Fragile Things Readalong - week the last!

Let me tell you stories of the months of the year, of ghosts and heartbreak, of dread and desire. Of after-hours drinking and unanswered phones, of good deeds and bad days, of trusting wolves and how to talk to girls.


There are stories within stories, whispered in the quiet of the night, shouted above the roar of the day, and played out between lovers and enemies, strangers and friends. But all, all are fragile things made of just 26 letters arranged and rearranged to form tales and imagining which will dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination and move you to the very depths of your soul

And so we come to the end of the Fragile things reeadalong. I can't remember the last time that it took me this long to read a book from beginning to end, but I really did enjoy the experience of taking just a few stories at a time and concentrating on them rather than rushing through such an eclectic mix of stories. From the topics of the stories, to the tone employed to the poems and the final novella we have run the gamut of emotions and the breadth of storytelling. I can definitely see what it is that makes Gaiman one of the more popular authors out there today.

This week's selection of stories was:
Sunbird - The members of the Epicurean Club are becoming a bit jaded. There is no food that they haven't tried, no taste that they haven't experienced, until someone mentions the possibility of trying to eat a Sunbird.

I might post more about this short story in a future Weekend Cooking post ... maybe.

One of the strengths in this book is the way that Gaiman incorporates myths and legends in his own storytelling. In this case the story that is being incorporated is that of the Phoenix - the bird that is regenerated by fire over and over again for all eternity.

Inventing Aladdin - speaking of incorporating mythology and legend, this poem does this with not only one but two stories. The first is of Scherheredaze - a wife who needs to keep her husband sufficiently interested in her stories in order to save her life because she knows that once he is bored with her then he will kill her. The story she chooses to tell him is about Aladdin.

The Monarch of the Glen - this is by far the longest story in the book and is labelled as An American Gods novella. Now I haven't read American Gods so I was a bit worried that I would be a bit lost, but I was drawn into the world that Shadow inhabits quite easily. I was interested to see Mr Alice make another reappearance. We met him earlier in the collection in the Keepsakes and Treasures story.

What this novella has most definitely done is whetted my appetite to actually finally get around to reading American Gods. I have already requested it form the library.

I would like to thank Carl for hosting the readalong and also the other participants for their comments. Having to stick to the schedule outlined was sometimes challenging but I enjoyed taking a leisurely wander through the various worlds we were introduced to.

I was going to try and figure out what my favourite stories were, but that would take a lot of revision. I do find it difficult to go past the story embedded in the introduction - The Mapmaker. It had such charm as did another of my favourites October in the Chair. There are others that I will remember fondly as well!

Rating 4/5

Fragile Things Readalong Week 7

Another week, another story that isn't included in my edition of this book! Despite that, this has probably been one of the better weeks of the readalong as I really liked two of the three stories that I read in this section.

It's interesting as the way the book has been compiled has definitely been a change in the type of stories we are reading. More aliens and space stories than the spooky reads that we have had in previous weeks, although the second story I talk about (Pages...) does not have that setting.

In the End is the story that isn't in my edition of this book.

Goliath - Is it possible for just the last line to make a short story? I hope so because that is exactly what happened to me. I loved this story which tells the story of a man who is destined to save the world - there is humour, poignancy, twists and turns, and then a kicker of an ending line that I can share here without really even spoiling the story:

I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life.

In the introduction, Gaiman tells us that this story was written to go on the website for the film The Matrix - a movie I have never seen. I therefore don't know what this story added to the movie, or indeed gained from the movie, but it works well for me as a standalone entity anyway!

Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Louisville, Kentucky - Phew....just the title is long enough to be a short story. Apparently this is another story that was written to accompany an album by Tori Amos (as was Strange Little Girls). Of these two stories, Pages (did you really think I was going to retype the whole title every time I mentioned it?) worked better for me. Our main character is chasing after Scarlet, and he follows her from one side of the USA to the other trying to catch up with her. We don't really know why, or why Scarlet keeps moving around, but she always manages to stay one step ahead.

My favourite line in this story was when he "spoke to a woman I used to love today, in a cafe in the desert."

