michael chabon, ed., mcsweeney's enchanted chamber of astonishing stories
the nice things about anthologies like this is that you can put it down for a few days, and pick it up again when you're in the mood for a semi-creepy story, and not have to worry about forgetting major plots or themes. and this anthology was satisfying on the whole--i like ghost-y stories, and especially enjoyed the david mitchell, ayelet waldman, and heidi julavits selections. the china mieville one was interesting too, and joyce carol oates does a pretty fair impression of poe. there were only a few letdowns; the worst story by far is the one by stephen king (disappointing! his different seasons is pretty good), which echoes misery in its stupid-sounding curse-word substitutions ("smucking"? come ON) and which isn't the least little bit scary or even tense. you're slipping, old man! and being in an anthology with all these awesome younger writers only shows it more. i think i liked kelly link's stories better, but there were some tasty tidbits in here that made sleeping a little bit harder some nights. :)
One thing that's always bugged me about SK (and I've been a Constant Reader since 1981) is his translation of dialect. Either give us dialect or give it to us straight, but not both. We can figure it out! (Here, his ghastly Southern dialect is more frightening than the story!) His Everything's Eventual collection is pretty good, though.
ReplyDeleteI've been dipping into this McSweeny's collection (and the 'Thrilling Tales' one) off and on, but today I'm finishing up Cloud Atlas.
i loooooved cloud atlas--can't wait to hear what you think of it!
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