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Title: Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape
Author: Sarah Manguso
Publication date: 2007
Book's setting: Modern America
Random facts: This book is one in a set of three short stories call One-Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box.
Plot summary: This is a collection of eighty-one short stories. Really short stories. Each one is limited to the length of a page, some are ever smaller. Although many of them stand alone, if you read them carefully enough you'll find that many of them seems to be about the same people, or child. Many of them sound incredible real, perhaps even autobiographical.
Favorite aspects: I cried over some of these, they were so delicate and perfect. Manguso's writing is so seamless and easy to sink into. It's a tiny little book, only eighty-one pages, and you could totally read it in a single sitting. But that's one of the coolest things about it. It's an experience to read. It's theatrical. It's spell-bounding. You want to read it all at once.
Least favorite aspects: You can only buy it in a set of three books, for about $27. I choked and bought it... so what? Money is meant to be spent.
Other works it reminded me of: No One Belongs Here More than You by Miranda July.
Sadie's merciless break-down: Let me quote one of the stories to you:
"There's one girl in the nursery that I decide to love. I stare at her and try to think of what I should call her. I decide I will call her Benny, and I approach her. "Hi, Benny," I say. Another girl pipes up. "It's Becky, not Benny," she informs me. But what she doesn't know is that I got within one constanant of the girl's name just by looking at her."
Recommendation rate: A must-read. All Manguso is a must, must, must read.
Title: No One Belongs Here More Than You
Author: Miranda July
Publication date: 2007
Book's setting: Modern
Random facts: 200+ pages and I read it in a day, forsaking all else.
Plot summary: A collection of short stories written in that compelling and emotional voice that is ~modern~ literature. The stories are just little pictures of life- different lives and different heart break. Some of them are very odd, bordering upon metaphysical I'd almost say. Except it's not really the story itself that is otherworldly, it's just the way it's told.
Favorite aspects: All the emotions were sincear and they all felt so close to home... I even identified with the ones that I really had no reason to. I felt the character's pain in a way that is very rare, especially in short stories when none of the characters are actually fully developed. I have an easier time reviewing the books I didn't love. I loved this. I loved it. I think my favorite stories were The Swim Team, This Person, and How to Tell Stories to Children. The last one broke my heart in the most epic way of all time.
Least favorite aspects: I don't think I can think of anything... Sorry.
Other works it reminded me of: The Complete Short Stories of Evelyn Waugh by Evelyn Waugh; The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso.
Sadie's merciless break-down: I'm in an incredibly vulnerable place in my life right now, so prehaps it isn't any wonder I cried. Even so, I don't cry often.
So there is this style of writing. It's called "modern." And I've realized I love it. I'm cautious with it because it can be easily abused, or at least I think it can be. I don't think it possible that all "modern" writing could possible be as meaningful as No One Belongs Here More Than You. It's like poetry in proses form. It has a new set of rules and it's rhythmic. I'm a bit afraid of modern literature because I think it's more emotionally powerful than older styles of writing. It can grab you and haunt you so easily. I think that's because emotion is the point of modern literature. Not theme or morals or social commentary- the point is conveying emotion and making the reader feel it too. So in that sence it's a bit frightening, but it can also be compelling and eye-opening and really, really exquisite.
Note: Because I don't know who reads this blog or what their personal standards are I just feel the need to note that this book has sex and cursing in it. You have been warned.
Recommendation rate: It's a pity you can't force someone to read because you should all be forced to read this.
Title: The Ladies of Grace Adieu
Author: Susanne Clarke
Publication date: 2006
Book's setting: Victorian
Random facts: Accompanied by gorgeous illustrations by Charles Vess.
Plot summary: A collection of eight short stories. One of them is set in the world of her novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, one of them is actually set in Gaiman's Stardust universe, and all of them are ridiculous and incredibly fantasies, filled with ridiculous and incredibly Victorian ladies.
Favorite aspects: Clarke has an incredibly pure type of magic in her stories. It's no-nonsense, yet bizarre and doesn't feel the need to follow any rules. It truly is faerie magic. Also she has the ability to keep up a really stuffy, old-fashioned style without the reader getting tired of it. Each one of her stories was written in a slightly different style, which was also very impressive.
I really loved all her, I don't know, not-stereotypically-annoyingly-strong-female characters who were awesome, confidant ladies never the less. Does that make sense? Eh.
Least favorite aspects: I... don't have anything... to say here...
Other works it reminded me of: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman; Unexpected Magic by Diana Wynne Jones.
Sadie's merciless break-down: Quite possibly, this was the most busy month of my life- and it's still not over. The copy of The Ladies of Grace Adieu we have from the library is beautiful... but it's also a massive hardcover. It doesn't fit in my pocketbook, and therefore I have been reading it in ten-page bursts before bed. Now that things have seemed to (kind of) calm down, hopefully I can get rolling with the reading again. But whatever- I'm not here to make excuses for my lapse from reading.
Fantasy and I go way back. The Ladies of Grace Adieu had a really classic, ancient, Tam-Lin sort of incredibly British magic that I love. I don't think that there is enough of that sort of magic in fantasies. It doesn't follow rules, it's mystical, almost religious in a way. Pagan, I guess. Sometimes I think modern fantasy tries too hard to be plausible and logical. Leave "plausible" to sci-fi. Fantasy should just be allowed to be outrageous. Recommendation rate: If you enjoyed her novel than these are totally worth reading.
