Book Review
Sep. 17th, 2018 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariForget the Sleepless Shores
by Sonya Taaffe
This collection of short stories was haunting and enchanting and sensuous, and at times a little frightening. I loved it - this is one of those books I was sorry to have finished, because I wanted to continue living in its world. All of the stories center around people who have encounters with something from another world - the dead, people or creatures from ancient myths, or simply friends, family, or lovers who do not entirely belong to this world. Threads of New England and the sea run through the whole collection, which gave it the kind of unity and coherence I often find missing from short story collections. Taaffe is also a master at details that reveal the whole, especially when it comes to illuminating an entire complex relationship between two people with small observations. That quality made the stories as full and rich as novels.
It's hard to pick out a favorite, but "The Dybbuk in Love", "The Salt House", "All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts", "And Black Unfathomable Lakes", and "Like Milkweed" stand out the most for me. I particularly like "The Salt House" and "All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts" as a pair, because of the way they explore similar ideas and themes in two different ways. The latter is also especially effective for the way it plays with Lovecraft.
by Sonya Taaffe
This collection of short stories was haunting and enchanting and sensuous, and at times a little frightening. I loved it - this is one of those books I was sorry to have finished, because I wanted to continue living in its world. All of the stories center around people who have encounters with something from another world - the dead, people or creatures from ancient myths, or simply friends, family, or lovers who do not entirely belong to this world. Threads of New England and the sea run through the whole collection, which gave it the kind of unity and coherence I often find missing from short story collections. Taaffe is also a master at details that reveal the whole, especially when it comes to illuminating an entire complex relationship between two people with small observations. That quality made the stories as full and rich as novels.
It's hard to pick out a favorite, but "The Dybbuk in Love", "The Salt House", "All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts", "And Black Unfathomable Lakes", and "Like Milkweed" stand out the most for me. I particularly like "The Salt House" and "All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts" as a pair, because of the way they explore similar ideas and themes in two different ways. The latter is also especially effective for the way it plays with Lovecraft.
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Date: 2018-09-17 04:52 pm (UTC)I am so very glad of this. Thank you.