Zombies are True

Book Review…

Link, Kelly. Magic for Beginners. Orlando: Harvest Books, 2006.

The nine stories in Kelly Link’s second collection are fantastic, meaning incredibly good and also containing elements of fantasy. They are innovative and down to earth, about people, the things people do and feel. Some of the most sparkling gems in this collection are “The Faery Handbag,” “The Hortlak” (my favorite), “Stone Animals,” and “Magic for Beginners.” The collection does not ostentatiously defy genre, but perhaps simply disregards the literary market’s desire for such superficial distinctions. Link’s style is confident and innovative, borrowing from various traditions, most notably fantasy, horror, and fairy tale—humbling and improbable vestiges of life, worlds that exist only between the covers of the book. But don’t all fictive worlds only exist in this capacity?

Link achieves the nearness and reality of the world by oscillating between the ultimately fantastic and the simple basic truth of human reaction and interaction, what is and what is not. In Link’s work, zombies exist as incidental, assimilated, mythic, harmless, feared, fictive, and real. Zombies, like haunted objects and animated cats, can be considered in their relation to action, to private thought, to the larger continuing world. In “The Faery Handbag,” as well as other tales in this collection, the shocking, inventive, and unfamiliar are crafted with beauty and a sensitivity to human interaction—attention to a character’s inner world as well as the outer. These crossings of people, in and out of each other’s minds and physical worlds, is what is real. In “Stone Animals,” Link explores this human interaction in a haunted, mysterious setting. The plot folds in on itself in repetition, similar to how time and interaction repeatedly fold in and out for the characters.

A reader of literary fiction may look askance at Link’s work, what has been called fantastic or fabulist, and wish to pass preliminary judgment based on preconceived notions of reality. But there are often opposite ways of getting at the truth, and in Magic for Beginners Link has bravely forged her own path, a path any open reader will be drawn through, surprised by, pleased by, amazed by, and ultimately affected by.

March 25, 2007 0

Iowa Review on New Media, Games, and Interactive Fiction

The Iowa Review on New Media, Games, and Interactive Fiction has a fascinating online issue. Check out some of the links to networked novels / narrative projects…From the editor’s introduction:

In most hypertext fiction, the role of chronology in structuring the narrative is greatly diminished in comparison to print fiction conventions. In the absence of chronology, the authors of fragmented multilinear narratives need to offer their readers other tools for navigating the text. In an environment described as cyberspace, developed with home pages on web sites, geographical metaphors make almost intuitive sense. Any textual link is of course itself a means of navigation, but authors of web hypertext typically offer readers other orienting strategies as well. In addition to a calendar and character-based means of navigation, Bobby Rabyd a.k.a. Robert Arellano’s network novel Sunshine 69 [1996] also provides a map of the San Francisco Bay area, enabling the reader to organize their reading geographically. The reader traverses Matthew Miller’s “Trip” [1996] by first choosing a state in the US and then by choosing specific interstates to change course. The collaborative hypertext novel The Unknown [1999] likewise used geography as an organizational strategy, and the road trip as a trope. Stuart Moulthrop’s Reagan Library [1999] can be navigated both by textual links and by moving through a three-dimensional Myst-like Quicktime VR world. In Moulthrop’s most recent work Pax [2003], the user clicks on bodies rising and falling through space, momentarily visiting each avatar’s consciousness in the process of assembling a patchworked story of American consciousness during the war on (or in) terror. The collective narrative project Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood includes hundreds of individual contributions of short fiction and nonfiction set in specific locations all over New York City. The reader can navigate to stories by selecting a New York neighborhood or by zooming in on a satellite map of Manhattan to the specific street address where the story takes place.

March 16, 2007 0

Reading Right Now

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, by Chris Ware. I’m embarrassed to say this is the first graphic novel I’ve read. (Hangs head in shame.) I also picked up a copy of Ghost World, which was recommended to me in reference to the novel I’m revising. Jimmy Corrigan is a huge doorstop, while Ghost World is a thin book. I have to admit I’m confused about several things in Jimmy Corrigan…but I’m holding on, reserving judgment. It’s pretty damn funny.

Tracks, by Louise Erdrich. I’m deconstructing this book in terms of craft, for a presentation in one of my classes. I’ve found myself picking through old essays I’ve read from guys like Gardner, Booth, and Baxter. Excited yet?

The Golden Apples, by Eudora Welty. This might be my favorite collection of Welty’s that I’ve read so far. The names in these stories are great–I have a list of recurring names and phrases to Google…to try and find any juicy connections. “June Recital” captures the particular mood of adolescence well.

All of the above books are coursework. I’ve also started Stray, which is enthralling, but I’ve set it aside until I can curl up and be in that relaxed place where I don’t have any bizarre study-related thoughts like, this is what Gardner meant about ‘delay,’ or whatever.

On the coffee table: the latest issues of Marie Claire, The Atlantic, and Bookmarks.

