Customer Reviews

Magic for Beginners

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Kelly Link's fiction is so good it's scary, as her lyrical voice is one of the most unique and singular in literature. Her fantastical stories are inimitable reinventions of familiar genre staples (zombies, ghosts, time travel, fairy tales, and more), filtered through a keen literary eye. The fantasy elements in her stories are always underpinned by a grave reality, be it loss of innocence, coming to grief, or family strife, but not at the expense of a story's humor or levity. Somehow, Link's stories capture both the familiar and the unknown, the horror and the beauty in life. I'm not quite sure how she does it.

Magic for Beginners, Link's second collection, contains some of her most mature and accomplished stories to date. Personal favorites are "Stone Animals," a domestic ghost story that plays with gender stereotypes, "Some Zombie Contingency Plans," an unpredictable, psychological horror story, and the titular novella "Magic For Beginners," a contemporary dark fantasy story, equal parts Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Videodrome, but which ultimately defies description. I don't know if Link will ever evolve into a novelist (and as long as she keeps churning out short fiction, I won't complain), but if she does, I believe "Magic For Beginners" will be identified as a stepping stone to her eventual longer works.

It's actually unfair to single out only a few stories of this 9-story collection, since they are all of high quality (though I'm not too fond of the postmodern stylization over characterization in "The Cannon"). Other gems include "The Hortlak," a hilarious, if somber, post-apocalyptic zombie story, and "Lull," a time-travel story like no other, replete with the devil, cheerleaders, poker parties, and aliens (believe me, it works).

Another surprising element in Link's stories, given their complexity, is their accessibility, as the stories in this collection partake of traditional, page-turning storytelling. But don't get me wrong, her stories are not easy reads (they are fun reads!). Link's best stories, due to their narrative and thematic richness, demand (reward) rereading. But this is hardly a chore, because a Kelly Link story will haunt you, calling out to your waking and sleeping dreams. That's the power a perfect story can have.

Magic for Beginners, to this humble reader, is the finest collection, and arguably the finest book, to be published in 2005.

Books like Magic for Beginners, $24.00 Amazon.com, should be easy to praise. However this second collection of supernatural stories, from author Kelly Link, - while fun to read - makes for a difficult review. She's not a conventional writer and these aren't conventional stories. Ever read a story about a haunted family, and not a haunted house? I'm going to take a stab at summarizing, but frankly, I'm not sure if even I can serve this odd book any justice. It's one of those titles that you must read for yourself. It's been sheer folly trying to review it, but I think I've faithfully captured the basic texture of the book in my efforts here.

Each story hides an element of human chaos; a Russian grandmother with an enchanted handbag dies, a peculiar employee of an all-night convenience store runs away, a haunted family throws one last dinner party, a party crasher obsessed with zombies outsmarts a teenage girl, a witch gives her three children motherly deathbed advice, a man negotiates a divorce with his ghostly wife, the teenage son of a horror writer strives to save a fictional character (in a pirate TV broadcast) from certain death, and an apocalyptic weekend poker party is interrupted by alien visitors.

Grades of A plus (on the Steve-ometer) are given to four specific stories - Stone Animals, The Faery Handbag, The Great Divorce, and The Hortlak. These are the ones I consider as being groundbreaking, the best, the most sincere. Link obviously gave each of these four yarns a little extra-special effort. Each of these stories has a magical dreamlike quality. Stone Animals, originally published in Conjunctions, and soon to appear in the next edition of The Best American Short Stories series, establishes Link as a writer to watch. The other five stories are merely Grade B in my opinion, but with a little more spit and polish, they too might spark your fancy.

In The Faery Handbag, teenager Genevieve faces an unusual predicament. She can't find recently deceased Grandmother Zofia's enchanted handbag. And she must recover it, if she ever hopes to rescue her missing boyfriend, Jake! Each week her search takes her to Boston's Garment District, but frankly, she's not having much luck when we join in. I won't spoil the ending, but the story resembles a lost Aesop's fable. The casual manner in which the author winks at you - as she spins the tale - is really quite appealing. Link had me hooked from the first sly sentence, which reads: I used to go to thrift stores with my friends. Scrabble also figures prominently in this particular story, so that also helps.

