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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
Just not my style. I did enjoy some of the stories, hence the two stars instead of one. However, I kept searching for the point of the story. Some of them to me, are either not interesting or completely pointless. the few that I like, The Barn at The End of Our Term, The New Veterans, and The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis. The rest were forgettable except for Reeling for the Empire. Than one actually gave me nightmares for days.
This is a great collection of fantastical short stories, many of which would probably be considered part of the magical realism genre. My favorites were "Reeling for the Empire" and "The New Veterans."
I liked four of the stories--"Vampires in the Lemon Grove," "Reeling for the Empire," "The Barn at the End of Our Term," and "The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis"--and found the rest relatively unengaging. I don't know, they're almost too intense to read consecutively. I would probably have enjoyed them more if I had come across them individually, sprinkled here and there throughout various short story anthologies.
Russell can be whimsical ("The Barn") and can also create an incredibly effective sense of creeping dread ("The Graveless Doll"). I think she's a talented writer, but she doesn't seem to have a good way of measuring out the...intensity? of her writing. It's as though each story begins full-bore and ends that way too, and it gets to be a bit much after a while, like eating too many rich little appetizers, or too many fancy pastries. It's delicious at first, but by the third one, you feel a bit ill, and by the eighth, you're pretty sure you're going to swear off them forever.
Russell can be whimsical ("The Barn") and can also create an incredibly effective sense of creeping dread ("The Graveless Doll"). I think she's a talented writer, but she doesn't seem to have a good way of measuring out the...intensity? of her writing. It's as though each story begins full-bore and ends that way too, and it gets to be a bit much after a while, like eating too many rich little appetizers, or too many fancy pastries. It's delicious at first, but by the third one, you feel a bit ill, and by the eighth, you're pretty sure you're going to swear off them forever.
Very imaginative and well-written collection of short stories. They were a little on the depressing side, though. My favorite story was "Reeling for the Empire."
I really liked “Reeling for the Empire,” “The Barnyard at the End of Our Term,” and “The New Veterans.” Russell is always great to read for her playful and creative prose, regardless of the tale.
A collection of short stories is a precarious thing. Do you tie all the stories together with a connecting, theme or motif, or do you let them be disparate and stand on their own? What if some stories resonate with a readers while other stories in the same collection leave them cold? These are just the common problems of a short story collection, and while Karen Russell's amazing 'Vampires...' does suffer from some of these problems, when the stories shine, they shine so brightly as to make you put the book down and truly ponder what a great new talent Russell is.
I found the last two stories in the book (subsequently the two longest) to be the weakest, but the titular story and also the heart-breaking-ly fantastical "The Barn at the End of Our Term" were so raw, and beautiful that it made up for any flaws I found in the other stories.
So while the book is uneven, it's highs are higher than anything out there right now in short fiction. The magical realism genre is often considered a laborious, academic field but Russell injects it with the right amount of ethos to bring the sad, middle-aged vampires plight to life or the protagonist of "Barn..."'s hopeless longing that the stories truly touch you.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. If I were a prestigious award council (which I'm obviously not because I'm terrible at this) I would give the short story "Barn..." every award in my award cannon. The book is worth it for that story alone.
I found the last two stories in the book (subsequently the two longest) to be the weakest, but the titular story and also the heart-breaking-ly fantastical "The Barn at the End of Our Term" were so raw, and beautiful that it made up for any flaws I found in the other stories.
So while the book is uneven, it's highs are higher than anything out there right now in short fiction. The magical realism genre is often considered a laborious, academic field but Russell injects it with the right amount of ethos to bring the sad, middle-aged vampires plight to life or the protagonist of "Barn..."'s hopeless longing that the stories truly touch you.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. If I were a prestigious award council (which I'm obviously not because I'm terrible at this) I would give the short story "Barn..." every award in my award cannon. The book is worth it for that story alone.
Okay, my rating is really more like 4.5 stars. Dang, Karen Russell is one fantastic writer, and it's weird to me how polarizing her work appears to be. Yes, the stories are quirky, (I mean, one is about a barn full of horses with the consciousnesses of former U.S. presidents), but she pulls them off, and they're completely engrossing. The last two stories weren't as good--in my opinion, anyway--but it is still a great collection, overall. I had been unsure about reading Swamplandia! due to seeing very mixed reviews, but I'm definitely going to give it a try based on my experience with this.
A collection of short stories based on the mystic-magic-realism related of daily life, most of them well written....