McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories (Vintage)

Rating:
Summary: Tremendous collection of short stories
Review: In his excellent introduction to "McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories", Michael Chabon decries what one might call the "genre-fication" of modern literature. He quite rightly points out that there is romance in the fantastic, science fiction in the literary, mystery in romance, etc., etc. It is therefore the stated ambition of this collection to gather authors who would otherwise not be lined up side by side, in an effort to blur these distinctions of genre, and introduce the reader to new styles and authors. I am glad to report that the result is spectacularly successful. While there is no connection between the stories, the uniformly excellent writing and passion displayed by the contributors results in a collection of diverse entries that somehow works as a whole.

The collection begins with Margaret Atwood's "Lusus Naturae" which immediately captures the spirit of the book with a romantic/gothic/science fiction entry. An ideal first piece, it sets the tone for the subsequent entries. Next is the remarkable David Mitchell with "What You Do Not Know You Want"; a noir-ish mystery with a supernatural twist. Readers of his recent "Cloud Atlas" will particularly enjoy this entry as it definitely echoes the themes and settings of that work. Moreover, like Atwood's entry, this blurring of genres adds to the cohesiveness of the work as a whole.

Jonathan Lethem's "Vivian Relf" carries things forward with an enigmatic romance written in a literary style. It is a classic short story, and a good change of pace which keeps the reader on their toes. Next is "Minnow" by Ayelet Waldman which probably had more of an impact on me than any other stories. It would be difficult to go into detail without spoiling the plot, but the themes surrounding parenthood are somehow both disturbing and reassuring at the same time. "Zeroville" by Steve Erickson just might be my favorite entry. His tale of a door hidden across the breadth of cinema, and just what it means, is fascinating and perfectly executed.

In "Lisey in the Madman", Stephen King proves that he is still the master of scene setting; no one can make you feel the heat of a noonday sun like him. However, this is also an interesting psychological/supernatural thriller, and if he does flesh it out into a novel (as is suggested) it could prove to be a remarkable work. "7C" blends hard science fiction and romance in perhaps the most original entry in the book. It's rare that quantum physics makes for exciting reading, but author Jason Roberts pulls it off nicely.

"The Miniaturist" by Heide Julavits is reminiscent of a "Twilight Zone" episode with all of the macabre scene setting and bizarre conclusion one would expect. "The Child" by Roddy Doyle is an excellent companion piece as it has the same sort of feel, but the motivations are far more vague and the twist at the end definitely leaves open a host of interpretations. "Delmonico" by Daniel Handler offers another nice change of pace in a fun little mystery that reads like a magic trick.

The next two entries are the only two that I have mixed feelings about. Both "The Scheme of Things" by Charles D'Ambrosio and "The Devil of Delery Street" by Poppy Z. Brite are well written, but neither really got of the ground. The first features superb scene setting and some fascinating characters, but the payoff was never really there, while the latter seemed to be building to a great conclusion, but ultimately fell flat in the end. I should emphasize that neither contribution is "bad" by any stretch, but compared to the other entries they just don't measure up.

Fortunately, the next two entries are superb, and along with "Zeroville" make up my top three for the collection. The first is what motivated me to buy the book in the first place, China Mieville's "Reports of Certain Events in London". As usual, he doesn't disappoint; while he maintains his thus far ubiquitous fascination with urban landscapes, he has once again gone in a totally unexpected direction that is reminiscent of Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves", but entirely original. Next is Joyce Carol Oates' amazing "The Fabled Lighthouse of Vina Del Mar". The entire time I was reading it, I felt like I was reading a lost Edgar Alan Poe story, and sure enough on the last page the reader finds that the story is based upon the only surviving page of a lost Poe work. I should emphasize that this should in no way detract from Oates' writing, as she pays tribute even as she writes a wildly original piece that has some echoes of Lovecraft as well.

Finally, Peter Straub's enigmatic "Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle" provides the perfect conclusion to this collection. A nice touch is that following this entry is a brief biography/bibliography of each author for those who would like to further explore the contributors' work.

Generally speaking, one expects an ensemble collection to be a mixed bag, and one crossing numerous genres, even more so. Gladly, Michael Chabon has produced in "McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories" that is informally excellent even as it accomplishes in breathtaking fashion its goal of breaking down the barriers between genres. This collection is a real treat for fans of short stories, and is definitely not to be missed.

