“The language drives the story”: Caroline Adderson on process, Chekhov’s influence, and the importance of laughter in short fiction
"The problem in this country is that people seem to feel that if it's funny it's not serious."
A Blog About Books and Reading
A Blog About Books and Reading
"The problem in this country is that people seem to feel that if it's funny it's not serious."
The most blazingly unforgettable tale in the anthology has to be EC Dorgan's "Prairie Teeth."
The books in these stories are dangerous not just for the ideas they contain, but the wounds that they inflict.
The writers are for the most part clear-eyed about the realities of the world and adept at placing them in the context of speculative fiction.
The Newfoundland of Vigil is an unforgiving place, and Taylor treats it, along with her cast of characters, without an ounce of sentimentality.
Tremblay's entire fiction is built on contingency and ambiguity.
The stories in Dance of the Happy Shades establish many of the characteristics that would come to be associated with Munro's oeuvre.
The irony in the volume stretches across stories, a number of which are linked.
The biggest disappointment in this book is its relative lack of creepiness.
The real, physical world is ever-present in these stories, most particularly in a recurring theme focusing on women's bodies.