The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye

Title: The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye

Author: A. S. Byatt

Publisher: Chatto and Windus (1994)

Genre(s): Fairy tales, short stories, fairy tale retellings

Length: 277 pages, 5 stories

Synopsis: Ranging in tone from traditional stories to modern reinterpretations, these stories explore the very idea of fairy tales from five different perspectives.

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion:

This collection of five “fairy tales” (though it would perhaps be more accurate to say four fairy tales and a novella) is one of the stranger pieces of literature I’ve found. I don’t mean to suggest that it wasn’t enjoyable, but rather that I was not (am still not) quite sure how to enjoy it. The stories, each taken individually, are quite delightful. Several show a self-awareness of their own fairy tale conventions, leading characters to make unexpected decisions that still somehow fit within the archetypal structure of the fairy tale or fable. Together, though, they seem a bit confused. One might argue that there is a logical sort of progression from the first, very traditional story, to the culminating novella from which the collection takes its name. The stories grow steadily less traditional and more self-aware, right up to the literary discussion of the academician characters in the final tale. All right, I’ll buy that. But there are so few tales leading up to that culminating English-major’s delight that the transition between is jarring. I have not given this collection four stars because it is poorly written. On the contrary, the writing is complex and really quite lovely. I’m giving it a less than perfect score because it changes the game on the reader without any warning. One of the charms of the fairy tale genre is that it is predictable, relying heavily on archetypal forms and characters. Even the “unpredictable” modern retellings subvert these archetypes in particular ways. With this collection, the reader is greeted with a lovely traditional fairy tale, but quickly finds that the rest of the book is increasingly less traditional. The structure, perhaps, is making a statement, but when all the reader’s expecting is a collection of fantasies, the statement is a bit hard to swallow.

Feed

Title: Feed

Author: M. T. Anderson

Publisher: Candlewick Press (February 2004)

Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction

Length: 308 pages

Synopsis:  For Titus and his friends, it was just another day on the moon, a spring break vacation that wasn’t turning out to be as thrilling as they’d hoped.  The only bright spot is Violet, the strange, beautiful girl that Titus can’t believe he’s had the good fortune to meet.  When he convinces her to come along to a club that night, their lives are turned upside down by the touch of a hacker.  Like everyone in this future America, the teens have been implanted with a chip that allows a constant feed of entertainment, commercials, and information directly to their brains.  The brief disconnection from that feed caused by the hacker gives Titus and his friends a glimpse into what a world without the feed might look like, but when their connection is restored, no one gives that world a second thought.  No one, that is, except Violet.  As she and Titus grow closer, he learns that Violet’s discovered a way to subvert the system.  What neither realizes is that in a future where even thoughts are commercial, everything comes with a price.

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion: 

This book is deeply disturbing.  With nods to classic dystopian tales like Brave New World and Farenheit 451, it presents a future America from the perspective of a future American.  The language is difficult to read at first; instead of relying on the reserved observations of an outside narrator, Anderson sends readers right along with his main character, Titus, and all the linguistic foibles of the internet-overloaded generation he represents.  It’s not just a matter of language, though.  There’s a simplistic way of thinking among these over-stimulated, information-saturated characters that doesn’t seem like too far a stretch considering our current age of Tweets and sound bytes.  There are hints of the decay and disintegration of society, from hordes of cockroaches to ubiquitous skin lesions, but even with infinite access to information literally at the speed of thought, no one seems to be thinking.  The feed thinks for these people, always ready with an ad for every scenario until words are no longer necessary and feelings are all but obsolete.  There are no subtleties to this book, no room for nuance of language as the narrative stylistically mimicks the feed.  Anderson doesn’t pull his punches, either.  This is a dystopian world without the scope of The Hunger Games, but with ramifications every bit as disturbing and, in my opinion, a good deal more likely.  Yes, this book is deeply disturbing, but only if you can unplug long enough to think about it. 

The Ivory and the Horn

Title: The Ivory and the Horn

Author: Charles de Lint

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. (April 1995)

Genre(s): Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Short Stories

Length: 318 pages, 15 stories

Synopsis: This collection is set in Newford, a fictional city that seems, on the surface, like any other metropolis, but where some perceptive individuals find that almost anything is possible.  Featuring a cast of characters that de Lint fans will recognize from other books in the Newford collection, these stories expand on the lives and experiences of these artists, poets, street urchins, and friends as they struggle to find meaning in their lives.

