that are forced to secrete threads of colored silk from their bodies after drinking laced tea. This tale, which culminates in a harrowing revenge plot, is as darkly perfect as a Grimm fairy tale or a Twilight Zone episode.
I’ll concur with Joy Williams in the New York Times and admit that ‘The Seagulls Descend on Strong Beach’ and ‘The New Veterans’ are the two weaker stories in the collection, the former in particular. But the characters and details are still so vivid and affecting, it doesn’t matter much.
For me, the jaw-dropping, dream-invading masterwork is ‘Proving Up’, the first-person narrative of a boy in the 1840s Nebraska wilderness. Settlers are required to have a glass windows in their hovels in order to ‘prove up’ and become titled landowners, and our protagonist gets caught in an apocalyptic blizzard while trying to deliver his family’s precious window pane to their closest neighbor, before the federal ‘Agent’ shows. And then things get stranger. There are shades of Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, Stephen King – it’s like this story was written for me.
Now for the bad news - I've read everything this writer has published, and I have to wait...
Interesting. I don't read a lot of short story collections but I liked most of them.
I started this book as an audiobook some time ago, but I finally finished it on the recommendation of two high school teachers who really liked it. They even use some of the stories in their history and english classes! I read the last four stories quickly, and I generally enjoyed them. They were weird, which I was expecting, but they were also thought-provoking and interesting. I am glad they forced me to give this book another chance.
The thing I like about short story collections is that if one doesn't hit, no matter, another will be along soon.
Problems only arise if the next one is also a bit dull.
Welcome, then, to Vampires In The Lemon Grove, where from a poor start things trudge downhill at a tedious pace until you finally get to the good one.
We open with the titular vampires. Engaging enough but there's nothing to really get your teeth into - if you'll pardon the pun.
Further on we have a tale about seagulls that starts off well but goes so far off the rails the final third makes little sense in the context of what's gone before.
We have dead Presidents reincarnated as horses which is actually fun and well drawn, but is let down by a complete lack of a fitting ending.
Things get better with the tale of racing about around the South Pole, and the final story about school bullies has real tension and drama. Again, ends poorly, but the rest is OK.
Not great, sure, but OK.
And even now, I'm struggling to remember what else was in there.
Not one that stays long in the memory.
Problems only arise if the next one is also a bit dull.
Welcome, then, to Vampires In The Lemon Grove, where from a poor start things trudge downhill at a tedious pace until you finally get to the good one.
We open with the titular vampires. Engaging enough but there's nothing to really get your teeth into - if you'll pardon the pun.
Further on we have a tale about seagulls that starts off well but goes so far off the rails the final third makes little sense in the context of what's gone before.
We have dead Presidents reincarnated as horses which is actually fun and well drawn, but is let down by a complete lack of a fitting ending.
Things get better with the tale of racing about around the South Pole, and the final story about school bullies has real tension and drama. Again, ends poorly, but the rest is OK.
Not great, sure, but OK.
And even now, I'm struggling to remember what else was in there.
Not one that stays long in the memory.
For those already familiar with Russell's other works--Swamplandia! and Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves--the fact that the eight stories contained within Vampires are, well, less than complete won't come as a surprise. Many of the negative reviews on Goodreads so far seem focused on the fact that these stories aren't really all there--details that seem key are referenced then forgotten, character developments that seem critical are never fully fleshed out.
In many ways, Vampires is more guilt of this behavior than anything Russell has previously written, and some of the stories may test the patience of even die-hard fans. Reeling for the Empire is particularly guilty of this, as is Proving Up. Russell writes everything in a beautiful, enigmatic prose, but even the prettiest words can only mend together an incomplete idea so far.
Still, Vampires is worth picking up, if only for its closing story, a modern gothic horror that seems to marry Russell's writing style with the sensibility of Victor LaValle. The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis deftly combines horror and hope in ways only Russell can, and serve as an excellent reminder of why so many critics and fans alike love her so.
In many ways, Vampires is more guilt of this behavior than anything Russell has previously written, and some of the stories may test the patience of even die-hard fans. Reeling for the Empire is particularly guilty of this, as is Proving Up. Russell writes everything in a beautiful, enigmatic prose, but even the prettiest words can only mend together an incomplete idea so far.
Still, Vampires is worth picking up, if only for its closing story, a modern gothic horror that seems to marry Russell's writing style with the sensibility of Victor LaValle. The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis deftly combines horror and hope in ways only Russell can, and serve as an excellent reminder of why so many critics and fans alike love her so.
I picked up this collection as a change of pace from my normal reads - I’m not usually an avid reader of short stories, but this collection was recommended by a friend, so I gave it a go. Some of the stories are definitely “teachable” (as in, I’d use them for an intro to fiction course in college). For that reason, I enjoyed them, but I guess since short stories aren’t my cup of tea, my personal tastes prevented me from liking this book as much as others seem to.
Things I Liked
1. Magical Realism: I love tales about the supernatural, and Russell engages with magical realism in a way that satisfied my curiosity for the weird while also presenting a heartfelt collection of tales about the human condition. This collection features tales about vampires, human-bug hybrids, omens, etc. It was a fun way to combine my literary tastes with a form I’m not quite used to.
2. Prose: Russell’s prose is something to be admired. She makes every story feel effortless, yet also poetic at the same time. There’s not any flowery purple prose, either, but it’s elegant without being overbearing.
3. Creativity: Within the magical realism of each story is a core idea that Russell then builds upon - seagulls that scavenge unfulfilled futures, vampires that want something other than blood, etc. Each one of these ideas in itself is incredibly creative and delightful to read as the premise of a story.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Story Endings: A common criticism of this short story collection is that the endings to many of the stories are too vague. While vague endings in and of themselves are not bad techniques and I don’t agree that every tale needs to be wrapped up nicely for the reader, I do think Russell relied a bit too heavily on letting things hang in the air at the end of her stories. In some cases, I wasn’t sure how the endings were supposed to match up with the overall themes or images of the stories. Maybe that was her goal, but for me, I often felt like I was being left in the middle of a story, rather than being carried to an ending that was left vague for a specific purpose or effect.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in short stories and
magical realism. You might also like this book if you like The Bloody Chamber.
Things I Liked
1. Magical Realism: I love tales about the supernatural, and Russell engages with magical realism in a way that satisfied my curiosity for the weird while also presenting a heartfelt collection of tales about the human condition. This collection features tales about vampires, human-bug hybrids, omens, etc. It was a fun way to combine my literary tastes with a form I’m not quite used to.
2. Prose: Russell’s prose is something to be admired. She makes every story feel effortless, yet also poetic at the same time. There’s not any flowery purple prose, either, but it’s elegant without being overbearing.
3. Creativity: Within the magical realism of each story is a core idea that Russell then builds upon - seagulls that scavenge unfulfilled futures, vampires that want something other than blood, etc. Each one of these ideas in itself is incredibly creative and delightful to read as the premise of a story.
Things I Didn’t Like
1. Story Endings: A common criticism of this short story collection is that the endings to many of the stories are too vague. While vague endings in and of themselves are not bad techniques and I don’t agree that every tale needs to be wrapped up nicely for the reader, I do think Russell relied a bit too heavily on letting things hang in the air at the end of her stories. In some cases, I wasn’t sure how the endings were supposed to match up with the overall themes or images of the stories. Maybe that was her goal, but for me, I often felt like I was being left in the middle of a story, rather than being carried to an ending that was left vague for a specific purpose or effect.
Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in short stories and
magical realism. You might also like this book if you like The Bloody Chamber.