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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Weird, twisted, layered stories that are stingy with their secrets, barely (or don't) resolve, and haunt you afterwards. Pretty freaking great.
I'm only halfway done with this book, but this is easily the best collection of short stories I've read in years. Yes years.
****
Loved loved loved this! I was completely captivated by Kelly Link's stories. Incredibly original, yet strongly based in the tradition of fairy tales and folklore.
****
Loved loved loved this! I was completely captivated by Kelly Link's stories. Incredibly original, yet strongly based in the tradition of fairy tales and folklore.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
This is one of my all time favorites.
There were a couple stories in this volume that I liked. I like weird fiction, but I feel like I just read this book: Amelia Gray's Museum of the Weird felt almost identical. But whereas Gray's book included stories of no longer than 20 pages, Magic For Beginners included longer form premises, that although at times interesting, couldn't hold my attention for as long as they demanded.
It took me 60 years but I finally figured out that I am a magical realism junkie. I simply adore Haruki Murakami and now, lucky me, I've discovered Kelly Link.
Magic for Beginners is a deliciously dark collection of short stories. Link has a way of making absurdities seem plausible.
I can't wait to read her other books!
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Is Fox really dead?
Perhaps the finest set of stories I have ever read. Just demolishes your perception of genre, of narrative logic, while centering tone, theme, and above all else, character. These tales make sense in all the ways life doesn't.
Kelly Link's stories don't always do it for me, but they are fantastical, imaginative, and beautifully written. Often I don't understand what the point is; if the magical elements in her stories have some meaning, some metaphorical interpretation, I can't quite grasp it. In this volume, entire towns live inside someone's pocketbook, witches manufacture children, characters in a rogue television show telephone their adolescent fans and ask them to steal books from a library, and aliens take over suburban homes and clone their inhabitants. Some of these, like the latter, have a kind of body horror that reminds me of the best parts of Murakami's 1Q84 (minus the supple-breasted assassin; I hate to compare Link to Murakami whose disaffected male protagonists and adolescent sexuality can be so tiresome). Others have a dreamlike quality, such as the Amityville-Horroresque "Stone Animals" about a young family whose new suburban home is beset by enchanted rabbits. Over all, I am glad to have read the collection and accepted its invitation into Kelly Link's wild imagination, even if I'm not at all sure what it all means. But it says something about me, I suspect, that my favorite story in the collection is the least magical (despite its title), "Some Zombie Contingency Plans," in which a disaffected male protagonist (yep!) struggles to define his identity, with chilling result.
I would like to believe I am a fairly patient person when it comes to books. Have read a few difficult books in my time, and have always been willing to go the distance to understand the book, and the author. I can even do surreal pretty well.
In this case, I could not. I labored through the stories - most of which seemed to work for a while, but then just flew into a different plane - only because of the glowing reviews I have seen everywhere. For a while I was even worried I had somehow got the wrong ebook.
I read this book while visiting a place not very far from Manali, in Northern India, which is known, among other things, for its quality mary-jane. I wish I had had some when I sat down to read this.
In this case, I could not. I labored through the stories - most of which seemed to work for a while, but then just flew into a different plane - only because of the glowing reviews I have seen everywhere. For a while I was even worried I had somehow got the wrong ebook.
I read this book while visiting a place not very far from Manali, in Northern India, which is known, among other things, for its quality mary-jane. I wish I had had some when I sat down to read this.
4 The Faery Handbag
4 The Hortlak
1 The Cannon
5 Stone Animals
5 Catskin
4 Zombie Contingency Plans
3 The Great Divorce
3 Magic For Beginners
5 Lull
4 The Hortlak
1 The Cannon
5 Stone Animals
5 Catskin
4 Zombie Contingency Plans
3 The Great Divorce
3 Magic For Beginners
5 Lull