Life After God
This was one of the few remaining Douglas Coupland books that I hadn’t read.
It’s a collection of short stories, each one told in a series of short vignettes.
To be honest these are messy pieces filled with pre-millenial malaise. As such they come across as lazy and self-indulgent.
Coupland’s usual effortless style is the only thing making this collection worthwhile.
Unless you’re a fan of Coupland’s work in general I’d not recommend this particular work at all.
Chuck Klosterman IV
A loose collection of artist profiles, opinion columns and random other bits of writing. Klosterman is a very readable writer but can take some very annoying positions on popular culture.
He’s got a whole more broadminded than thou thing going on, combined with a popular is good except when I don’t like it stance. Like I say, annoying.
The Arbitrary Placement Of Walls
Once upon a time in an online space called The Well Neil Gaiman stopped by to talk about his new book called American Gods.
That chat kept on going and kept on going and a community formed around it. The people were ferociously bright, genuinely engaged, and enthusiastic readers. It was one of my favourite internet experiences of all time.
If I remember correctly Martha Soukup was a moderator (or whatever The Well called such people) and a participant in that space. As members of this community found her collection of stories they came back and reviewed it in glowing terms.
Of course it was released on a small press in the US only and was nearly impossible to find in the UK. For years I searched for a copy and then eventually I found it in the amazing Borderland Books in San Francisco (a must visit for fans SF&F books!).
After such a build up it could only disappoint right?
Except it turns out that this collection is amazing. Beautifully written and teeming with ideas it is one of the best short story collections I’ve ever read.
Wholeheartedly recommended – if you can find a copy.
Breakfast At Tiffanys
Capote’s novella is famously the basis of a much sanitised hollywood film version. In this, the original work, it’s pretty blatant that Holly is a hooker of sorts and she’s portrayed as even more of a creature of impulse and criminal tendencies that she is in the film.
I got the impression that Holly was something almost feral yet so glamorous that the narrator loved her from a distance in his way but never really understood her.
Not my usual kind of thing but it’s a pretty good read and is definitely worth seeking out if you’ve only ever seen the film version of these particular characters.
Under Old Earth and Other Explorations
This collection, as with the majority of Cordwainer Smith’s work, is set among the worlds of the Instrumentality – his vision of far future humanity. Smith was primarily a short story writer – only writing one novel – and this book contains some of his finest work.
For much of this collection I found it a chore to finish the stories.
Smith had some fantastic ideas, with some very astute insights into the future of humanity, the milieu is superbly realised with every nuance thought through, but his writing can be as dry and unexciting as cold toast.
(As an aside Smith’s real name was Paul Linebarger, and he was a professor of Asiatic Studies and an expert on psychological warfare. I suppose I could blame his writing style on this background, but I’m clueless when it comes to literary theory)
Highlight for me would be the story of the deposed ruler, who instead of coming back to his kingdom with an army, sneaks in and saves his people by subtly altering the mind of the dictator who replaced him.
This is worth a quick read if you have a keen interest in the past giants of science fiction, or if you are particularly keen on short
story collections. It really wasn?t my kind of thing.