Jake Mohlman


Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag of the Good and the...
Review: Like the previous volume Chabon edited, many of the stories seem to miss their aim. Despite claims to the contrary, many of these tales are bogged down by the exact literary trends and pretension that inspired this collection (and the previous) as a reaction against. There are some outstanding stories--Ayelet Waldman's "Minnow", China Mieville's "Reports of Certain Events in London", and Jason Robert's "7C"--that accomplish that thrilling edge-of-your-seat anticipation that inspired so many young folks to become lifelong readers. Many of the other stories are mostly good but seem to not exactly fit into this anthology. I will say that I loved the stories by the inimitable David Mitchell and Jonathan Lethem and would suggest picking up this volume for those alone.

Rating:
Summary: Some Excellent Stories With an Unconvincing Thesis
Review: McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories is Michael Chabon's second attempt to bridge the ever-widening gap between literary fiction and genre fiction, to make a place for well-written, literary short fiction that is strongly plot-oriented and unabashedly indulges in genre (science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, romance) plots and plot elements. Like the first anthology in this series (McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales) Chamber is a mixed bag in terms of quality. This is to be expected, and no doubt different readers will have different configurations of favorite and least favorite stories. More importantly, however, only a few of the 15 authors collected in Chamber give the impression of actually understanding their purpose, and only a few of those seem capable of successfully writing a genre story.

Of the 15 stories in the collection, one is science fiction, another a mystery and a third a fantasy. Two others defy easy categorization, and the remaining ten are horror. Seven of these are ghost stories - nearly half the collection. This is hardly a coincidence. Horror is an easy genre to carry off competently - it thrives, after all, on irrational occurrences and unsolved mysteries. Much more strongly than stories in the science fiction, mystery and fantasy genres, horror stories are expected to stick to a script, and ghost stories even more so, which makes a tentative author's job easier. The result is that many of the stories in Chamber are familiar, albeit well-crafted, repetitions of old themes. Take Margaret Atwood's "Lusus Naturae", in which a misunderstood monster sadly narrates their short life, or Ayelet Waldman's "Minnow", yet another entry in the hoary sub-genre of pregnancy- and new motherhood-themed horror. Both are moving and well-written, but neither one treads new ground.

The remaining ghost stories are mostly dull. In Poppy Z. Brite's "The Devil of Delery Street", a young girl is possessed by a spirit, only to have it go away quietly after a while. In Heidi Julavits' "The Miniaturist", the villain and the outcome are obvious three paragraphs in. Only David Mitchell delivers a truly chilling effort with "What You Do Not Know You Want", one of the high points of the collection. In this tale of a shady businessman who travels to Hawaii following the suicide of his partner, Mitchell manages to tell a creepy and innovative tale which hints at a dangerous underside to the familiar world without tossing reason and a coherent plot out the window.

In non-ghost horror, Stephen King once again cheats by contributing an excerpt from an upcoming novel. This is a pity, as King writes superb short stories, and "Lisey and the Madman" - the story of a famous author's near-invisible wife - could have been an excellent short story with just a few tweaks. As it is, it is enjoyable and suspenseful up until its non-ending. Joyce Carol Oates' "The Fabled Light-House in Vina del Mar" is another familiar plot - the journal of a man being driven insane - but is a cut above the rest in terms of quality and because of its unexpected and disturbing ending. Steve Erickson's "Zeroville" - the story of an obsessed film editor searching for a repeating image in all movies ever made - is without a doubt the most original horror story in the collection (probably because it straddles horror, fantasy, and just plain strangeness) but it fails to make the leap from good to superb.

The collection truly shines, however, when it comes to non-horror stories. In "Delmonico", Daniel Handler (better known as Lemony Snicket) delivers a sweet punch of a story, a pitch perfect hard-boiled mystery with a neat twist that will leave a smile on your face. China Miéville's "Reports of Certain Events in London" is an innovative fantasy that is clever, funny, and decidedly strange - you'll never look at a city map in the same way again. The best story in Chamber, however, is newcomer Jason Roberts' "7C", a science fiction short that wouldn't be out of place on the Hugo or Nebula shortlist. The story of an astronomer who draws conclusions about the fate of the universe from mysterious scars on his body is the best kind of SF - intelligent and moving.