"I thought I was your destination," she told me. "Looks like I was just another stop on the line."

I could just feel the long ago heartbreak in her voice, the one that is only mostly healed, but not completely!

How to Talk to Girls At Parties - this is one of the Gaiman short stories that I had heard of before I started reading this anthology. I had heard so many good things, and I wasn't disappointed! I actually loved the story of how this story came to be as related in the introduction. The idea of being so nettled that another author could come up with a good short story in 24 hours that he had to go and sit down and write a story in a short time too! Who know that writing was competitive in this fashion!

The story itself is about two young boys who crash a party, but it isn't the party they think it is. Enn is shy and finds it difficult to talk to girls unlike his somewhat brash friend Vic who seems to be much more successful with the young ladies.

You have to wonder if Vic will be in such a hurry to be quite such a player after the events at the party!

I have actually had quite a busy Gaiman week. Earlier in the week I rewatched Stardust (the movie version) and loved it all over again, and then just like last week, I did find another Neil Gaiman short story to listen to. In fact, it is fair to say that one thing that this readalong has done is made me even more aware of his name when skimming through posts.

The short story that I listened to was called The Thing About Cassandra and it was podcast on an NPR show called Selected Shorts on October 16. It was performed in front of a live audience and I have to say that really added some ambiance to the telling. It was also a really fabulous story, perhaps even one of my favourite Gaiman short stories....so far.

Next week is the last week of the readalong and while I will be glad to get to the end of the book, I might also have to go and borrow some other short story collections to take my time reading through!

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 6

This week is another where not all the short stories are in the edition of the book that I have. This is the third week in a row! Last week, I didn't really worry too much about it, mainly because I was running very late with my reading. This week I tried to find it but couldn't! One day I might try and get hold of Smoke and Mirrors which apparently does have the missing story in as long as I get the UK version and not the US one.

My Life - This story made me laugh, mainly because it reminded me of someone I know, and I am sure that lots of other people know people like this too! If you say that you had a car accident and had to get your door replaced, they not only had an accident where they broken bones, but every door in the car had to be replaced and the accident happened because a plane fell from the sky. And if you say that you were on a plane that fell from the sky, they were on a plane that did that but they crashed because it was hit by space junk burning up on reentry. It doesn't matter how out there the story you tell is, they always have experienced more, hurt more, felt more....always just more!

Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot - This is the story that I couldn't find for this week's reading. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed because it sounds like fun.

Feeders and Eaters - The motif of someone maintaining their youth by taking it from another is quite common in stories. Gaiman takes this and starts out with a quite harmless take on it. A man visits a cafe where  someone he knows recognises him. But the Eddie Barrow who our storyteller meets that night doesn't look anything like the Eddie Barrow that he used to know. When Eddie tells his story, we are back in the macabre imagination of Neil Gaiman, a world where once fresh meat would do to maintain the body of an old woman, but gradually it is nowhere near enough. Only really fresh will do.

It is hard for me to say if I liked this story or not. It was gripping, and I had to keep turning the pages to see what happened. The pacing was excellent with just enough details revealed until the moment when you realised where the story was going, but yes, gruesome!

Disease Makers Croup - I tried to read this on Friday night. It was late, I was tired, and I have no idea what was going on. I reread the introduction on Saturday and wasn't much more enlightened. I suspect that because it was written to match a specific theme for a specific collection it loses something when you take it out of that context.

This week I thought that I would share a bonus Neil Gaiman story that was on last week's episode on the This American Life podcast. The theme for the week was Adventure, and as I have now come to expect from Neil Gaiman, he turned the theme on it's head a little and came up with something different to the other authors!

If you want to listen to the stories that all five contributor's came up with, then just click on the following link. The other authors who have written a short story are Dave Eggers, Jeanne Darst, Wendy McClure and Fiona Maazel

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play=448&act=2

Neil Gaiman's story begins at around just after 53.45 if you just want to listen to that one.

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 5

This week's stories to be discussed are:

Locks
The Problem of Susan
Instructions
How do you Think it Feels

Last week, this week and next week there are stories in the reading that are not included in the edition that I have and there could well be more! Last week I managed to track down an audio version of the story but this week I didn't realise it until just now so haven't read it.

