April 30 - "The Count's Beard"

“The Count’s Beard”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

Micillina the Witch plagued a small town at the top of a steep hill until Masino, the prodigal son of the town, returned to tackle the problem.

A bit of mystery – a detective story hidden beneath a folktale. The mystery was nothing intricate or clever – it was predictably and easily solved by Masino upon his return to the village – but it gave the folktale an added element of, well, mystery that was unique. I also enjoyed the poetic proclamations made by the townspeople. It amazes me how translators can work their magic maintaining the rhymes and integrity of the original prose. The story still stumbles near the end, when conflicts are too quickly resolved, too neatly wrapped.

[This review was posted to the blog a day late. The story was read on April 30th, but an unexpected nap stole the night from me.]

April 29 - "Give Them the Bag"

“Give Them the Bag”
by Deb Olin Unferth
Minor Robberies (2007)

* * * * (Great) Realistic

Two sisters on vacation bicker like sisters do until they night leave a movie theater and are mugged at knifepoint.

There is a definite rhythm and flow to the sentences in this short tale. The arguing and fighting and general “sisterliness” presented in the story is wonderfully captured in some amazing sentences.

“It [a movie] was an adventure, or sci-fi feature, or men with guns, done in digits, digitized, with a neatly typed sentence below explaining to everybody in one language as the people on the screen explained, or tried to, in another. The two sisters sat in front of the giant screen. They didn’t argue or see each other but it wasn’t quite the moment of sisterliness the sisters had hoped for.”

The only problem is that the story stretches a bit thin, is a little too long. Even wonderful sentences cannot mask the few unnecessary bits that push the story just past its welcome. The old maxim “a little goes a long way” is apt.

April 28 - "Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear"

“Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear”
by Joyce Carol Oates
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * (Okay) Realistic

A girl stuck caring for her sick mother waits for the handsome pharmacist to drive by her home again, impossibly hoping he’ll take her away from this life she does not desire.

Written as a stream-of-conscious narrative, this story fails to capture my interest. I found the thoughts of the narrator difficult to follow. For a girl with an IQ supposedly in the 160’s, her thoughts are a jumbled mess of incomplete and often awkwardly phrased sentences. I’m not saying anyone’s thoughts are ever completely clear, but when trying to make the writing as accessible as possible, there are other ways to demonstrate a character’s personality and tone that might have been a bit more reader-friendly. There were moments – scenes - that were excellently executed and poignant, but lost in and among the jumbled ramblings of a longing and lonely, and ultimately unlikeable narrator.

April 27 - "The Boy from Lam Kien"

“The Boy from Lam Kien”
by Miranda July
No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007)

* * * (Good) Realistic

An agoraphobic and a curious young boy engage in a conversation that ends with a tour of the reclusive narrator’s apartment.

Finally a story that once again hints at the quirkiness that hooked me on July in the first place. I won’t gush – there’s much here that doesn’t impress me one way or another – but there are moments when the sentences spark and the imagination ignites, and I find myself drawn to these characters. Six stories to go in this collection. I’m hoping for a strong finish, full of unique characters, outrageous and unbelievable situations – stories that entertain my imagination.

April 26 - "The Mangler"

Sundays with Uncle Stevie“The Mangler”
by Stephen King
Night Shift (1979)

* * * * (Great) Supernatural

After a horrific accident at an industrial wash facility, suspecting the Hadley-Watson Model-6 Speed Ironer and Folder to be possessed, the local police officer races to exorcise the blood-hungry demon before it kills again.

This story is an excellent example of pacing. The story builds from the first slow and apprehensive paragraph through to the tense, terrifying, and quick final moments. There are no extraneous details or wasted words. Even the quick aside about a killer refrigerator (was this mentioned in ’Salem’s Lot as well?) fits in with the overall flow of the story. I’m sure it’s not unusual with prolific authors writing for decades, but I can tell the time period in which the story was written; it mirrors the tone and style of King’s other works of the same time. It’s an interesting thing to watch – style – as it evolves over time.

