Oh hush, you do this too, where you read a book you like by an author who has a backlist and you're all, Oh good, I will read more of her. And then you don't for almost two years and when you do you're all WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE and the answer is: on your own dumb tbr. As usual, I have only myself to blame.And while I (quote) 'did not die with love' for Tender Morsels, I totally died for Black Juice. Short stories! I never know how to think about you! You are always too much or not nearly enough and collections of you are so Russian Roulette! But here, HERE is the first SS collection I have found where I ranged between loving the story and loving the story a lot.
Be ye warned: It is DARK and WEIRD and SAD AS HELL. The first story, 'Singing My Sister Down' (even the title is sad) punched me right in the weepies, and I had to have a little cry in the back of the bus. But it is also TRIUMPHANT and VICTORIOUS and full of metaphorical fist-pumps.
Have I mentioned they are ripping good reads? Some of these are like the best chapter of the book, where the lord finally catches up to his fled gypsy wife, or when the yowlinins attack, so that it's all the payoff of reading a novel and a fraction of the work. Others, like 'The House of the Many,' are whole little novellas unto themselves.
And I love them because they're all a little bit alien and a little bit fantastic (in both the 'fantasy-like' and in the 'thumbs-up' sense). In this one, criminals have to stand in the tar until they sink and die which is fine when it's criminals but hard when it's your sister, and in this one, everyone wears white and no jewelry and there is a sort of overlord/bard (overbard?) and in this one we are all elephants. And they are SHORT STORIES so you should be spending entirely too much time trying to get your bearings but this is the apex of deftitude, because you will know enough to go on, and there is nary an info-dump in sight. All the info has been ground up and slipped into your soup and my years of watching decent authors mess this up has convinced me it is no small thing.
My expectations for the rest of the color/noun collections (White Time, Red Spikes, and she is either working on one called Yellowcake or I dreamed that) are now exeedingly high.
Nine caterpillars, this.
I have this, I must read it! (and that first paragraph cracked me up!)
ReplyDeleteSinging My Sister Down is being ( has been?) made into a play( a musical? I really should know these facts!!!!)
ReplyDeleteI heart Margo L's style so very much, her word-pictures make me weak at the knees.
Fantastic review! To the TBR list!
ReplyDeleteI did "die with love" for Tender Morsels so I'll clearly have to check this out ASAP. Or ASAIR - As soon as I remember, which is meaningless and pathetic.
ReplyDeleteNot only have you added another book to my TBR list but you have also reminded me of the authors I swore I was going to read more of after falling in love with a book.
ReplyDeleteJust chiming in to say, "oooo, look! An 'older posts' button!" and crack my head against the desk. :D
ReplyDeletei love her i love her i love her and yes, yellowcake coming out so so so soon. so excited. i am also glad the lanaganlove has made it to Other Countries. woot. go aussie.
ReplyDeleteThis was definitely an evocative book! Love the review!
ReplyDeleteWay back early in my blogging life, someone reviewed this (Nymeth? It seems like a Nymeth book.) I spent some time trying to find it, and it did not exist in my library. I was sad, then I forgot about it, until now. I WROTE IT DOWN, and it shall be mine, probably after April 1st.
ReplyDeleteAnother great example of synchronicity between London UK and wherever it is in Canada you hide, oh, Raych. I love Margo and her weird mind, and we are appearing together at the same book festival in NZ in May, at which time I will tell her of her fans in the great frozen north.
ReplyDeleteStories that make you weep at the back of the bus should come with a DO NOT READ IN PUBLIC warning. That aside, this sounds like such a fantastic collection!
ReplyDeleteAnother short story collection to add to my list. I just finished Stephen King's latest, Full Dark, No Stars, and it was also weird and dark (like all of his writings) but definitely some of the best I've read of King.
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