The fact that there are different stories in different editions for different countries puzzles me a little. In fact, it is something that puzzles me in relation to books as a whole, not just this short story collections.  The main reason it does so is because I often read the acknowledgements and there will be a nod to the US editor and the UK or Australian or wherever editor and I have to wonder what happens if the editors in the two different countries make different suggestions as to how they think a book can be improved and one doesn't like what the other suggests. Do they agree to disagree? Does the author have to choose which suggestions to take and then tell the other editor, sorry, this is just the way it is? What if there are different changes to be made in the copy edits for the two countries! Anyway, completely off track start to the post this week!

The first entry this week is called Locks and is a reflection on telling a young child a familiar story - Goldilocks and the Three Bears and on the lessons that we can learn from such a tale! Like a couple of the other stories in the collection this one is based on real life. More than either of the other two that we have read so far, I can hear Neil Gaiman talking to me, as though he is sitting across the table from me. I can hear the inflections, the smile in his voice as he relates this episode of telling his then two year old daughter the tale that is so familiar to so many of us growing up. "Again, again, again."

I also laughed at the lines near the end where he says:

These days my sympathy's with Father Bear.
Before I leave the house I lock the door,
and check each bed and chair on my return.

The Problem of Susan was my problem story this week. Neil Gaiman is certainly not the only author to take a swipe at the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. From memory Philip Pullman has had his fair share of things to say about the books and the fact that they are an allegorical representation of Christianity. I guess the thing that I find a bit distasteful about this story is not so much the fact that he is critical of the Chronicles of Narnia,  because lets face it Gaiman knows more about storytelling than I will ever know, but rather the obvious glee he gets from doing so and from taking the imagery and spoiling it in ways that would be completely unsuitable and unimaginable for the target audience of the book. I guess it just feels disrespectful of others beliefs. Christianity doesn't work for some, but there are a great many who it does work for and who might well be offended by the contents of this story.

At first I didn't realise that the Susan that the problem refers to is Susan from The Chronicles of Narnia, the Susan who gets left behind when the other members of her family enter the "new Narnia" because "she's too fond of lipsticks and nylons and invitations to parties".

I guess your reaction to this story may well depend a lot on your own religious beliefs and where you are at in life. I am a Susan! I was bought up in a religious (Christian) environment, but chose to walk away from the church for a number of reasons, not least of which being that the church failed to act on it's duty of care to two vulnerable young girls. I am perfectly fine with that a lot of the time and for the most part have absolutely no interest in going back to that life with the associated guilt and expectations and necessity to become something other than I am now. However, every now and again enough of the religious indoctrination that I had makes me wonder what if. What if it is true and what if my decision to be a Susan does lead me to missing out on "new Narnia" and then I don't think about it for years again and all is well!

Earlier in this book there were a couple of poems that didn't work that well for me and so I was prepared to make a blanket judgement to say that none of the poems were really going to do so. Instructions was the second poem in this week's reading, and I liked both of them, so obviously that isn't really the case.

This poem is a set of instructions about what to do if you find yourself in a fairy tale and their are nods to all sorts of fairy tales and mythology. I loved the references to earlier stories that we have read. For example,

"In the clearing beyond the castle the twelve months sit around the fire,
warming their feet, exchanging tales"

seems to be a direct reference to the story October in the Chair which we read in the first week of the readalong.

How do you Think it Feels is the story that isn't in my edition of the book. I will make more of an effort to find that story that is missing from next week's reading.

Head over to Stainless Steel Dropping to read Carl's thoughts about this week's reading and to find links to other participants.

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 4

After this week's reading we have now passed the half way point in the book, and indeed, the half way point of the readalong! My overall reaction to the four stories this week was that they were all better than last weeks!

One of the stories that was in the reading for this week wasn't actually in the edition of the book I was reading. I managed to listen to an audio version of the story which I found on Lastfm.

