‘Vampires in
the Lemon Grove’ is a collection of eight stories of
magical realism. As with all story collections, some work better than others.
The title story was nice but didn’t do much for me; the one I liked least was
the very odd- but not in a good, creepy way- ‘Dougbert Shackleton’s Rules for
Antarctic Tailgating’ in which the spectator sport of watching whales eat krill
is taken to the levels of American pro football fans. It was a funny idea, but
it was too long by half.
The second best
of the book, I feel, is ‘The Barn at the End of our Terms’, in which deceased
American presidents find themselves reincarnated as horses. With Rutherford B.
Hayes as the main protagonist, they wonder why, and how, and some of them set
out to escape. It’s a sad but humorous tale. The very best, though, is the
horrific ‘Reeling for the Empire’, in which young Japanese girls go to work at
a silk factory, only to find themselves given an odd tea and trays of mulberry
leaves and locked in a large room. They find themselves transformed into human
silk machines, each day hooked up to reeling machines that take it out of their
bodies- thankfully, the author does not go into great detail about his aspect! But
though prisoners, they discover a way to regain the freedom they’d thought to
find by moving to work in the factory. It’s
a very satisfying story, and I came to love the protagonist.
All in all,
it’s a worthwhile read, with more hits than misses.
The above is an affiliate link. If you click on it and buy the book, Amazon will give me a few cents. This in no way influences my review.
No comments:
Post a Comment