After Coraline I was anxious to read this collection of short stories for adults by Neil Gaiman (this review has been a long time coming), and this is most definitely a collection for adults. I found it a little up and down; some stories were sublime, some were so-so. I suspect most people, apart from the most ardent Gaiman fans, would think the same, but which stories would be classed in which category would vary from person to person, as it is an extremely varied and very inventive collection.
The first story in the collection, A Study in Emerald, is a good introduction; it allows you to get your bearings and work out the sort of territory you are entering for the relatively uninitiated into Gaiman's work, such as me. It is available to read for free on Neil Gaiman's site here, and I can recommend it - with a couple of provisos if you are to enjoy it fully.
Firstly you should be familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories, not too difficult as most people are, and secondly you should be familiar with H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos - without the second I imagine it must be a quite mystifying story. Basically the world of Sherlock Holmes and the world of H P Lovecraft have collided and once you get your head round that the story makes perfect sense. It wasn't too difficult and once I let my rational side go off and amuse itself somewhere else for a bit, I was fine.
It was the stories which do this, that create a world that is a perverted grotesque image of our own, that I enjoyed the most. My favourite was Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire (what a fantastic title!) about a writer struggling to write the truth about his reality; I won't go into too many details but the reality he is living in is not quite as ours, and the reversal of expectations was very entertaining.
I enjoyed the stories about the Smith character and Mr Alice; they appeared in two stories in the collection, the second also including a character called Shadow who, my brother informs me, is in American Gods. Smith is a very creepy character, a genuinely likeable psychopath. The matter of fact way he announces his Humbert Humbert-like sexual preferences and is surprised at the reaction he receives was particularly chilling.
I think the stories that made the least impact on me were the ones that were the most realistic: the story of a playhouse which children dare themselves to enter for instance or Feeders and Eaters, which is grotesque, and the part about the cat is particularly nasty (but for shock value still nothing on the kitten's head crushed by the stone in Bram Stoker's The Squaw, I'm afraid I have to disagree with a previous comment) but I found the settings a bit dowdy, with a kitchen-sink drama feel to them that I never get on with particularly.
All in all though, slight criticisms aside, the collection is very good and well worth reading; I enjoyed it very much and am fully a Gaiman convert. Now I would like to read some of his novels.
The first story in the collection, A Study in Emerald, is a good introduction; it allows you to get your bearings and work out the sort of territory you are entering for the relatively uninitiated into Gaiman's work, such as me. It is available to read for free on Neil Gaiman's site here, and I can recommend it - with a couple of provisos if you are to enjoy it fully.
Firstly you should be familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories, not too difficult as most people are, and secondly you should be familiar with H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos - without the second I imagine it must be a quite mystifying story. Basically the world of Sherlock Holmes and the world of H P Lovecraft have collided and once you get your head round that the story makes perfect sense. It wasn't too difficult and once I let my rational side go off and amuse itself somewhere else for a bit, I was fine.
It was the stories which do this, that create a world that is a perverted grotesque image of our own, that I enjoyed the most. My favourite was Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire (what a fantastic title!) about a writer struggling to write the truth about his reality; I won't go into too many details but the reality he is living in is not quite as ours, and the reversal of expectations was very entertaining.
I enjoyed the stories about the Smith character and Mr Alice; they appeared in two stories in the collection, the second also including a character called Shadow who, my brother informs me, is in American Gods. Smith is a very creepy character, a genuinely likeable psychopath. The matter of fact way he announces his Humbert Humbert-like sexual preferences and is surprised at the reaction he receives was particularly chilling.
I think the stories that made the least impact on me were the ones that were the most realistic: the story of a playhouse which children dare themselves to enter for instance or Feeders and Eaters, which is grotesque, and the part about the cat is particularly nasty (but for shock value still nothing on the kitten's head crushed by the stone in Bram Stoker's The Squaw, I'm afraid I have to disagree with a previous comment) but I found the settings a bit dowdy, with a kitchen-sink drama feel to them that I never get on with particularly.
All in all though, slight criticisms aside, the collection is very good and well worth reading; I enjoyed it very much and am fully a Gaiman convert. Now I would like to read some of his novels.
8 comments:
See, I disagree with you about the playhouse one -- I find it almost Robert Aickman-esque and very enjoyably chilling. About Feeders and Eaters I agree with your opinion. I loved this collection, but have recommended it only to people I think can get into the Gaiman mindset. Try American Gods -- my favorite of his novels -- or the Sandman graphic novels. Yum!
Coraline is the only book I've read by Gaiman, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So, maybe this would be a nice second helping of Gaiman for me. Thanks for the review!
"Fragile Things" was my introduction to Gaiman and I loved it. And I loved the playthouse one too. I like the way his stories don't always tie up the loose ends - and this makes them creepier.
His other great selection of short stories is "Smoke and Mirrors". I'm actually in the middle of "American Gods" at the moment and it's a fine book.
You are completely right in your assessment that the stories one loves in his short story books vary widely between fans.
Forbidden Brides is certainly one of my favorites as well. Interestingly enough, my opinion (from meh to yea!) changed quite a bit when I listened to the audio version of this book. Hearing Neil read stories (like How to Talk to Girls at Parties) really opened up the story for me. I also really enjoyed Vampire Tarot when I heard him read it...it made much more sense listening to it and I was able to see the cleverness in the whole thing.
There are few stories in this collection that I don't like. I'm not a fan of Feeders and Eaters, The Problem with Susan, or the first Mr. Alice story. They are well written but just didn't do anything for me at all. Beyond those I would have to say that I strongly enjoy all the rest of the stories in this collection. I highly recommend Smoke and Mirrors which many feel is an even better short story collection. For me I like them both equally. I think Smoke and Mirrors has a few more stories that I treasure and hold dearly in it but over all I really like them both.
Thanks for the link to the Gaiman site. He is a writer I've heard so much about from my blogging friends but haven't read yet--so I'm happy I can start off slowly and read from his site. Thanks!
Oddly enough I'm just reading this one too so found your review very interesting indeed. I agree that it's patchy but the good stories are *very* good. All in all though I think I may end up preferring Smoke and Mirrors because it had more stories that I liked a lot. The next Gaiman for me will be The Anansi Boys which is on my library pile at the moment.
I think the different views here show I was right about different stories from the collection appealing to different people. It's interesting to hear other views. I'll be trying many more of his books I'm sure but having watched Stardust on Saturday, which was wonderful, I think that will have to be next, closely followed by either American Gods or Smoke and Mirrors I'm sure.
Carl - thanks for the tip, I will seek out Gaiman's readings.
I enjoyed his first short story collection, Smoke and Mirrors a lot more (and I'm a pretty ardent Gaiman fan)...this one was more uneven, and had less truly awesome stories. My opinion, of course.
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