Short story collection review - 'Father Brown Stories' by G. K. Chesterton

 I am generally not a lover of classics.  My taste tends to lean towards contemporary fiction, as the flowery language and the representation of women in classic literature (by this I mean pre 1920) do not appeal to be.

Every once in a while I attempt to read something by a classic author and almost always I do not enjoy it.  My latest attempt at reading a classic was G K Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown Stories’. 

The blurb outlines that: “A small, disorganised, ordinary priest, Father Brown is an unlikely genius when it comes to piecing together strange and mysterious clues.  Yet his ingenuity and intuition are unsurpassed, and his gift for deduction raises him to the top rank of investigators”.

I, surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories.  Father Brown is a great character and I really appreciated his powers of deduction.  It was refreshing to read a detective story containing actual detective work.  With the growth of technology forensics has taken over crime writing.  It was great to go back to the basics.

One of the other reasons I enjoyed these stories was that the endings were different.  Most of the stories ended with Father Brown walking off with the criminal in discussion or repentance.

To satisfy my interests there was even a vaguely steam-punk short story titled “The Invisible Man”.  In this story a man who became rich through the manufacture of robotic servants was found murdered.  I loved the way Chesterton described the automatons and the thought provoking and witty way he wrote.

“One of the high-shouldered hooks that served the thing for arms, was a little lifted and Angus had suddenly the horrid fancy that poor Smythe’s own iron child had struck him down.  Matter had rebelled, and these machines had killed their Master.”

I would definitely recommend for enjoyable detective stories that take you back to basics and enthral you with the beautiful and clever prose that Chesterton demonstrates.  Four out of five stars. 

Graphic Novel Review: Death the time of your life Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham and Mark Pennington

Neil Gaiman has a wonderful gift of taking the profane and giving it life.  I have been slowly making my way through Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels thoroughly enjoying the rich and mystical world he has created.   

One of my favourite characters in his series is the Sandman’s older sister Death.  Other personifications of Death have been of a man in a dark cowl carrying a scythe.  Many stories about Death are of how the Grim Reaper was outwitted, as death is something to avoid, escape and cheat.

As he has done time and time again Gaiman takes the myth and turns it on its head.  Gaiman’s Death is a perky, optimistic and loving woman.  She dresses like a goth but does not have a gothic temperament.  Instead of being menancing she welcomes you into death with a loving embrace and a smile.  It is odd to describe the character of Death to be as full of life but she is

The Time of your life is a spin-off from the Sandman comics focusing solely on the character of Death.  Foxglove and Hazel, other characters from the Sandman comics, appear as well.  In this issue Foxglove has become a famous rock-star and Hazel is a stay at home mother, pretending to be Foxglove’s secretary rather than her lover.  Hazel's tries to make a deal with Death to extend a life and Foxglove travels to the shadowlands save Hazel.  This issue takes the reader through a journey of life, death and dreams.  It is explained that there is no balance to death, no taking of one life for another, as death is inevitable.

The graphic novel is illustrated beautifully and it is easy to see how Gaiman and his team have created a series that is widely praised and timeless.  I thoroughly enjoyed the deeper exploration of Death’s character with an issue to herself and no Sandman.  Four out of five stars.

Tweeting with Margo Lanagan and Neil Gaiman

I just had to share this with everyone.  I love that some of my favourite writers are on twitter and respond to my tweets.  Here is a fun little conversation I had with NEIL GAIMAN and MARGO LANAGAN two of my favourite authors.  It was also a book-geek squee moment for me!  I talk about 'Red Nose Day' in my previous post.

Neil Gaiman
From the tweets coming in, it's amazing how many people are scared of clowns. Sometimes clowns are scared of people:http://bit.ly/bzI1bz


Gem
@neilhimself tell them to read Margo Lanagans "Red Nose Day". Clowns being snipered. Gold! 


Neil Gaiman
@gemzina Ah, but @margolanagan is a genius.


Margo Lanagan
@neilhimself @gemzina Oh, you guys. *pops red nose on, fluffs up fluoro curls around tonsure*

Short story collection review - "Black Juice" by Margo Lanagan

I continue my exploration of short story collections with Black Juice by Margo Lanagan who is an Australian writer that came to Wellington earlier this year as a part of readers and writers week.  Unfortunately I did not get to see her speak but I heard a radio interview which can be found here that inspired me to read her books.  Black Juice is a two-time World Fantasy Award winner for Best Collection and Best Short Fiction.

The blurb on the back explains that:

“Each tale offers glimpses into familiar, shadowy worlds that push the boundaries of the spirit and leave the mind haunted with the knowledge that black juice runs through us all”.

I found this a fascinating and disturbing read.  Unlike “The Last Wish” (reviewed earlier) each tale was set in a different world with different characters.  The only similarity was that there was a feeling of otherness throughout the stories.

This collection is comprised of ten short stories of which two stood out to me.  The first being ‘Red Nose Day’.  This story creates a world in which clowns (performers) are at the top of the class system.  It alludes that these clowns abuse their social standing and destroy many young lives.  It follows the work of a sniper and his colleague and their sense of achievement in taking down these menaces.  This is a must read for anyone who has a childhood fear of clowns or just finds them plain creepy.

Another story that stood out was ‘Singing my Sister Down’ this short story has been published in magazines and collections a number of times.  It has also been made into a play.  It is the heartbreaking tale of a young women’s execution by tar pit.  This is a long and drawn out execution as it takes many hours for ‘Ikky’ to sink and suffocate.  The heartbreaking and heart-warming part of the story is that her family join her, spread out on planks so they do not sink, and picnic and sing until she goes down.  It is an interesting exploration of the psychology behind public executions and the idea that public executions are a form of entertainment.  This story can be read online here and I highly recommend it.

This collection of stories is not for the faint hearted.  I found that I got something different out of each story and although the were some stories that affected me more deeply I enjoyed all ten of them.  They are horrific and disturbing at times and explore the darker side of human nature.  But they also show the tenacity and resilience that is also a part of human nature.  That is why I loved this collection as it shows our darker side but also explores the way we can be strong and endure. I have already picked up her novel ‘Tender Morsels’ and I am thoroughly looking forward to reading it.

Four out of five stars from me.