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wanderaven 's review for:
Vampires in the Lemon Grove
by Karen Russell
My major senior year paper for completing my degree was all about magical realism and why readers respond so well to stories that incorporate elements of magical realism. I made the distinction, in that paper, between magical realism and straight fantasy. Had I just waited a few months, my task would have been made easier by just referencing particular stories in Vampires in the Lemon Grove. The stories in this collection that are distinctly magical realism do work better for me than those that are fantasy, just as when I read full novels. That's not to say that I don't enjoy stories with fantastical elements - my brain just naturally finds a closer kinship to magical realism and its closer knitting to the real world. I find that most authors also stay on one side of the line or the other, and Russell does the same here, with each individual story, but the collection is a mix of the two. Four for four, actually. When I was reading the fantasies (Vampires in the Lemon Grove, Reeling for the Empire, The Barn at the End of Our Term, Dougbert Shackleton's Rules for Antarctic Tailgating), I was impressed by Russell's incredible talent for creating such distinctive worlds, especially with Reeling for the Empire, the strongest of this batch for me, but frequently found myself checking to see how many pages were left to each story. I doubt this is less of a commentary on her writing than it is on my tolerance for the fantasies. I didn't even finish the Antarctic story, which felt shameful because even these stories that I didn't enjoy quite as much were still well written, but I grew terribly bored with it.
The magical realism stories, though, were engrossing and will most certainly retain me as a reader of Russell, while quite possibly having the power to weave themselves into my dreams and waking thoughts. The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979, Proving Up, The New Veterans, The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis, all in contrast to the fantasies, made me wish they were full length stories. Of these, I found The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis to be the weakest simply because I found it a stretch that the title object would freak out such brutal teenagers as much as it did. Proving Up started out slowly for me but then engaged me so thoroughly that when I was reading it and there was a noise in the house I was alarmingly startled, confused about where I was, and finally angered to be distracted and torn from the frightening world Russell created. I've read any number of books that I've thoroughly loved but those that have engaged me with that depth are, quite possibly, limited to a handful.
The magical realism stories, though, were engrossing and will most certainly retain me as a reader of Russell, while quite possibly having the power to weave themselves into my dreams and waking thoughts. The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979, Proving Up, The New Veterans, The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis, all in contrast to the fantasies, made me wish they were full length stories. Of these, I found The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis to be the weakest simply because I found it a stretch that the title object would freak out such brutal teenagers as much as it did. Proving Up started out slowly for me but then engaged me so thoroughly that when I was reading it and there was a noise in the house I was alarmingly startled, confused about where I was, and finally angered to be distracted and torn from the frightening world Russell created. I've read any number of books that I've thoroughly loved but those that have engaged me with that depth are, quite possibly, limited to a handful.