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kilroyPrint date: 2005 (20s: 1, 50s: 1, 60s: 4, 70s: 7, 80s: 7, 90s: 5, 00s: 13)
Kelly Link is an author that I really want to like and can't-- Neil Gaiman and I are just going to have to disagree here.
It's a question of closure. Link is one of the very best authors I know in terms of suspending you in a world-- someplace with a little whimsy, a little vulnerability, and a little oddity. She sets up her stories brilliantly; she's one of the authors who make "magical realism" a viable genre instead of a hacky trope. There's a part of your brain that falls comfortably into each story while there's another part that's simultaneously trying to figure out how the weird world works. You can lose track of time in these stories. You can get lost in the rhythms.
The problem is closure. Link doesn't have any. Ever. At best her stories end ambiguously, leaving you wondering what the point of the story was. At worst her stories just stop instead of ending. Given how strong the rest of her stories are, it's an enormous disappointment.
I realize that this is part and parcel of how she sees the world. She's not writing dramas despite the deaths and the magic, she's just describing a world that she's invented. She's a matter-of-fact writer, not one tending to embroidery or melodrama. But her stories could use a little melodrama. We get hits of dramatic structure but no follow-through, and it's aggravating.
I'm keeping the book because the craft in the stories is excellent, and because I want other people to read it so I can watch how they react. I'm not, however, keeping it because I'm a big fan.
Verdict: Keep. (22.5/70)
Page count: 297 (13018 total)
Completed: 38 (19 female authors, 19 male authors)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: Thu. 1/6
Kelly Link is an author that I really want to like and can't-- Neil Gaiman and I are just going to have to disagree here.
It's a question of closure. Link is one of the very best authors I know in terms of suspending you in a world-- someplace with a little whimsy, a little vulnerability, and a little oddity. She sets up her stories brilliantly; she's one of the authors who make "magical realism" a viable genre instead of a hacky trope. There's a part of your brain that falls comfortably into each story while there's another part that's simultaneously trying to figure out how the weird world works. You can lose track of time in these stories. You can get lost in the rhythms.
The problem is closure. Link doesn't have any. Ever. At best her stories end ambiguously, leaving you wondering what the point of the story was. At worst her stories just stop instead of ending. Given how strong the rest of her stories are, it's an enormous disappointment.
I realize that this is part and parcel of how she sees the world. She's not writing dramas despite the deaths and the magic, she's just describing a world that she's invented. She's a matter-of-fact writer, not one tending to embroidery or melodrama. But her stories could use a little melodrama. We get hits of dramatic structure but no follow-through, and it's aggravating.
I'm keeping the book because the craft in the stories is excellent, and because I want other people to read it so I can watch how they react. I'm not, however, keeping it because I'm a big fan.
Verdict: Keep. (22.5/70)
Page count: 297 (13018 total)
Completed: 38 (19 female authors, 19 male authors)
Rejected: 32 (20 male authors, 12 female authors)
Next book due: Thu. 1/6