Tangent: not a book but definitely a narrative, I started playing Indigo Prophecy, which is perhaps the most intriguing video game I’ve ever played. It’s a first person narrative where you’re running from the authorities while also trying to figure out what actually happened to bring you to that point; there’s a psychological element. Every single action or inaction you take has a mental toll–you have to keep an eye on your anxiety and depression, as well as physical health….if you go about things the wrong way you can lose the game by driving yourself to commit suicide. So, you have to be sure to play that iPod and eat some good food while you’re running from the law and investigating a conspiracy

March 10, 2007 2

Heidi Julavits

There is an interview with Heidi Julavits up at Bookslut. I think I mentioned this before, but her second novel, The Effect of Living Backwards, was one of my favorite books of last year. Her third novel, The Uses of Enchantment, also came out in October of last year. In addition to writing fiction, Julavits edits The Believer.

March 6, 2007 0

AWP Loot

AWP was a good time. Some panels were infinitely more interesting than others, but, what are you going to do. And I had no idea restaurant service was so horrid downtown. There are conferences all the time; aren’t they used to crowds? And why does a bottle of domestic beer cost $5.75? For the love of god. That’s what a flask is for. I paid $6 and some odd cents for a bottle of 420 at the bar at the Hilton and the darn thing wasn’t even cold. Anyway, the panel Friday about research and the novel was interesting–the best thing was learning how each author on the panel conducted research in a different way. There is no right way, you just have to figure out how to serve your particular story. I’m going to start thinking more about protagonists’ professions/jobs, because that is a significant part of life. The Five Points reception Friday was good, but I didn’t make it to the John Barth reading because I opted to continue partying instead (ooops!). It was definitely the right choice. One of the biggest benefits of a writing program has been building relationships with like-minded writers; the value of those relationships cannot be underestimated. Saturday I attended a panel on how to start a reading series. I found all the work Marc Fitten (editor of Chattahoochee Review) and Megan Sexton (editor of Five Points) do organizing readings and events in Atlanta particularly interesting. It’s wonderful when organizations (lit mags, newspapers, NPR, food vendors, etc) can all get together for mutual publicity and to host fun literary events for the public. Daren Wang (founder of Verb and organizer of The Decatur Book Festival) was also on the panel. I also saw a panel about crossing over into YA, which was really ispiring and got me brainstorming new book ideas.

At the bookfair I renewed my subscription (I’d let it lapse!) to the Chattahoochee Review. I bought a second copy of Stray at the MacAdam/Cage table, because it was such a steal. I picked up two chapbooks at the Small Beer Press table. Horse Blow Up Dog City & Other Stories, by Richard Butner, is really good. I especially like “Ash City Stomp,” (recommended by Kelly Link!) which you can read or listen to here.

I met Kelly Link and managed to act like a mute idiot for a significant period of time before summoning the courage to tell her how awesome she is. Because she is truly awesome. Magic for Beginners is an amazing, original work. If you feel the joy has been sucked out of reading (are you in academia perhaps?) then get thee a copy of Magic for Beginners and curl up on a stormy night and dig in. I cannot get over “The Hortlak,” “The Faery Handbag,” or “Stone Animals.” You can read “The Faery Handbag” here.

March 4, 2007 1

AWP, Baby

What crappy weather for walking around downtown today! There are hundreds of panels, but I have my eye on a few. From the AWP Conference Schedule for today:

R143. Deviant Fictions by Women. (Kathryn Davis, Jaimy
Gordon, Kate Bernheimer, Kellie Wells)

In her introduction to Halldór Laxness’s novel Under the Glacier,
Susan Sontag says, “Narratives that deviate from [the] artificial
norm” of realist fiction “and tell other kinds of stories, or appear
not to tell much of a story at all…still, to this day, seem innovative
or ultraliterary or bizarre,” suggesting they “occupy the outlying
precincts of the novel’s main tradition,” and it is with some of
these deviant, Martian fictions that this panel will be concerned.
Panelists will read from and discuss their work.

R159. A Tribute to Leon Stokesbury. (John Holman, Leon
Stokesbury, Katie Chaple, Maudelle Driskell, Delisa Mulkey)

Three former students honor Leon Stokesbury on his 20th year as
a creative writing professor at Georgia State University. Stokesbury
is co-winner of the first Associated Writing Programs Poetry
Competition in 1975 for his book Often in Different Landscapes.
Speakers will discuss Stokesbury’s influence and read from their
work before Stokesbury shares his poetry.

R184. Publishing the ATL. (James Iredell, Dan Veach, Daren
Wang, Tania Rochelle, Megan Sexton, Christopher Bundy)

This panel, consisting of editors from Atlanta journals and magazines (Five
Points, the Atlanta Review, GSU Review, Verb, the Chattahoochee Review,
and Terminus), focuses on each publication’s mission to serve both its immediate
and greater literary community. Panel participants discuss their
editorial preferences in terms of their pub’s specific audience, be it international,
academic, student, audio, independent, and combinations of these.

R195. Robert Dana Tribute Reception: Sponsored by
Anhinga Press and the Chattahoochee Review.

March 1, 2007 0