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A review by ethancf
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt
4.0
Very interesting collection of shorts, with a novella taking up about half the book at the close.
We start off with a version of The Glass Coffin, a familiar story but told excellently by Byatt. I like starting with this as it frames the others as stories not necessarily of Byatt's construction, but as fairy tales that we just haven't heard before. 4/5 for this story.
Gode's Story was unusual, but I liked the ending. Looking back I think it fits in the closest with the title novella but was also my least favorite of the shorts, 3/5.
The Story of the Eldest Princess was a brilliant and fun riff on traditional fairy tales with a nice meta-narrative twist. My favorite of the stories with a quote I'll remember for a while. 5/5:
"'I always believe stories whilst they are being told,' said the Cockroach.
'You are a wise creature,' said the Old Woman. 'That is what stories are for. And after, we shall see what we shall see.' So she told."
Dragons' Breath seemed like an allegory for any number of natural (or climate) disasters until the ending. I was a bit puzzled by it but it's a good story. 4/5
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye takes way, way too long to get to the good stuff. If it had been half the length it'd have been much stronger. I picked this book up for this story; George Miller is adapting it into a movie and I was intrigued by the premise. This story spends a lot of time establishing setting and not a lot of time moving the narrative along, which is a bit puzzling considering the thematic content, but when it does actually get around to telling the story, it's really quite good - and like the previous stories, has some clever meta-narrative twists to it. Definitely worth reading. 4/5
We start off with a version of The Glass Coffin, a familiar story but told excellently by Byatt. I like starting with this as it frames the others as stories not necessarily of Byatt's construction, but as fairy tales that we just haven't heard before. 4/5 for this story.
Gode's Story was unusual, but I liked the ending. Looking back I think it fits in the closest with the title novella but was also my least favorite of the shorts, 3/5.
The Story of the Eldest Princess was a brilliant and fun riff on traditional fairy tales with a nice meta-narrative twist. My favorite of the stories with a quote I'll remember for a while. 5/5:
"'I always believe stories whilst they are being told,' said the Cockroach.
'You are a wise creature,' said the Old Woman. 'That is what stories are for. And after, we shall see what we shall see.' So she told."
Dragons' Breath seemed like an allegory for any number of natural (or climate) disasters until the ending. I was a bit puzzled by it but it's a good story. 4/5
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye takes way, way too long to get to the good stuff. If it had been half the length it'd have been much stronger. I picked this book up for this story; George Miller is adapting it into a movie and I was intrigued by the premise. This story spends a lot of time establishing setting and not a lot of time moving the narrative along, which is a bit puzzling considering the thematic content, but when it does actually get around to telling the story, it's really quite good - and like the previous stories, has some clever meta-narrative twists to it. Definitely worth reading. 4/5