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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
Second read two years later and my opinion has remained generally the same. Creative stories but not entirely executed well, and some, quite poorly. Still worth reading for a few stories, such as "Reeling for the Empire" & "The New Veteran".
I probably enjoyed this more than I expected, but it's still feels a bit too quirky. Read more on the booklog
The structure of these short stories quickly becomes repetitive; a slow start, a quick few paragraphs to build tension and an anticlimactic ending. I understand that short stories don’t always have to have a satisfying ending, but when it happens 3 times in a row I get agitated. There were also inconsistencies in some narratives, like getting the name of a place wrong within one page or forgetting characteristics of main players. Maybe I will come back to it one day but overall I was struggling to get through another story when I recognised the same structure for the fourth or fifth time.
Admittedly, I am not a fan of the short story, but I enjoyed Junot Diaz's latest, and with the recent glut of short story collections by preeminent authors, I thought I would give Karen Russell's latest collection a try. Russell presents an inconsistent octet of short stories, but the best are dazzling. The title tale is the story of two vampires who have been married for over a hundred years and have eschewed blood for lemons after settling in Sorrento, Italy. Their marriage is tested when the aged husband becomes afraid of flying. While whimisical, the story is a human meditation on marital dynamics and commitment. In "Reeling for the Empire," Japanese peasant girls are sold into slavery and, after drinking a special brew, morph into hybrid human/catepillers who produce silk until, in an act of defiance, they reclaim their destinies. The strongest story is "The New Veteran" in which a middle-aged massage therapist is able to relieve the inner demons of a veteran suffering from PTSD by erasing the details of an Iraqui landscape detailing a tramautic day at war that is tattooed on his back as a memorial to a fallen comrade. Many of Russell's stories depict surreal scenerios that bump into reality. She presents her tales with a sure, exhilarating voice.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Loved the first two stories but the remainder simply were not as compelling
An amazing and very visual style of written, with such a unique imagination. Thought not as cohesive (the endings could use a bit of a tidying) as a previous works, there are certainly a few gems in this collection. Especially the title story, a delightful and tragic tale - most of the stories are quite darker and violent than I would have expected from Russell. Not necessarily a bad thing though.
The eight stories are beautifully written but I felt they were all too short, a reflection, I suspect, of my preference for fiction in much bigger bites.
She doesn’t always hit the mark, but when Karen Russell is good, she is damn good.
I read her other story collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, several years ago, and I cannot remember a time that her stories have as completely absorbed me as they have in Vampires in the Lemon Grove.
It’s funny to me that as much as Russell gravitates toward writing about horny, precocious tweens in the Everglades, her best work happens when she writes about other things instead. “Reeling for the Empire,” set in Meiji-era Japan, and “Proving Up,” set on the desolate Nebraska frontier in the Westward expansion, are absolutely haunting, compelling, perfectly paced. The endings left me breathless.
I was afraid the book’s quality had petered off after “Proving Up.” The two stories that follow are funny, I guess, but lackluster. When I noticed that the penultimate story, “The New Veterans,” clocks in at more than fifty pages, the longest of them all, I was afraid it would become a chore. But once I started reading—I could not stop. The premise is insane. The character development is clever and heartbreaking. I can’t remember the last time I have been so compelled to keep reading. When I finished that one and moved to “The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis,” I expected to slow down, for how could she top what she had just accomplished? But no! I tore through that one too!
The worst stories in this collection are just okay, but the best ones will keep me thinking about them for a long time. They are intimate, grotesque, beautiful. 100% worth the read.
I read her other story collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, several years ago, and I cannot remember a time that her stories have as completely absorbed me as they have in Vampires in the Lemon Grove.
It’s funny to me that as much as Russell gravitates toward writing about horny, precocious tweens in the Everglades, her best work happens when she writes about other things instead. “Reeling for the Empire,” set in Meiji-era Japan, and “Proving Up,” set on the desolate Nebraska frontier in the Westward expansion, are absolutely haunting, compelling, perfectly paced. The endings left me breathless.
I was afraid the book’s quality had petered off after “Proving Up.” The two stories that follow are funny, I guess, but lackluster. When I noticed that the penultimate story, “The New Veterans,” clocks in at more than fifty pages, the longest of them all, I was afraid it would become a chore. But once I started reading—I could not stop. The premise is insane. The character development is clever and heartbreaking. I can’t remember the last time I have been so compelled to keep reading. When I finished that one and moved to “The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis,” I expected to slow down, for how could she top what she had just accomplished? But no! I tore through that one too!
The worst stories in this collection are just okay, but the best ones will keep me thinking about them for a long time. They are intimate, grotesque, beautiful. 100% worth the read.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A