The four stories this week were:

Good Boys Deserve Favors - A couple of weeks ago we read another story which was based on real life and I lamented that I missed the imagination. Turns out it wasn't the lack of imagination that was the issue, it was the story itself, because I loved this story. It had great heart and charm and innocence! Originally this story was inspired by a Lisa Snellings statue of a man holding a double bass, and this image stuck with me through the story. A bit of a search on Lisa's blog found a similar image and it is gorgeous. Well worth taking a look at!

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch - this is the story that wasn't in my book. I have long known that I have enjoyed listening to Neil Gaiman narrate his own stories (especially after listening to him read The Graveyard Book) and listening to him tell this story just reinforced that! Gaiman takes a group of people to a circus (no animals at this circus) and treats the characters to a nightful of garish experiences. There are a couple of lines at the beginning of the narration that I really liked but whilst I could listen no problem at work, I seem to be having some issues with listening at home so that I can find the quote again! This story has also been turned into a graphic novel which might be interesting to read too.

Strange Little Girls - If there is one story in the book that we have read so far which is representative of the title of the collection, Fragile Things, then it is this one. In fact, rather than being a coherent beginning to end tale it is rather a series of vignettes about a collection of individuals. My favourite was the one called Heart of Gold which had a very clever circular narrative. The one that made me gasp was Bonnie's Mother which was about domestic violence..."Now that she is dead, she tries to remember only the love. She imagines every blow a kiss, the makeup that inexpertly covers the bruises, the cigarette burn on her thigh - all these things, she decides, where gestures of love."

The final lines of the narrative - " The changes from where you are standing. Words can wound and wounds can heal. All of these things are true."

Harlequin Valentine - I thought there was an interesting echo between this and Other People from last week's stories with the idea of the roles being cyclical. This was a better story for me though.

It is Valentine's Day and the Harlequin is looking for his Columbine, and he has chosen Missy. At one point The Harlequin says "Oh, Harlequin in love is a sorry creature. I wonder what she will do with my gift. Some girls spurn my heart; others touch it, kiss it, caress it, punish it with all manner of endearments before they return it to my keeping. Some never even see it." I am pretty sure that he wasn't expect Missy to treat his heart the way that she did!

I must confess I didn't know the mythology relating to the Harlequin and therefore may have lacked some of the reference points for this story.

Sunday Salon: Fragile Things Readalong - Week 3

September seems to passing by very quickly! I am not sure how it can possibly be week 3 of the read along already, but it is! 

Another mixed bag in terms of reactions from me to this week's stories:

Going Wodwo - Yay! A poem I liked, mainly because I think the idea of shedding everything leaving "the way of words to walk the wood" definitely holds some appeal! Shedding all the stresses of modern life to take a moment to just be!

Bitter Grounds - I liked the idea of this one and I like the setting which was mainly New Orleans, just not sure of the execution! I am not sure why exactly, but I suspect because there was a grittier darkness to this book! Sure other stories in the collection have been dark, but none before now have had such edginess and rawness to them.

Other People - Maybe I am a bit contrary because it was that similar gritty darkness with heavy themes that permeates both this and the next stories and yet I liked them both better than I did  Bitter Grounds! The opening line is very clever -' "Time is fluid here," said the demon. ' At first, it might seem a little convenient and a little trite, but by the end of the story it actually has told you far more about the story than you would possibly have thought!

Keepsakes and Treasures - When a story is titled as this one is, you could be forgiven for think that it sounds kind of light and fluffy and happy. You would be wrong. The story starts out when we meet a teenager who has taken it upon himself to seek revenge on those people who did his mother wrong. He then works his way up to be the key man for one of the richest men in the world. Not the richest men that everyone knows about, but the one who really have money! Survival of the fittest, dog eat dog world - whichever cliche you might choose to use is fitting in this world!

Because I like to reread the introduction to each story before reading it through, I also had the opportunity to reread The Mapmaker story that was embedded in the Introduction. I have liked quite a few of the other short stories in the book but that is still be right up there with my favourites so far!

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 2

I was a little underwhelmed by the most of the reading during this second week of the Fragile Things readalong, hosted by Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings as part of RIP VI.

