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A review by jmcphers
We Others: New and Selected Stories by Steven Millhauser
4.0
I made the mistake of reading this collection of Millhauser's stories immediately after another collection of his, [b:Dangerous Laughter|1540810|Dangerous Laughter|Steven Millhauser|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437485127s/1540810.jpg|1533013]. This was a mistake only because this collection borrows liberally from that one, so when I thought I had more stories, I actually only had stories which I had already read in a different book.
Another reason this was a mistake is that after enough repetitions Millhauser's short fiction begins to feel formulaic in pieces. He has a steampunk-like obsession with art and performance prior to the digital age, and many of his protagonists trade in magic outright or ply their skill in such a way that it seems indistinguishable from it. His prose is also invariably stuffed with the concrete and sensory, and often finds itself sitting alone reciting details in just the way one might remember them from a dream--fractured, but strong impressions (smells, glints of light, freewheeling and Bradbury-esque metaphors, symbolic objects, etc) form much of the mental picture. I counted three different stories in which a "green Coke bottle" made an appearance in a recounting.
Much of Millhauser's work falls under what I'd term Magical Realism, and differs from the worlds created by some of his contemporaries in that it is often more real than magical, and some of the characters are just as incredulous as the reader would be in a similar situation. It somehow manages to be both dispassionate--as it rarely describes emotion or sometimes even individual characters directly, eschewing them for "we" or "us"--and affecting, as his writing so expertly pricks the imagination with ideas and imagery that it can induce feelings of wonder, nostalgia, and even voyeurism.
It's not hard to see why many of these stories have been read aloud in Selected Shorts, or turned into films (The Illusionist is in fact based on one of them). Like many of his characters, Millhauser is an unconventional but gifted artist.
Another reason this was a mistake is that after enough repetitions Millhauser's short fiction begins to feel formulaic in pieces. He has a steampunk-like obsession with art and performance prior to the digital age, and many of his protagonists trade in magic outright or ply their skill in such a way that it seems indistinguishable from it. His prose is also invariably stuffed with the concrete and sensory, and often finds itself sitting alone reciting details in just the way one might remember them from a dream--fractured, but strong impressions (smells, glints of light, freewheeling and Bradbury-esque metaphors, symbolic objects, etc) form much of the mental picture. I counted three different stories in which a "green Coke bottle" made an appearance in a recounting.
Much of Millhauser's work falls under what I'd term Magical Realism, and differs from the worlds created by some of his contemporaries in that it is often more real than magical, and some of the characters are just as incredulous as the reader would be in a similar situation. It somehow manages to be both dispassionate--as it rarely describes emotion or sometimes even individual characters directly, eschewing them for "we" or "us"--and affecting, as his writing so expertly pricks the imagination with ideas and imagery that it can induce feelings of wonder, nostalgia, and even voyeurism.
It's not hard to see why many of these stories have been read aloud in Selected Shorts, or turned into films (The Illusionist is in fact based on one of them). Like many of his characters, Millhauser is an unconventional but gifted artist.