Next story? The Hortlak. This one's a real corker. It revolves around Eric, who works the night shift, and Batu, who works the day shift, at the All-Night Convenience store on Ausible Chasm Road near the Canadian border. The two clerks live in the store - they take turns sleeping in the storage closet. Eric has a crush on a girl named Charley that wanders in and out of the store from time to time, but he's slow to act upon it. If it weren't for Batu teaching Charley helpful Turkish phrases whenever she comes in for a Mountain Dew, Eric might have already approached her, but its hard to concentrate on your love life when the undead keep distracting you - when zombies keep trying to engage you, after midnight, in mysterious cashless transactions. Great hook ending here! But what, pray tell, is a Hortlak? In my mind, that's the real million dollar question.

Now that you have a feel for the outlandish nature of Link's work, I encourage you to read Stone Animals, which is a real accomplishment! I dare you to tell me what's going on at the end of this ghost story? If it makes any sense. This flawless piece is ostensibly about faithfulness - the sanctity of marriage - but judging from the manner in which this post-9/11 story is woven, it carries multiple meanings, and works on many submerged levels. Henry and Catherine (husband & wife) have recently navigated a minefield of marital discord, but with two children in tow, and a new baby on the way, they've apparently found a measure of tranquility by relocating to a home somewhere just North of New York City. Or have they? Exactly what happens at the end of this story? Has Henry become unhinged? Has someone else murdered his family? Have Henry and his family actually been dead all along? I'm really not quite sure. Please get back to me, with your own interpretation.

Even though I enjoyed the story Magic for Beginners, from which the book derives its title, I choose not to recommend it highly. It's a clever construct that evokes the exact sort of feelings that Stephen King's children most likely have for their nearly departed dad - I'd guess - but I thought it contained a lot of filler. Though I felt sympathy for the earnest group of teens the story revolved around, I must confess I was hoping for a better denouement. Link left me dangling on the line, at the end, therefore I felt shortchanged. Link might consider placing these particular characters into a full-blown novel, with a better end result.

Really though, the story I'm most enamored of was The Great Divorce, since it delivers the strongest kick. Who on earth (besides Kelly Link?) could come up with a story about a living man and a ghostly woman spawning a trio of phantom children, the mere concept that a mismatched pair like this would then brooch the ugly topic of divorce? Better yet, what was the authoress smoking when she came up with this? This tale has some fantastic imagery, such as a trembling haunted pink bougainvillea, and departed spirits waiting in long orderly lines at Disneyland, their heels resting upon the shoulders of the living amusement park patrons. The final few paragraphs just took my breath away. The last two sentences are priceless! Turn of the screw, indeed!

Since I appreciate Link, I'd recommend she find a better Editor. I've found singular words that should have been plural, close quotes that were omitted, sentences that were missing words, and intact typos within the pages of this book. (see page 219, fourth line, for example) This clutch of errors proved a major distraction while scanning Magic for Beginners, (which must have been written in extreme haste) but don't let the little things that annoyed me dissuade you from pursuing this otherwise charming collection. I sincerely look forward to reading Kelly's third compilation; she's tapped into some vein that's truly otherworldly.

Okay, so it's a silly cliche, but I'm going to use it anyway...Kelly Link is the absolute best writer that you've never heard of. Most people have no idea who she is, our bookstore doesn't even carry her books most of the time, but I think she's utterly brilliant, and she deserves to be better known. She deserves to win the Pulitzer as far as I'm concerned.

The stories in this collection are amazing--warm, witty, profound, laugh-out-loud funny, imaginative, and heartbreaking. The best way to describe her style is that she writes in dream images using dream logic. What I mean is, you know that feeling when you wake up from a vivid dream and you can't recall its chronological narrative format and it doesn't make much logical sense, yet at the same time you can remember vivid images and profound emotions that stem from it? That's exactly what reading a Kelly Link story is like. It's hard to explain precisely what happens in a literal sense, but she's able to make you feel just what she wants you to feel, even when you can't put your finger on why that is. I'm in awe of her ability make her readers feel such depth of emotion through such cryptic and dreamlike imagery.

