American Ghosts and Old World Wonders was published after Angela Carter’s death from lung cancer in 1992 according to directions that she left. The book is a collection of nine stories, four set in the new world of America and five in the old world of Europe. Part one contains ‘Lizzie’s Tiger’,...
The Times described Heroes and Villains as 'an unashamed fantasist, a fabulist of daemonic energy' – and it really is. This is an incredibly loaded book, and every time I’ve tried to review this I’ve ended up word-vomiting a bad fragment of one or one hundred failed essays that could be written a...
„To be the object of desire is to be defined in the passive case. To exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case - that is, to be killed. This is the moral of the fairy tale about the perfect woman.” – „The Sadeian Woman”, Angela CarterВсяка от историите в „Кървавата стая” е заслужила...
Is This the Thrill of Metaphysics? "The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman" ("TIDM") is a picaresque metaphysical thriller that is both intellectually stimulating and hugely enjoyable.To the extent that it's philosophical, there's a risk that it might read like lecture notes. However, I n...
I was getting sour on Angela Carter, but turns out it was only EARLY Angela Carter! I'm a sucker for cool mean British book reviews, and these deliver--not just in a goofy "Consumer Reports" way, but showing the way Carter's enthusiasms and interests intersect and feed off of one another: Borges,...
And at once provoked such sudden, resonant quiet as if, when I switched off the ignition, I myself brought into being the shimmering late afternoon hush, the ripening sun, the very Pacific that, way below, at the foot of the cliff, shattered its foamy peripheries with the sound of a thousand dist...
Especially, about yesterday’s gossip, about the memories our parents share with us so we almost come to think that they are our memories too. The intimate folklore of family. Gilbert Hernandez’ family, of course, is not my family, or your family, but this kind of folklore has a cross-cultural sim...
Mansfield Park. I do not wish to talk about the war. Suffice to say it was no carnival, not the hostilities. No carnival. Yes, indeed; I have my memories, but I prefer to keep them to myself, thank you very much. Though there are some things I never can forget. The cock that used to crow, early i...
One: his right arm is injured and, although healing well, he cannot write or type until it is better, so he is deprived of his profession. Therefore, for the moment, his disguise disguises – nothing. He is no longer a journalist masquerading as a clown; willy-nilly, force of circumstance has turn...
This question absorbed her completely and she did not rest in her mind until she found an answer which satisfied her. ‘How do you see me?’ she asked Buzz. He picked at his lower lip with his fingernail for a while and then replied: ‘In fits and starts.’ ‘That’s not good enough,’ she said ominousl...