The 15 deceptively plain short stories in this collection hum with the harmonics of Lisa Goldstein's novels. In "Tourists," Goldstein visits Amaz, where packs of tarotlike cards circulate and an American tourist is enmeshed in their predictions. A reporter interviewing a revolutionary leader learns that "Death is Different" in Amaz, and in "A Game of Cards," the oracular cards appear in America. Goldstein is fascinated by refugees, travelers, and explorers confronting alien cultures or surviving in exile. Sometimes her characters are subsumed, assimilated; sometimes they maintain an indigestible integrity in their foreign environment. It is always better to adapt to new circumstances, while honoring the past, in Goldstein's worlds, than to deny them. Rigidity is sterile death.Contents:Infinite Riches (1993)Tourists (1985)Preliminary Notes on the Jang (1985)Alfred (1992)Cassandra's Photographs (1987)Split Light (1994)Rites of Spring (1994)Midnight News (1990)Daily Voices (1986)Ever After (1984)A Traveller at Passover (1991)Death Is Different (1988)The Woman in the Painting (1993)Breadcrumbs and Stones (1993)A Game of Cards (1994)
What do You think about Travellers In Magic (1997)?