Take "Lull" for instance, the first story that I read in this collection. It's a weird, complex story about a group of guys playing poker, a phone-sex operator/storyteller, the Devil, a cheerleader, aliens, clones, time travel, and probably a few more things I can't remember. I read it just going along for the ride at first, really having no idea where she was going with it, and then it hit me all at once that what she was really writing about was death and grief and the mourning process. I was overcome with emotion and practically cried throughout the ending.

Another one is "Stone Animals" about a family that moves into a new house that turns out to be "haunted" in a sense. It's a long story, almost a novella, that reads stylistically like a minimalist take on domestic tragicomedy, yet at the same time it's creepy and eerie and almost feels like a regular ghost story, yet there doesn't seem to be any actual ghosts in it. The whole time I felt like I was watching this ordinary suburban family self destruct before my eyes and by the ending it felt like things had gone past the point of no return, yet I can't explain exactly what happened. But it made an impression on me, believe me.

These are just two examples. Other favorites of mine are "The Faery Handbag", "Magic for Beginners" and "The Hortlak" which are all beautifully complex and heartfelt portrayals of the adolescent/young adult experience, love, and the loss of innocence.

If you're at all interested in fantasy, surrealism, experimental fiction, or just plain beautiful writing, please do yourself a favor and check out Kelly Link. Her writing makes the whole world seem like a beautiful place.

Short Fiction is something I've not read much of. For most of my life the majority of what I read was Epic fantasy, big heavy multi-volume works. As a result, I've missed out on a whole lot of great writing. While good epic fantasy is still my favorite, I've been trying to expand my horizons, and I thought a great place to start would be with Kelly Link.

Magic for Beginners, is a collection of 9 stories. Having never read Link I went in not knowing what to expect. The first story, The Faery Handbag, was a winner for me. Odd and quirky are the first two words that spring to mind when I try and describe this story, and come to find out the rest of the stories make this one seem pretty normal. In this story a young woman searches for her grandmother's magical handbag, that contains a realm in which time runs at a fraction of the speed of our world.

The Hortlak, details the goings on of a 24 hour convenience store. Its sort of reminded me of Clerks meets Shawn of the Dead.

The Cannon, was the shortest story and I didn't care for it. Link has a very stream of consciousness style of writing. Sometimes its brilliant, other times, its just too disjointed and out there for my taste.

Stone Animals, had a very horror feel to me. While not a scary story really, I felt very disturbed at times while reading this.

Catskin, was like a Grim Brothers' fairy tail on acid. While reading many of the stories, I found myself baffled as to how someone thinks of stuff like this.

Some Zombie Contingency Plans, was my favorite story, not only does it have an awesome title, but it was the most realistic of the stories. I felt more connection to Soap than to anyone else in these stories.

The Great Divorce, is a story about a man and his dead wife. She was dead when they were married. People occasionally marry ghosts. This of course can be problematic.

Magic for Beginners, seems to be a favorite to take the Hugo for Novella this year. I can see why. This was a great story. How Link manages to craft a world within a world in such a short amount of space is amazing. The story centers around a group of teens and their love of the cult show The Library. The ideas she presents here are mesmerizing. I marvel at how her mind works.

Lull, was a bit anticlimactic after the wonderful title story. This story was again rather meta. Stories within stories.

As a whole I like the collection. Odd, weird, strange, and beautiful. I fully intend to read more by Link , and read more short fiction.

8 out of 10

How to describe a Kelly Link story? Charming, odd, sharp, uncomfortable, witty, wistful, strange? Pick a few adjectives and mix well. She makes the strange everyday and the everyday strange. She writes better than most genre (and "literary") writers but never condescends to the genre readers that have embraced her.

Link is one of my few must-reads, although I hate to read her stories because then I've read them and can't look forward to reading them for the first time ever again. Which is sad.