The Hidden Chamber - This is the second poem of the collection, and I liked it a lot more than the first one! In the introduction, Gaiman talked about being asked to come up with something gothic, and with an opening line of "Do not fear the ghosts in this house; they are the least of your worries." the tone is definitely set. At first I read it as a person telling another person about the house, but by the time I go to the end I had decided that it was actually a ghost telling the human. No idea if it is meant to be read that way or not.

Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire - pretty long title for a short story! This is a short story that Gaiman started years ago but it was rejected by the two people he showed it to. Fast forward twenty years or so and the story was reworked and published, winning a Locus award. Whilst I was left wondering what other hidden gems that Gaiman might have sitting around in his house, I am not sure that this was a gem for me! There were mythical creatures, seemingly haunted houses, a struggling author and more, but it just didn't quite come together for this reader!

The Flints of Memory Lane - This piece was written for an anthology of real life ghost stories. I think I missed the imagination!

Closing Time - This was my favourite of the four chapters to be read this week.Take an atmospheric drinking club, some almost strangers and mix in a story from long ago which features abandoned mansions and mysterious events and you have the ingredients for a perfect spooky story! When a young boy wants to be accepted by a group of older boys, how far will he go in accepting the challenges they set for him, and what will be the consequences for them all!

Looking forward to reading the next section of the book for next week's post.

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 1

Over the next 8 weeks a group of participants in RIP VI are also going to be participating in a couple of readalongs in conjunction with the challenge. The first of these readalongs to get started is Fragile Things, a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman.

The idea is that over the course of the 8 weeks each participant will read four of the short stories/poems and comment on them accordingly. Below are my thoughts on this week's reads.

Introduction - I must confess that as I saw the list of items to be read I was a little perplexed! I do love reading where the inspiration for particular stories came from, so from this perspective I was happy to be reading it, but before you actually read the stories didn't really feel right! It was a lovely surprise then to find that hidden inside the introduction is a story - The Mapmaker. I have read a couple of Neil Gaiman books before (not nearly enough though) but no short stories. I have also heard him speak on podcast interviews etc, so in the story I could clearly hear his voice as though he was reading to us.

In the Introduction there is quite a lot of name-dropping. To be fair though, if I happened to end up in a room with Neil Gaiman at some point in time I am pretty sure I would tell anyone who listens! Of the stories that we read this week, I really liked the way he described that the story October in the Chair came about.

I will be sure to be revisiting the intro as we read through the book!

Having said that it felt a bit odd, I think having read the introduction actually gave me more of a clue as to what I was looking for in

A Study in Emerald -Whilst I am familiar with Sherlock Holmes in a pop culture reference kind of way, I really haven't read anything from HP Lovecraft. These two different styles provided inspiration for this story which features the investigation of a prince who is one of the favourite nephews of Queen Victoria who....well, I don't think I should say much more. I really liked that the narrative travelled forward in what seemed like a very straight forward linear fashion and then, wham, the story was changed and then again at the end!


The Fairy Reel - I read across a lot of genres but poetry is one of the ones that I do neglect! I read this three times and can't decide if I didn't like it because it isn't that great a poem, or if I just don't get it because I am not a poetry read. Given that it is written by Neil Gaiman and read by, well, me, I think it is only fair to go with me being the one to blame in this scenario!

October in the Chair - Of the reading for this week, this is my favourite story! I have long been a fan of the story within a story concept, but I am not sure that I would have thought that it was possible to have two fully realised stories in a short story like this. The story starts with the months of the year coming together for what appears to be a semi-regular meeting, each personified with strong personality traits and identities. There are procedures to be followed (some of the months are more concerned with the importance of these than others) with each story expected to tell the others a story that they haven't heard before. The nested story is of a young boy who is known as Runt in his family and who decides to run away and ends up in the local graveyard. There are clear correlations between this nested part of the story and the story that Gaiman gave us in The Graveyard Book, and he acknowledges that this story was written with that then future book in mind.

There is a Mr Linky over at Stainless Steel Droppings where you can find links to other thoughts about these four books. Come back this time next week for discussion of four more stories from this collection.