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Brilliant! Loved it. Will write more later.
___
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Collected Stories.
I loved them! I really did.
I came in with no expectations...and was hit immediately by the jarring realization that this book falls entirely outside the realm of the genre of book I have been occupying myself with thus far. In a good way. What did the bus driver call it? Enchanted realism. (I can't remember). But whatever the official term for it is...the stories are poised as if set in reality, but with huge swathes of it are whimsical and mystical and fantastical...but conveyed as matter-of-factly as every day life.
I've come to realize...I love short stories. As much as the pace of them takes some getting used to. In the beginning of the book, the stories were completely separate and stood alone (though with a common thread of time and death and dreams running through). Some of the stories toward the end gave hints of a common story world - primary characters from one story would come up as tertiary characters in another. I liked both techniques! The former method kind of reminds me of Sum (yes, Eagleman), where a new world was invented from scratch at the start of every new chapter. The latter method gave the stories more continuity, and it was easier to let go of the characters from one, and transition to the next.
Also, the beauty of short stories (when done well) is that they convey so much meaning in so few words. Every line must be deeply intentional. Someone's entire character is encapsulated in a matter of sentences. Imagine if every line of every novel were so intentional! What would that be like? Now that I'm changing gears and swapping over to an Atwood novel, the style seems so tranquil and...meandering. Layers are slooowly being peeled away one...by one. It's a new thing for me to talk about the "pace" of a piece of writing, but it seems valid, doesn't it?
Anyways, here are some of my very favorite quotes, that will hopefully inspire you to read this book too:
"There was no one at the station...On the other side of the street, on the sidewalk shaded by the almond trees, only the pool hall was open. The town was floating in the heat" (101).
"The alcohol was leaving him, in concentric waves, and he assumed once more the weight, the volume, and the responsibility of his limbs" (113).
"The world had been sad since Tuesday. Sea and sky were a single ash-gray thing and the sands of the beach, which on March nights glimmered like powdered light, had become a stew of mud and rotten shellfish" (203).
"When they heard the music, distant but distinct, the people stopped chatting. They looked at one another and for a moment had nothing to say, for only then did they realize how old they had become since the last time they'd heard music" (217).
___
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Collected Stories.
I loved them! I really did.
I came in with no expectations...and was hit immediately by the jarring realization that this book falls entirely outside the realm of the genre of book I have been occupying myself with thus far. In a good way. What did the bus driver call it? Enchanted realism. (I can't remember). But whatever the official term for it is...the stories are poised as if set in reality, but with huge swathes of it are whimsical and mystical and fantastical...but conveyed as matter-of-factly as every day life.
I've come to realize...I love short stories. As much as the pace of them takes some getting used to. In the beginning of the book, the stories were completely separate and stood alone (though with a common thread of time and death and dreams running through). Some of the stories toward the end gave hints of a common story world - primary characters from one story would come up as tertiary characters in another. I liked both techniques! The former method kind of reminds me of Sum (yes, Eagleman), where a new world was invented from scratch at the start of every new chapter. The latter method gave the stories more continuity, and it was easier to let go of the characters from one, and transition to the next.
Also, the beauty of short stories (when done well) is that they convey so much meaning in so few words. Every line must be deeply intentional. Someone's entire character is encapsulated in a matter of sentences. Imagine if every line of every novel were so intentional! What would that be like? Now that I'm changing gears and swapping over to an Atwood novel, the style seems so tranquil and...meandering. Layers are slooowly being peeled away one...by one. It's a new thing for me to talk about the "pace" of a piece of writing, but it seems valid, doesn't it?
Anyways, here are some of my very favorite quotes, that will hopefully inspire you to read this book too:
"There was no one at the station...On the other side of the street, on the sidewalk shaded by the almond trees, only the pool hall was open. The town was floating in the heat" (101).
"The alcohol was leaving him, in concentric waves, and he assumed once more the weight, the volume, and the responsibility of his limbs" (113).
"The world had been sad since Tuesday. Sea and sky were a single ash-gray thing and the sands of the beach, which on March nights glimmered like powdered light, had become a stew of mud and rotten shellfish" (203).
"When they heard the music, distant but distinct, the people stopped chatting. They looked at one another and for a moment had nothing to say, for only then did they realize how old they had become since the last time they'd heard music" (217).
