2009 Reading #105: The Magic Toyshop
Nov. 17th, 2009 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snurriBooks 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman.
102. Brown Harvest by Jay Russell.
103. Dab Neeg Hmoob: Myths, Legends and Folk Tales from the Hmong of Laos, Charles Johnson, editor and Se Yang, associate editor.
104. Summer of '49 by David Halberstam.
105. The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. I have come somewhat late to Carter; up to this point I have only read a bit of her short fiction. Her writing scares me in a way similar to the way Samuel R. Delany's does--her control of her imagery and the precision of her language speak of a frightening intelligence behind it all. Somewhere along the way someone told me that Carter's novels were not as good as her short stories, but they were wrong. This is a deliriously good book, gorgeous and horrifying and mythic and firmly grounded in the real, a coming of age story with a fairy tale wound uncomfortably tight around it. If anything outside of Latin America deserves to be called Magical Realism, this would be it. Highest recommendation; those last five pages will stay with for a long time.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
Books 91-100.
101. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman.
102. Brown Harvest by Jay Russell.
103. Dab Neeg Hmoob: Myths, Legends and Folk Tales from the Hmong of Laos, Charles Johnson, editor and Se Yang, associate editor.
104. Summer of '49 by David Halberstam.
105. The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. I have come somewhat late to Carter; up to this point I have only read a bit of her short fiction. Her writing scares me in a way similar to the way Samuel R. Delany's does--her control of her imagery and the precision of her language speak of a frightening intelligence behind it all. Somewhere along the way someone told me that Carter's novels were not as good as her short stories, but they were wrong. This is a deliriously good book, gorgeous and horrifying and mythic and firmly grounded in the real, a coming of age story with a fairy tale wound uncomfortably tight around it. If anything outside of Latin America deserves to be called Magical Realism, this would be it. Highest recommendation; those last five pages will stay with for a long time.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-18 04:54 am (UTC)I'm a long time fan of Carter, both her fiction and non-fiction.
Did you know The Magic Toyshop was made into a movie? I barely remember it. It was very lo-fi indie or possibly British TV production that's hard to see.
I have a slight preference for her early seventies work which was a bit more radical and surreal, than her later novels (which are admittedly excellent). I'm kind of an outlier in really loving The Passion of New Eve which is a very transgressive, transgender-y novel. Vaguely reminiscent of J.G. Ballard's Vermillion Sands stories. But her short story collections, Fireworks and The Bloody Chamber, are essential.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-18 05:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-18 05:08 am (UTC)The Company of Wolves is a better adaptation of her work, and covers similar territory.
You should read her criticism too. She reviewed Love and Rockets! (the comic)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-18 05:11 am (UTC)Yes on the prose. The first chapter of this one is just astonishing, and could never really translate onto the screen, I don't think.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-18 05:14 am (UTC)