As a random note: this is the second story this year with an obscure, possessed machine. First was Brown’s evil Linotype machine, and now the Mangler. I’m sure there is an entire sub-genre of supernatural machine literature I don’t even know exists. Weird.

April 25 - "You Will Hear the Locust Sing"

“You Will Hear the Locust Sing”
by Joe Hill
20th Century Ghosts (2007)

* * * * (Great) Science Fiction

Francis woke up one morning to find that he had shed his human skin for a more insect existence. Terrified of people’s reaction to his transformation, Francis hides to plan his next move.

When I read the blub for this story on the back of the collection I immediately pictured a B-movie bug terrorizing some small town in the 1950’s. While I wasn’t far off in my imagination, the story ends up being better than that, better than I expected, really. Tales from the monster’s point-of-view are nothing new, and there have been many great ones (i.e. Grendel), so what sets this story above the merely mediocre? The character of Francis, bug boy, is expertly crafted. He’s given the backstory and development that allows us to care about his metamorphosis and eventual rampage. Throw in some mighty fine writing and all the elements of an entertaining read are present.

April 24 - "Silver Nose"

“Silver Nose”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * * (Great) Folktale

A widowed woman reluctantly agrees to send her three daughters to work for an ominous, silver-nosed man. The third, most clever, daughter is obligated to save her more curious, trapped sisters.

This is one of the more normal folktales I’ve come across in this collection. The characters are placed in situations where their poor choices come back to haunt them, and only the most clever of girls can outwit the big bad. The story is predictable in a way that is expected, and thus enjoyable. This is the type of story young children (me) grow up hearing. One interesting observation: in all the ways I’ve heard the devil described, silver-nosed is new. I don’t know – if it was me – a dude comes asking for my daughters, slick as oil, complete with silver nose, I’m going to tell the beast to keep walking.

April 23 - "Blood"

“Blood”
by Zdravka Evtimova
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * * (Good) Realistic

An old woman stumbles into a man’s shop looking for the blood of a mole to help cure her sick son. The storekeeper has no moles, but cannot allow the woman to leave without the blood she so desperately seeks.

Evtimova writes with an over abundance of similes. When used effectively, similes can punch up the imagery of a piece. However, when used too frequently, the attempt becomes apparent and the reader is pulled out of the story, and the image the writer was trying so hard to create fades. And this is sad because there’s a great story hidden behind the technical missteps. The piece reads as though it may have been translated from another language (there is no indication that this is the case), and possibly the awkwardness of the sentences is due in some small degree to an unfamiliarity with the English language. Something just feels a bit off throughout.

April 22 - "How to Sell the Ponti Bridge"

“How to Sell the Ponti Bridge”
by Neil Gaiman
M Is for Magic (2007)

* * * (Good) Fantasy

A tall, bald man steps up to defend the Ponti Bridge con at the Rouges’ Club after listening to a group of ne'er-do-well artists decry it’s merits.

I’m all for the con. But what keeps me away from fantasy, and often drives me out of this story, are the names I cannot pronounce. I was impressed, as always, with the style of writing displayed by Gaiman, and the con of selling the unsellable bridge was engaging, but I couldn’t get past the fact that this was a tale told on a different world, to other rogues I couldn’t picture because of the trappings in which they were dressed (named). It seems like such a little thing, but it’s often those minor details upon which stories find their fans, or do not.

April 21 - "Bob"

“Bob”
by Bentley Little
The Collection (2002)

* * * (Good) Suspense

Brandon is overwhelmed by seven elderly women who mistake him for Bob, a man who can help their friend Libby escape from her abusive husband.

You can get quite a lot of mileage out of a story of mistaken identity. These stories can go in many different directions – most ending poorly for at least one of the involved characters. But, they are, more often than not, fun. This story, and more than a handful of others like it, ends up being a brilliant little kernel of what might be a fascinating longer tale. For example, Dean Koontz takes this very same conceit – a man mistaken for a hitman – and turns it into a novel, The Good Guy (a novel in which I’m already a few chapters deep). It always amazes me how connected things can be. I have to say, though, the idea of seven elderly women barging into my home would almost terrify me to the point of accepting whatever sad story and/or deal they were peddling.