For instance, I'll never again be able to read the title story for the first time and think how great it would be to have a sort of guerilla television show like "The Library" which airs at unpredictable times on odd channels and features different actors in the same parts.

But hey, lucky you if you haven't read this collection -- buy it now! Once you read her stories you'll be glad you did. And then really sorry. (Don't worry, you'll still enjoy them the second, third, fortieth time.)

I stumbled across this book accidentally, read the "Staff Recommendation" and it really intriqued me. Come to find out, the "Staff Recommendation" was for a different book, but I took it home anyway. And I'm extremely happy I did!

Kelly Link is just an amazing writer. Her stories are strange yet beautiful and they make a nice little home in your head for a long time after you've read them. She makes me hungry for more.

A must have.

Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners collection. Pretty awesome. A lot of "coming of age" stuff and adolescent themes. But beyond charming and cute. Insightful and provocative. And sexy in that "I just found out what sexy is" sort of way. Highlights include "The Faery Handbag" (makes you bite your lip and fall in love with life again), the puzzlingly epiphanic "The Hotlak", and the absolutely terrifying "Stone Animals". There are a couple of these short stories I feel the need to re-read to fully "get" them (e.g., I was unprepared for the many layers of "Catskin") but these are positively fantastic stories. Best fiction of 2006? Maybe not but certainly very very good.

Ms. Link lives in a very strange world. Zombies walk amongst the living in her world. The dead and the living marry and have dead children in her world. Big corporations are trying to figure out the best market to sell things to the dead/zombies on their way to the next world. Rabbits, rode by tiny men, guard haunted houses. And whole nations live inside a faery handbag made of a dead dog's skin.

There were a couple of stories I really liked in this collection; The Faery Handbag and the title story, Magic for Beginners. One reviewer says, "Link is the purest, most distinctive surrealist in America, and she doesn't stop at prose-poem length." I'm not totally sure I agree with this. While she is distinctive and very surreal, I came away feeling like I'd been beaten over the head with her brand of symbolism. I would definitely say that Ms. Link has a quirky, original (if strange) voice that, at times, I found hard to stomach, but on the whole entertaining.

How is that for strange?

What more can I say than I just adore Link's work. Other authors of this genre I love to read include Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adam and Terry Pratchett and I have to say that I think Kelly Link is the next big thing! This is the only book I have read by her and it was a delight to read and I hated to see the stories to end.

I must admit that I thought some of the stories superior to others; but, they were all wonderful. My favorites within this book are: The Faery Handbag; Stone Animals; Some Zombie Contingency Plans; and Magic for Beginners. "The Great Divorce" which won awards and was reviewed very favorably by critics was an excellent read but it just wasn't for me as captivating as the ones I mentioned above.

She writes with a new and unique viewpoint which I have not seen before. If you are looking for something original then I highly recommend this book. I found her after I had exhausted Neil Gaiman's work and was frantically looking for a new author. I can't wait for her to come out with new works!!

Kelly Link has the corner on weird short fiction. Her latest collection offers her usual brand of quirky, lyrical, bizarre writing exercises. I am reluctant to call them stories because they are not stories in a conventional way. In my opinion, stories have resolutions, whereas Link's works never seem to resolve. Her characters and plots linger in a limbo that provides no closure or meaning. Anyone who reads her work and finds meaning is missing the point--her work is weird and unique, and that's it. I am certain that if you asked her she would say that her works have no underlying messages. They are just snapshots of her imagination. The first time I read a Link piece, I thought that anyone could write a story that makes no sense and has no progression. Take "The Cannon" for instance; on first glance, I observed no structure, or sophistication, or complexity of plot or character. Then I realized that she does not create the way most writers are taught to create: She follows her own rules. Closer examination reveals the percision of her language and the subtle method of veiling disturbing images and ideas under a delightful veneer. Her work has a sense of whimsy reminiscent of Neil Gaiman or Connie Willis. My biggest gripe with her works is that they are all too alike: Reading 2 or 3 pieces is enough to summarize her approach, style, and vision. I wonder if she will ever write a novel, and if so, how it will read. That's an experiment I look forward to.