Jonathan Lethem, however, seems to be the only author in Chamber who has truly understood his assignment - to combine the modern short story - moody, atmospheric, light if not bereft of plot - and the genre short. The result, "Vivian Relf", about two people who keep meeting and feeling a very strong familiarity despite having nothing in common, is perhaps not a very good story, but it is a superb examination of what really happens when the mundane and the fantastic meet, and an interesting commentary on the wisdom of Chabon's attempts to accomplish a fusion between the two.

There are some genuine jewels in McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, and very few duds (Roddy Doyle's "The Child" is the sole turkey). Almost every story has something to recommend itself, but in the end I'm not sure that Chamber isn't a better repudiation of Chabon's thesis - that to abolish genre boundaries would make all literature stronger - than a corroboration of it. If nothing else, it proves that the process will require a great deal of work and thought, which only some of Chabon's contributers seem capable, or willing, to expend.

Rating:
Summary: great anthology
Review: The reason I nought this book is Stephen King's "Lisey and the Madman," a novella that is (so the buzz insists, at least) actually an excerpt from a novel King has recently finished but has not decided yet to publish in full. Well, I for one hope that the entire novel is available at some point. This excerpt demonstrates again that King's writing style is simply getting better, without sacrificing a jot of the storytelling skill.

The best of the rest of the stories are Jonathan Lethem's "Vivian Relf," Peter Straub's "Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle," and Poppy Z. Brite's "The Devil of Delery Street." But there isn't a bad story in the entire book, making this one well worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: Pop goes McSweeney's?
Review: There must be millions of us who share Michael Chabon's enjoyment of both literary fiction and genre fiction, and count among our greatest pleasures works that live on the border between. But it's not that easy to summon up that borderland at will, and in this grab bag of poplit, dallying with the genres of fantasy, thriller, and horror, there are as many pieces that fizzle as there are pieces that pop.

I agree with the other reviewers that the finest of the lot is from the hitherto unkown Jason Roberts, whose "7C" ushers in the end of the world with the intensity of delirium, the clarity of a theorem, and a chilling tendresse all its own. By itself, it's worth the price of entry. We will, I hope, be hearing much more from Roberts.

No one experiments with the Gothic form more freely or successfully than Joyce Carol Oates, and her Poe tribute "The Fabled Lighthouse at Vina del Mar", with its claustrophobic Galapogan landscape of mental decay, is another high point. Daniel Handler's "Delmonico" is another tribute, bringing Spider Robinson's Callahan's Saloon out of SF into the world of the hardboiled private eye, a journey which only improves its genial flavor.

Other standouts are "Zeroville", an eerie trip into the metaphysic of film; Jonathan Lethem's deceptively straightforward and naturalistic antiromance "Vivian Relf"; and China Mieville's tale of a secret society of urban naturalists, "Reports of Certain Events in London", a marked departure from his usual style that suits the story like a glove.

Most of the big marquee names here (Poppy Z. Brite, Stephen King, and Margaret Atwood) turn in solid journeyman offerings, but not ones that will linger in your memory. A few of the stories - "Minnow", "The Child", "The Scheme of Things" - are derivative one-finger exercises that may not make it into your short term memory.

If you're prepared to sift the gems from the chert, you'll be well rewarded by this collection.

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Collection of Literary Fiction
Review: This new collection of stories, edited by Michael Chabon, aims to "reinvigorate the stay-up-all-night, edge-of-the-seat, fingernail-biting, page-turning tradition" (taken from the book's back cover) of literary short fiction. For me, that was about half right. Half the stories had me on the edge of my seat and didn't let up for a moment, such as "Lusus Naturae" by Margaret Atwood, "The Fabled Light-house at Viña del Mar" by Joyce Carol Oates, and the astonishing "7C" by Jason Roberts (probably the best of the collection). The other half seemed a bit unclear and left me wondering what I had just read.

The collection includes some already well-known authors - Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Straub - and introduces some welcome newcomers (to me, anyway) - Ayelet Waldman, Jason Roberts, Roddy Doyle. As a whole, this collection was hit and miss; however, the hits make it worth reading.