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:

Sometimes a book comes along, sits down beside you, and just has a conversation.  This collection does precisely that.  Many of de Lint’s books feature Newford and its inhabitants, and many of these stories have been around long enough to be reprinted several times.  I’ve stumbled across several of them in unexpected places and every time I felt I was greeting old friends.  This collection is no exception.  Newford is a remarkable place; for the setting of many fantastical exploits, the city itself (and those who live there) seem remarkably real.  This is not a through-the-wardrobe, escapist kind of fantasy, but rather the kind that sits beside you on the bus and waves to you in the park.  There are no cloaks, no swords, no dragons.  There are people who struggle every day.  Some have lost lovers or friends.  Some cannot see the worth in themselves when society says they are worthless.  Some are looking for clarity, some for redemption.  Reading these stories, I see myself and my friends and my family.  I see the people I work with and my neighbors.  Storytelling features heavily throughout the collection, even in the tone of the narratives themselves.  It’s almost they’re told not by their narrators, but by another voice, the voice that’s just sat down beside you to talk.  See? that voice says to you.  They are like you.  They hurt and weep and exult in their lives just as you do.  And see?  The pain fades.  The lessons can be learned.  Listen to the story.  It’s a pleasure to do so.  For pure fantasy alone, this book is appealing.  It’s charming and inventive and unique, but it’s more than that.  It’s an odd combination of grit and pixie dust, like the production that might be staged if Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent were combined with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream- sweet and harsh and frightening and primal and fantastical and, above all, very, very real.

Title: The Ivory and the Horn

The Butterfly Cabinet

Title: The Butterfly Cabinet

Author: Bertie McGill

Publisher: Free Press (July 2011)

Genre(s): Historical Fiction

Length: 240 pages

Synopsis: Based on the true story of a child’s death, a family secret decades old is slowly revealed from the perspective of two very different women.  Half the story comes from the prison diary of Harriet Ormond, convicted of murdering her own daughter, and half from the child’s nanny, Maddie.  It is only in the intermingling of these two perspectives that a truth no one ever guessed at comes to light, seventy years too late.

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion:

Nothing is what it seems in this novel.  A child found dead, strangled on the restraints used for punishment.  A mother convicted, imprisoned, and broken.  A servant who cared deeply for the children she tended.  It’s a façade as smooth and seamless as the wings of the butterflies Harriet Ormond keeps in neatly pinned rows in the drawers of her butterfly cabinet.  Her “pieces of sky,” she calls them.  It is an apt collection for a woman most at home under the open sky and a window into her suffering during the year she is imprisoned for her daughter’s death.  Harriet is painted as a harsh woman, cruel and unfeeling, and in her diary, her own words are not self-pitying.  They are, however, revealing.  Another side of Harriet comes to light between the lines of her prison diary, a side at which even her family did not guess.  Her counterpart, the woman everyone knows as Nanny Maddie, has her own secrets.  She’s kept them nearly for seventy years, and haunted by things left unsaid, her story at last is told.  There are no villains in this novel, and though readers will find themselves trying to fit characters into that mold, no one is easy to hate or to love.  The book does take a bit to hit its stride; the back-and-forth through time and space takes some adjustment on the part of the reader, and there are quite a few minor characters to keep track of.  Once the voices of these two women are established, however, their stories grow only more heart-wrenching with every turn of the page. 

The Curewife

Title: The Curewife

Author: Claire-Marie Watson

Publisher: Polygon (September 2003)

Genre(s): Historical Fiction

Length: 224 pages

Synopsis:  Part witch, part wise-woman, Grissel Jaffray is the last in a long line of curewives stretching back through the history of Scotland.  The story is told through the fictional diary of this very real woman as she marries and moves from her native Aberdeen to Dundee, taking with her the knowledge of herbal healing and spells she learned from her foremothers.  Grissel is a keenly intelligent woman; her powers of observation serve her well as the world around her erupts in political turmoil and intrigue.  Her city is torn apart by war and famine, and Grissel manages to keep her family one step ahead.  Ultimately, though, the very knowledge that keeps her there may cost her dearly.  

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Opinion: 

This book is genius.  The voice is utterly authentic, tricky historical spellings, vernacular and all.  The haphazard spacing between diary entries moves the reader forward from event to event without any loss of pace or continuity and lends to the realistic feel of the whole book.  Grissel is a compelling character, neither wholly trustworthy nor entirely dishonorable, but very human.  She loves her family fiercely and without reserve, but is nonetheless manipulative, egotistical, and confident to a fault.  In the end, the only reason I give this book four out of five stars is because I wanted more from it.  Watson tempts her readers with hints of a vast story lurking behind Grissel’s words, but refuses to open the window wide enough to see.  Of course, without an in depth knowledge of Scottish history, I was often at a loss as to exactly what was happening in a historical context, but in truth it doesn’t matter.  The reader views these happenings as Grissel does, not as historically important, but as momentarily devastating.  In fact, no event in the book is “historical” at all.  To Grissel, this is her modern world, and that attitude allows readers to step in beside her and have a look around.  If only Grissel would allow a bit more room for us as we follow her through her world, this book would have easily rated five stars from me.