What if a dead columnist could keep writing his column? Neat concept. I enjoyed Story With Advice II: Back from the Dead by Rick Moody.
The column from the other side took the form of a “dear Abby”–with questions from the living worried about what they might find when they died. What could they take with them? Who would they see? Whatever shall I wear? Some of the questions are funny, some are just plain weird and a couple were over the top. But all in all, I enjoyed this story about the afterlife that touched lightly on the meaning of life and quite possibly the meaning of death.
Easily worth a read.
I’ve read some Kelly Link that I like and some that just makes me wonder what she’s talking about. My favorite is probably The Faery Handbag. Her work is generally surreal with world creation top-notch and this piece is no exception. Important details are tucked here and there like little pieces of a puzzle that you have to find and put together. The world she presents in Light, is one you think you know, with just a thing or two out of place. As the story grows, the surreal details are more common, but it’s a gradual build and fits the story.
Unfortunately, this story is one that I don’t really understand or perhaps I just can’t connect with it. It’s about a woman with two-shadows, a misfit or perhaps an outcast. She works a 9 to 5 mundane job, drinks a lot, tries to find solace where she can. She’s had a bad relationship or two, but Kelly Link knows humanity; the woman in the story falls into old traps, never quite able to break away. I think it’s a story about us, but cloaked in what-if; the reason for our loneliness is defined easily by something such as being born with two-shadows. Two shadows is not truly meaningful or harmful, but the character lets it hold her back and sometimes it keeps her from ever really finding comfort. Or perhaps it is just that she picks up her idea of comfort in one-night stands from men in a bar.
Link doesn’t leave us without hope. What if a door opened, one you knew was there, one you hadn’t seen before? What if you knew it wouldn’t really be different so you packed your booze and a few things you wanted, but you were able to leave behind your biggest problem of the moment and maybe–just maybe explore something different? What if, indeed.
This is part of the BookSpot Central Short Fiction Round Table spotlight on stories that will be included in Best American Fantasy 2008 edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and forthcoming from Prime Books. Please see the intro to the spotlight.
