Has the feel of a future classic. A perfectly balanced mix of whimsy and fairytale darkness. It's like a cross between E.B. White and Ursula K. LeGuinHas the feel of a future classic. A perfectly balanced mix of whimsy and fairytale darkness. It's like a cross between E.B. White and Ursula K. LeGuin....more
The Devourers by Indra Das is that rarest of creatures: the literary horror novel. The graphic imagery, full of viscera and body horror, aims to reveaThe Devourers by Indra Das is that rarest of creatures: the literary horror novel. The graphic imagery, full of viscera and body horror, aims to reveal deeper truths about love and identity, and, ultimately, what it means to be human. The novel starts in contemporary Kolkata, when Alok, a history professor estranged from his family, meets an intriguing stranger at a street festival. This alluring stranger gives Alok a task: to type up a series of notebooks the stranger has transcribed from scrolls from the late 1500s. The scrolls describe the travels of a pack of shapeshifters as they make their way across the Mughal Empire. Fenrir, the author of the first scroll is an ancient shifter from Scandinavia. The other members of his tribe include a young French loup garou named Gévaudan and an even older one named Makedon, presumably from the Mediterranean. Fenrir's scroll is written as a love letter to Cyrah, the human woman with whom he has fallen in love. Since humans are considered prey, romantic or sexual attachments to them is strictly taboo in shifter culture. The second scroll is Cyrah's letter to her shifter son, whom she likens to the indigenous rakshasas mythology of her land. Cyrah and Fenrir's epic story, which reminds me of the brutal love-and-hate saga at the center of Octavia Butler's Patternist series, is interwoven with the erotic chemistry of Alok and the stranger's contemporary story. The Devourers is a matryoshka novel, full of dense and lyrical prose. Images of violent transformation, transference and flesh eating abound in the novel, which is also a queer love story and a historical novel. There's an undercurrent dark of eroticism that shimmers through the novel, evident in the eruptive, transgressive werewolf/rakshasas culture. The Devourers is a werewolf novel that has more in common with works by George Bataille or Samuel Delany than it does with Hammer Horror. ...more
Just finished this literary horror novel. A mix of Norwegian folktale and contemporary fiction, it's funny, thrilling and horrifying. Damn, son.Just finished this literary horror novel. A mix of Norwegian folktale and contemporary fiction, it's funny, thrilling and horrifying. Damn, son....more
Set in the 1890s Coney Island freakshow scene, this lyrical novel is a quest story about a missing sister, and includes genderfluid characters, and hoSet in the 1890s Coney Island freakshow scene, this lyrical novel is a quest story about a missing sister, and includes genderfluid characters, and horrific scenes set in opium dens and asylums. It's somewhere between THE GOLEM AND THE DJINNI and THE NIGHT CIRCUS in tone....more
PATRICK DEWITT’S UNDERMAJORDOMO MINOR: POSTMODERN TALL TALE
This novel is essential a lightly comic tall tale. Set in some vaguely European land of nobPATRICK DEWITT’S UNDERMAJORDOMO MINOR: POSTMODERN TALL TALE
This novel is essential a lightly comic tall tale. Set in some vaguely European land of nobles and peasants, it follows the (mis)adventures of the titular character Lucien Minor in his career at a Baron’s castle. The novel shuttles between High Gothic (with a dash of Grand Guginol), a comedy of manners and a turn of the century bildungsrom, never settling for one mode. In that way, it reminded me of the cinematic work of Wes Anderson, filled with eccentric characters and slightly archaic dialogue. Lucien Minor isn’t a particularly compelling character, and the arch tone of the narrative renders many of the characters as stock plot devices that are everso gently imbued with absurd eccentricities.
Postmodern tall tale or neo-gothic comedy, it is an enjoyable romp. I could see it being an animated film, of the sort that Laika studios produces....more
I love Patricia McKillip's work but this experiment just didn't flow for me. It's an Arthurian quest fantasy set in modern times that doesn't quite geI love Patricia McKillip's work but this experiment just didn't flow for me. It's an Arthurian quest fantasy set in modern times that doesn't quite gel together. The quirky characters and odd asides (foodie culture) and the magic (basiliks and sorcery) never quite come together. It's a Kelly Link/interstitial style piece--I admire the attempt.
The prose is lovely, as always is the case with McKillip....more
Fun Russian-themed romp featuring mistaken identity, a wisecracking Baba Yaga and the Firebird, set in the late Tsarist era. Reminded me of "The WolveFun Russian-themed romp featuring mistaken identity, a wisecracking Baba Yaga and the Firebird, set in the late Tsarist era. Reminded me of "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase," with a slight penny dreadful feel. Was pleased to see that the book was dedicated to the late Maurice Sendak....more
The specter of AIDS haunts this star-studded, themed collection which is set in the early 80s, just at the beginning of the AIDS crisis. The cast inclThe specter of AIDS haunts this star-studded, themed collection which is set in the early 80s, just at the beginning of the AIDS crisis. The cast includes Keith Haring, Sylvester, the Reagans, Jackie O, and Little Edie Beale. The settings veer from New York Bathhouses to the Castro to Fire Island to the White House. The brief book exudes a unique mixture of camp and nostalagia, shot through with a prophetic melancholy....more
Spanning over 1000 years, The Incarnations starts in contemporary China and follows the life of a young taxi driver and his family. Wang Jun is the soSpanning over 1000 years, The Incarnations starts in contemporary China and follows the life of a young taxi driver and his family. Wang Jun is the son of a former Maoist official whose mental illness and bisexuality estranges him from his already cold father and his manipulative stepmother. Wang Jun is married to a massage therapist and has a 10 year old daughter who aspires to be a comic book artist. The family lives in abject poverty, a stark contrast from the relative opulence of his upbringing. Wang Jun begins receiving anonymous letters addressed to him that recount in vivid detail the past lives he and the letter writer have lived, starting from the Bronze Age and up to and including the Cultural Revolution. The appearance of the letters begins to intrude into his family life in unexpected ways. The prose style of the anonymous letters, addressed in the second person, are rich, (homo)erotic and flavored with folklore as well as historical accuracy. The contemporary scenes are beautiful rendered, full of carefully crafted characters and emotional resonant vignettes. There is a wonderful tension between the modes of storytelling —psychologically acute portraiture and the epic, tall tale style of the letters. This is an uncategorizable novel—historical and contemporary, magical and mundane. ...more
Craig Laurance
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