(August 2013)
Following my last encounter with Ms
Valente, which I found luscious but a touch indigestible, I was advised that
her short stories might be more to my taste. I’m happy to report that my
advisers were correct. This is yet another wonderful collection of short
stories and the odd poem, all linked to a greater or lesser extent to Japan.
Some of those links are fairly slight, as with my favourite Fade to White, and
the apparently very popular Silently, and Very Fast. There’s also a very strong
autobiographical thread running through much of this, which is evident even
without the author’s explanatory afterword and gives many stories an added
emotional hold.
Start from here and see how it goes, I
would.
Cat Valente is on a pretty short list of authors I absolutely have to read this year.
ReplyDeleteShe really knows how to turn a sentence, I'll say that for her. Knowing your proclivities, you could do worse than starting with this one.
DeleteThis is sitting expectantly on my bedside table. Loved the opening poetic story from which the title is taken. Really good.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a strong start all right. Just gets better when you get into the more autobiographical stuff. Dunno if it's just because I can identify with that otherness, but a couple of the stories really hit home.
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