Clunk whirr.

[threemonkeys]

I'll just get this off my chest. I didn't enjoy Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link's collection of stories. I feel like I'm making a confession saying that. The reason is that so many people are giving Link astonishingly high praise - in print and in personal recommendation. I feel like I'm thumbing my nose at all those people. So what is it about these stories?

They are inventive. There is all sorts of clever structural devices - nested stories, backward stories, stories which just fade out and the like - very admirable. The images in them are unsettled and chaotic in a clever and admirable fashion. The behaviour of the characters is odd and non linear too. The settings are admirably strange too. There are lots of quips in the text - not funny but clever. The same goes for the pop culture references. The prose style is quite distinct - short stabbing sentences like an angry fairy tale that keeps prodding at you. You have got to admire all the clever stuff.

Well, maybe I'm overdoing the "admirable" and "clever" but that is what I feel about this work. There is lots of unique artistic merit here but it goes too far for my taste. As a result, the adjectives missing from the description are "engaging" and "enjoyable". I'm reminded of a Paul Klee painting - important, influential and well regarded, but I wouldn't want one on my wall.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Now I *have* to read it :). (I like Paul Klee)

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

I've only read the title story. When I said I felt let down, people told me I smelled funny.

It's a great story, except that it doesn't go anywhere. :)

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

I've also read Magic for Beginners very recently, having read and enjoyed Link's first collection, Stranger Things Happen, a few weeks ago. I found the first collection a lot more engaging: yes, the stories are clever and inventive and so on, but (although some of them are disturbing in a way that makes this a slightly odd statement) I enjoyed reading them as well. The collection seemed to have a bit more pace and life than those in Magic for Beginners which I found a bit more... mannered, really.

[russellk.livejournal.com]

Beware any review or blurb where words like 'original', 'clever' and 'fractured genius' dominate over 'enjoyable' and 'satisfying'.