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mamimitanaka's review against another edition
4.0
Truly uncanny fiction that defies all genre conventions I'm currently aware of, there are recognizable influences that Grudova is keen on divulging [the obvious love for Kafka and classic fairy tales is all over this collection], but for the most part the author carves out her own niche, and the points of reference are just that, rather than anything that overwhelms the singular artistic vision here. Most potently, this is a deeply feminist [and often appropriately angry and even misandric] batch of stories with a keen focus on the divides in expectation and privileges between men and women and the hegemonic violence that occurs as a result of patriarchy. But the violence is rarely ever direct - more appropriately everything in these stories comes to a sinister, slow boil of confusion, communication breakdowns and the disquiet that comes with that. It's a deeply aesthetically interesting volume as well - I agree completely with the person who said this has a post-war feel, everything in these stories is fractured and haunted and desolate, often centering urban landscapes that are apocalyptic only in what is suggested, rather than directly explained, and Grudova has a lot of obsessive motifs of things that shouldn't be unsettling but made are by this bizarro world; fish, dolls, weird tastes in food, sewing machines, etc. - Objects and Items [and the capitalist mass production thereof] are a big thing here, working in tandem with the many themes of objectification of women's bodies and the subjugation of women on basis of their physicality. Vivid despite [and because of] its sparseness, and genuinely disturbing; Camilla Grudova is definitely a contemporary author I'll be revisiting.
fermanichlyd's review against another edition
3.0
Both macabre and amusing. Hungarian Sprats was my favorite story!
mrspdb's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book of short stories. I read Camilla Grudova described as a cross between Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood, which is dead on. Toss in an odd love for sewing machines, and you've got a hell of a collection.
michelle_stiles's review against another edition
3.0
It tough to rate this one, there are a good handful of 5 star stories others were just so wholly bizarre that they didn’t come together as a cohesive story.
jesterclown's review against another edition
3.5
I’m as surprised as you are but I enjoyed this markedly twee collection of magical realist short stories. The tweeness derives not from the magical realism, which - as is often the case - is delivered in deadpan, spare economical prose. No, the tweeness is conveyed through the author’s seeming fetish for grotesque Victoriana: it’s in the settings (factories, bistros, cafes, creaking old terraced buildings) and it’s in the content of the prose itself which alternates between a seeming never-ending series of lists, sometimes of tchotchkes and kitschy relics (buttons, dolls, ornamental figures, lace) and sometimes of foods (golden syrup, tinned meats and fish, mass-produced candies). The returning motif of sewing machines is a rather obvious metaphor for the undervalued labour of women and the misogyny of viewing women as objects. And yet I was often beguiled and sometimes surprised by Grudova’s ability to tell stories in scant few sentences and sometimes through the lists themselves. I was also delighted by her fiendish left turns into the truly disgusting and transgressive. But as with most short story collections, the quality varies wildly.
ula_j's review against another edition
3.0
Gothy, freakish, dystopian tales in many ways right up my alley. Would recommend reading it on a grey winter day though. It seems almost wrong to read the stories in the hot summer sun.
oceans_b1ist3rz's review against another edition
4.0
pierrots and angel boys. a chubby faced sconce and mermaids in a silver trance. sewing machines: stitching and unstitching. this collection of short stories utilizes language as adornments, creating a very specific aesthetic that takes its time to digest. a strange but entrancing approach to feminism. my favorite stories among this collection were Agata’s Machine, The Sad Tale of the Sconce, and The Moth Emporium
cybrgloss's review against another edition
4.0
Uncanny and uncomfortable short story collection that I can only describe as (in general) gross. Surreal spaces of gothic nautical decay, monstrous overbearing gender roles enforced to a rigid extreme, disconnected motherhood. Reading some of these felt like being a child laborer trapped in the mildew-ridden basement of a cannery, salt and metal so thick in the air that it’s suffocating.