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A review by tasharobinson
Awayland by Ramona Ausubel
4.0
First time reading this author, and her short stories left me without much idea of what to expect from her novels — there's magical realism here, and mainstream family drama, and outright fantasy, and it was pretty intriguing heading into each new story without any idea of which genre any given story would be. My favorite is probably the opening story, "You Can Find Love Now," where a mythical cyclops fills out a dating profile promising to hold back on the imprisonments and devourings. It just seems like such an apt metaphor for later-in-life relationships, and all the things we hold back or hide to make connections.
Some of the others, though, just seemed a little whimsical in an arbitrary way, like the one about the Minnesota mayor who decides to combat his town's low birth rate by declaring a sex holiday, and awarding a car to whoever has the first baby born nine months after that day. Or "Mother Land," about a woman who goes to Africa with a white African (referred to solely as "the African"), where various incidents occur that don't add up to much. "Remedy," about a woman who becomes obsessed with her own death, and wants her hand grafted onto her lover's wrist, is much stronger — the characterization is warm and sympathetic, but it's also alarming as the reader picks up on what's likely to happen. It's like a magical-realism "Gift of the Magi," where both parties are sacrificing each other, but not communicating, in ways that don't serve anyone.
Some of the others, though, just seemed a little whimsical in an arbitrary way, like the one about the Minnesota mayor who decides to combat his town's low birth rate by declaring a sex holiday, and awarding a car to whoever has the first baby born nine months after that day. Or "Mother Land," about a woman who goes to Africa with a white African (referred to solely as "the African"), where various incidents occur that don't add up to much. "Remedy," about a woman who becomes obsessed with her own death, and wants her hand grafted onto her lover's wrist, is much stronger — the characterization is warm and sympathetic, but it's also alarming as the reader picks up on what's likely to happen. It's like a magical-realism "Gift of the Magi," where both parties are sacrificing each other, but not communicating, in ways that don't serve anyone.